Generator Report

Below is the executive summary from our final report for the generator. I am unsure on how to attach the entire report, which including the appendices and table of contents is about 45 pages long. I have it in both Microsoft word and pdf format. If anyone knows how to upload a pdf or word document please let me know. I can also email it to people individually.

-Liz

The purpose of this report is to present our findings regarding our manually powered generator design for charging cellphone batteries to M-Heal, the student organization we collaborated with. This report presents our prototype design and prototype tests. Because our prototype design did not generate enough electricity to charge the cellphone batteries, our report also discusses changes that should be made to our generator design in order to successfully charge cellphone batteries.

M-Heal had previously designed a surgical lamp which operated using cellphone batteries in order to provide reliable lighting in Ugandan operating rooms. Currently, the cellphone batteries must be charged using electricity from a power grid; unfortunately, Uganda’s power grids are unreliable. Consequently, a surgeon can be left without lighting during surgery.

Our solution was to design a manually powered generator that could charge the ten cellphone batteries. As part of our task, we followed the criteria established by M-Heal as well as criteria we devised after considering the problem. These criteria included using sustainable parts, ease of construction, and ease of operation.

The main parts of our generator prototype were obtained from used automobiles, cellphones, and bicycles. Our research indicated that these used devices are available in Uganda and allow our design to be constructed and maintained in Uganda. Our prototype design consisted of three main components, the generator, the circuit system, and the stand. The circuit system contained two circuits; the first circuit used the energy our generator produced to charge a car battery and the second circuit charged the cellphone battery using the stored electricity in the car battery.

Prototype testing revealed that the amount of electricity we generated was insufficient to charge the cellphone batteries. From the results of our voltage test, we concluded that the voltage that our prototype produced was too low to charge the car battery. Because we could not charge the car battery, we were unable to charge the cellphone batteries.

Based on our research and tests, we have devised several design improvements. These recommendations are mainly concerned with the electricity output of our generator. We propose to optimize the AC voltage produced by our generator by adding more magnets to the wheel, moving the steel core closer to the bicycle wheel, and adding more wire coils to the core. In order to prevent the high voltage losses after rectification, we also suggest using a more efficient rectifier.

While we did not meet our criteria of charging ten cellphone batteries, we did create a working generator out of parts which are sustainable materials in Uganda. We recommend that a future team continues our work and improves the design of our generator in order to successfully charge the cellphone batteries.