Pedal Powered Compressor

Hi, I'm looking for a bike powered air compressor, I understand some people on here may have experience of converting pedal power to electricity, noise and other things so advice would also be much appreciated.

Myself and some colleagues (from the University of Salfords Acoustic Research Center) are doing a science demo at this years Green Man festival and we need way of inflating the worlds largest whoopee cushion using renewable sources. Blowing is out of the question so we're considering using bike power.

So does anyone have any experience with making a pedal powered air compressor?

Cheers
Tomos

oh, tight budget and lack of welding skills apply..

what about just a pedal powered air pump?

(replace diver with whoopee cushion)

and handle with pedal

amazing, would feel a tad guilty about ripping up an antique tho.
we usually use a leaf blower, Its pretty hefty..

YouTube- Does whoopee cushion size matter?

just eat loads of baked beans, cabbage juice and r whites lemondae and you won't need a whoopee cushion

So sounds like you'd be using a simple rig to generate whilst pedalling (i.e. not going through a battery?).

In that case you need is a turbo stand, a 24v motor, a 1.0 farrad capacitor (the sort that they use in pimped audio cars), and an inverter (Maplin do a cheap one, the better ones are quite pricey) +leads & clips.

Pow-wow are the experts in Manchester, so try them, or Mag Rev in London might be able to help. The BikeLab website is trying to pull all this type of knowledge together so you could register and ask on there.

The big question will be how much power (watts) will the air pump you plan to use need? If you're trying to power something that's a high wattage (e.g. Kettle) then pedal power isn't really an option. Low watt appliances will suit. There's a table of related wattage info out there somewhere, but I've posted enough links for one topic!

Good luck.

P.s. Didn't get his details, but at Chorlton Green Fest there was a guy demo'ing Solar Powered sound system. If you can track him down, you could see about solar powering the compressor maybe?

Thanks for the reply rhb, those links will prove useful. I think we're going to try and avoid converting to electrical energy and try and keep it mechanical, I think somehow linking the drive to the impeller of a leaf blower. A bit like a turbo trainer I guess!

Sounds like a plan - video once complete please, would be interested to show others. (Ifyoudon'tmindofcourse!)

Thanks for the reply rhb, those links will prove useful. I think we're going to try and avoid converting to electrical energy and try and keep it mechanical, I think somehow linking the drive to the impeller of a leaf blower. A bit like a turbo trainer I guess!

do you want a air compressor, or a leaf blower? mechanically wise If you want to compress the air then thast a bit more difficult. leaf blower is simple, replace rear wheel with a fan and pedal, but I dout a you could create the pressure to use a valve or anything. to give a idea of how much air you could move with a 20" fan a gear ratio of 48-15 pedalling at 60RPM it would move over 12038RPM a minuite (if my maths is right). Not sure whether thats a suitable ratio, but I'd guess a fan would give less resistence than a wheel, could be very wrong though..... similar RPM 20" fans deliver up to 1.57 metres cubes of air per second.

if you want to compress the air you'd want to build something that works similar to a bike pump and innertube valve. you'd need some cams and cogs and what not to convert the rotation into linier movement of the piston. Its a bit more complex but cooler than a big fan.

mannn.... I dont have anything else to do but look up fans and stuff.

do you want a air compressor, or a leaf blower? mechanically wise If you want to compress the air then thast a bit more difficult. leaf blower is simple, replace rear wheel with a fan and pedal, but I dout a you could create the pressure to use a valve or anything. to give a idea of how much air you could move with a 20" fan a gear ratio of 48-15 pedalling at 60RPM it would move over 12038RPM a minuite (if my maths is right). Not sure whether thats a suitable ratio, but I'd guess a fan would give less resistence than a wheel, could be very wrong though..... similar RPM 20" fans deliver up to 1.57 metres cubes of air per second.

if you want to compress the air you'd want to build something that works similar to a bike pump and innertube valve. you'd need some cams and cogs and what not to convert the rotation into linier movement of the piston. Its a bit more complex but cooler than a big fan.

mannn.... I dont have anything else to do but look up fans and stuff.

Cheers for the reply, looking for something that can fill a large volume quickly as apposed to something that can deliver high pressure. Suppose a compressor is not what I need. I think I'm going to try and attach a roller to the axle of a leaf blower impeller and combine with a trainer stand, that no bikes will be harmed!

Cheers

oh someone came and did that at the first i bike mcr fest.... let me think..