August 2007
Intermediate to advanced
190 pages
7h 38m
English
A sidewall dynamo powers both lights and tuneage.
After buying an iPod mini a couple of years ago, I started experimenting with ways of extending its battery life. First I tried the Perfectmate hand-cranked flashlight/charger, only to find out that it takes up to 20 minutes of cranking to generate just enough power to boot the device. As well as making me appreciate how much power today’s lithium-ion batteries can hold, this got me thinking about other ways to human-power my iPod.

Fig. A: Bike-powered iPod charger detaches easily for parking.
Photography by Mark Hoekstra
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