OLPC Pedal Power

olpc-pedal-power

A One Laptop Per Child group out of Afghanistan have come up with a way to power the XO using pedals. The system interfaces a set of pedals with the Freeplay hand-crank charger, freeing up both hands for typing. Although not as compact, using both legs makes power generation much easier. Apparently a child as young as 3rd grade is able to pedal this well enough to power the computer in real time.

We just hope this contraption is used for learning and betterment, and not in a pedal-for-porn scenario.

[via Gizmodo]

30 thoughts on “OLPC Pedal Power

  1. Lol porn, both hands and feet in action (Good cardio workout.). Why fake? Generators are easy to make, those laptops are cheap and use little power. You could probably make a generator out of trash that could power that thing (Good trash may be hard to find in Afghanistan =( Im like seriously you guys.). Most off all they really did send a bunch of those laptops to Afghanistan a while back. Which part is fake and why kirov? Just for curiosity sake. Black n’ white porn…..¿

  2. This is a terrible idea; the people using these laptops are near starving as it is, they’d just pedal their one meal a day away.

    Solar panels would be much, much more efficient.

  3. I would guess that their generator could do better than power the laptop in real time, and actually charge the thing for a couple of hours use with just an hour of pedaling. A typical kid powered generator should be able to deliver at least 25W and while I do not know the power specs of the OLPC I am guessing about 10W?

  4. Appparently an olympic sprinter can put out around 1500 watts or so. I’d imagine that a slow walk can’t take more than 50 watts or so, and you can keep up that level of exertion all day. So powering a laptop with this (my netbook on battery draws 9.3W, and that’s with wifi enabled) shouldn’t burn up too much food.

    Also, a flywheel with a ratchet system would be a huge benefit, letting kids take breaks without cutting the power. An old bicycle rear wheel seems like the perfect way of pulling that off.

  5. “We just hope this contraption is used for learning and betterment, and not in a pedal-for-porn scenario.”

    This is the type of thing a jew would say about the inhabitants of Afghanistan.

  6. @sl
    It is still a laptop. There is a battery in it to keep it running when there isn’t external power.

    @everyone else
    *sigh* There isn’t enough time in the day to fight the internet’s collective idiocy.

  7. I think the important fact you’re all missing out on is in the bottom left hand side of the image – just above the left pedal, a wall socket. Hmmmm, maybe if the yanks weren’t so interested in keeping the heroin flowing there’d be no need for kids to pedal.

  8. Why don’t they have an infrastructure with power? They supply the WORLD with heroin, the least we could do is help them build an infrastructure lol. Maybe the Taliban could burn the poppies under a large boiler and generate steam which could drive a turbine and a generator.

  9. Look how fast that person had to pedal to get enough power, the antennas are locked in a rearward facing position… similar to someone’s hair after riding in a convertible for three hours

  10. the windup radio incorperated a spring system, why not use the spring system( beefed up )then you can wind the spring, then relax for say 20 mins time for the spring to power the lapytoppy

  11. ya, i’ve been trying to do this with my normal laptop
    <100 watts isnt bad at all for a human to output, i was thinking more laptop mounted to old bicycle but this looks a little worse done than i had planned, like the table design though
    tell you all what, i'll post mine once done, it consists of a 12 volt battery(small, under 10 amp hours,maybe even less just to even out the output?) and a inverter, going to add a freewheel'd flywheel, power is pulled from either a: small car/motorcycle altinator, b: a big dc motor(i got 1 from a office printer, can pull 20 volts at like 5 amps from it when hooked up to a engine) or c: a big server i got, it doesnt produce voltage at high speed though….any advice?

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