From 19th to 21st October I was at Bowden House near Totnes doing a short notice pedal generator workshop for the Totnes International Youth Group. The idea was to make an alternator type pedal generator to charge the battery of a 12 Volt PA system for events in the Summer of 2008. I obtained a collection of bits including a car boot sale alternator and a pre built control box. During the weekend we were able to build a stand for a locally found scrap bicycle, attach the alternator, build a battery box and finally run the generator late on the Sunday night. The photo shows the final version of the generator after tidying and addition of a proper front stand by local volunteers.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

On 29th September we took part in the Living Green Exhibition at St Margaret's Church in Oxford. The three pedal generators were busy all day. The space was very good, after a Summer of outdoor events it was nice to see the various LED and small light bulb displays looking bright in the lower light level. There was enough headroom to do binliner monsters and I tried out a new small Chinese music keyboard on the Toddler size generator. The Plasma Globe was also popular in the lower light level; it developed a power supply fault close to the end and stalled the generator but it's fixed again now.
Outside the front of the Church there was an excellent display of various domestic renewable energy hardware from water heaters to wind generators mounted on an old milk float - I'm hoping someone will send me a picture of it!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

On the first weekend of September we were at Ragged Hedge Fair, a small but high quality event in Gloucestershire. We were running a stall with Children's Pedal Generator sessions and workshops on DIY renewable energy. Next door was a good pole lathe setup where kids could book for 'have a go' sessions. Further down was a display of recycling metalwork including some nice furniture items made from old horseshoes. Bigtopmania were at the centre of the Children's Area with their collection of Wacky Bikes and on the Sunday did this display of playing a violin on a tightrope. The site was well laid out with a totem pole and various interesting metal sculptures.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

On the Sunday of August bank holiday, we were back at Thatcham Nature Discovery Centre. It was nice to be back there after a break of two years. The event was supposed to have been part of the reopening of the Centre after renovation, but unfortunately the building was still closed due to flood damage from the end of July. The rest of the nature reserve was still open but we had a quieter day than we'd been expecting as in spite of publicity some people didn't realise the site was open. We still had plenty of kids pedalling to blow up the inflatable binliner ghost, and even managed to get a noise complaint with the iPod Booster.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

While most of us were at BGG, on 4th August some of our Children's Pedal Generators did a day at the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading. It's a fascinating place with a range of agricultural implements and artefacts from over the centuries, and has just re-opened on a new site. Apart from our pedal generated electrical stuff, they'd also sorted out their own direct drive pedal smoothie maker.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Just for a change, we were at Big Green Gathering  big-green-gathering.com  on punter tickets. In spite of that I finished up stuck in the back of the Campaigns Field behind the Appropriate Technology tent, in fact not a bad place to be. Over the road there was an interesting setup comparing a Hugh Piggott homemade wind generator with a cheap Chinese made one. In between getting involved with Bicycology bicycology.org.uk  and the Rubbish DJ's sound system trolley (which amazingly doesn't seem to have a web presence) I did manage to tour round the rest of the site on my compact bike. As often happens, I was too busy to take any photos of the stuff I was involved in. I put up a LED windmill which went well most nights. There were some good art oriented windmills in the Crafts Field next door including this beautiful feather driven one by Bob Rowberry.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Bracknell's Big Day Out was on 7th July, the same day as Live Earth, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to do a zero-carbon event. The South Hill Park Arts Centre is only about 800 Metres from our base so it was fairly easy to move five pedal generators and a stall there on pedestrian trailers helped by members of the local Friends of the Earth group. Half way there the sun came out which was a good sign and we arrived at South Hill Park in about 15 minutes. We set up the pedal generators and the FoE stall just in time for the start of the event. Amazingly for this year, the weather stayed good for the whole day and we were able to operate two binliner monsters, the Recyclops and Climate Change ones made by FoE. As usual they were popular with the kids. At the end, we repacked the trailers, picked up the inevitable litter left around our area, and rolled the equipment back past hundreds of cars parked in the side roads around the venue.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

On 30th June we took part in Slough's Big Green Day Out in the Town Square. As usual for town centre events we parked a small car in a nearby multi storey car park and then trailered the equipment in through the Observatory shopping mall, successfully negotiating the lift and glass doors. The weather was fairly bad for most of the day but we'd been given a nice solid gazebo with metal weights at each corner by the Council. A feature of the square is a stainless steel tree with no foliage but an extraordinary population of metal birds. It was nice to find a modern town centre that wasn't designed as a wind tunnel and when the rain cleared a bit in the afternoon we did manage to do some inflatable binliner monster activity as well as getting the new handcrank generator photographed with the Mayor.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

On 19th June we were at Wildridings Primary School in Bracknell again. The children from years 4, 5 and 6 were split up into small groups and all got a 15 minute session on four of our pedal generators plus some hand crank things including one made by one of the School Governors. At the end we presented the school with a wall mounted LED and Stepper Motor Disc.
 
 
 
 
 

On 2nd June we did a small pedal generator demonstration for Reading's Forbury Fever event. The location in the Forbury Gardens wasn't suitable for motor vehicles, so our pedestrian trailer was used to move in the equipment from a nearby car park. The trailer can be reassembled to form a small table and shortly after arrival the stall looked like this. The newish hand crank generator was still getting a lot of use and is now on its second replacement christmas tree light. Amazingly, the inflatable binliner ghost made in 2005 is still going, it's been cut down by one binliner stage and fitted neatly under our handy shade tree.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

At the end of May I was at Llys-y-Fran in Pembrokeshire again, this time at a 100th Anniversary Scout Camp with the 1st Felindre and Newcastle Emlyn Scout Group. It made a change from Kingston Green Fair which we've often done at that time of year, demonstrating renewable energy to people who hadn't had much direct contact with things like pedal generators and solar panels. A major project was the ceremony of lighting a beacon to the future of Scouting on the first evening of the camp. Rather than just lighting a fire, we decided that for the 21st century we should use renewable energy. A plan was formulated to build a tower out of plastic drain pipe and support something like a lantern containing a low energy fluorescent light on it. The light would be pedal powered for the ceremony and then put on a solar charged battery for the night. A couple of weeks before the event, a friend found a disco flame light at a car boot sale. It looked like a definite for the beacon, but there was a problem with its energy consumption. The fan and lights in it were all running from 12 Volts, but the Halogen lights needed a total of 40 Watts - possible for pedal power but too much to run for hours on our leisure battery. The fan itself only took a couple of watts; in the end I got 12 bright yellow LED's and fitted them in the bowl of the light on the same circuit as the fan. The 40W Halogens were connected to a separate circuit so they could be powered from a pedal generator in the evening, and the fan and LED's which only took a total of about 3W could run easily from the solar battery once it got darker.
It took all day for a Scout group to build and then wire up the 8 Metre tall tower but it was finished and stood up with about an hour to spare. A smaller children's generator was used to power the fan and LED's with the more powerful chair generator running the Halogens. During the fairly frequent changeovers on the chair generator the Halogens went out and the cloth strips were visible darker against the sky, looking like smoke which added to the realism! The Scouts carried on pedalling for over two hours by which time it was quite dark, and the solar battery was finally linked on to the fan and LED circuit with a light sensitive switch to turn it off when the sun came up.
In spite of force 8 winds and rain the tower stayed up, and was lit every night from the solar battery with multi coloured LED and chip carton lights added towards the end of the camp.
I also ran some workshops dismantling old computer printers, a computer base unit and some hard drives so that useful things like motors, gears and magnets could be recovered. Also during the dismantling process a battery and light bulb were used to test some of the parts and run the paper feed mechanisms, and finally everything was broken down into separate categories such as metal, plastic and circuit boards for proper recycling. The motors, magnets and anything else considered useful were taken away by the participants for their own projects.
In spite of spells of bad weather, we did some good pedal generator sessions including operating the mp3 booster and an inflatable binliner monster which will hopefully inspire some future pedal generator construction.
 
 
 
 
 
 

On 19th May we were at a new Swindon Council event, the Forest Festival at Wootton Bassett Wood. The site was at the side of an open playing field, and although the sun was nice it was too windy to operate a binliner monster and the awning needed frequent attention. In fact an LED windmill went really well the night before but unfortunately they're no use in sunlight. The pedal powered Gameboy was popular as usual and the new hand crank generator using a DC motor and belt from an inkjet printer got a lot of use powering a music keyboard and a broken wind up radio. These radios seem to be turning up at car boot sales and the rubbish tip with broken winders - the teeth on a plastic gear strip and it's not available as a spare part, though the winding handle is (Doh!). However the radio will still run from any voltage between 3 and 12V taking a tiny current so they're good for small energy demonstrations. A good feature of Swindon Community Forest events is the amount of rural craftspersons such as this pole lathe operator.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The weather at the next event was a complete contrast. At the start of May we took part in Aber is Green on the sea front in Aberystwyth. The Bandstand contained some fine local art and craft works and next door to it was the University's Science Circuit trailer with educational exhibits. We finished up in between - some of the handcrank LED stuff had to go in the bandstand as there was just too much sunlight everywhere else, and the pedal generators went out on the prom. The wind was light enough to operate the inflatable binliner monster. Some of the time it was fairly quiet and in any case a bit hot for strenuous pedalling but on the Saturday things livened up. The take-up on the iPod Booster had a slow start but eventually we got a MP3 DJ with an interesting Welsh hip-hop Morricone mix.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The first event of 2007 didn't quite go as planned. It was meant to be a day at Kings Norton Primary School in Birmingham on 8th February which happened to be the day that a lot of snow landed. The school was closed, but we managed to do a small pedal power workshop instead. I hadn't taken a camera as most schools don't allow photographs now, but the organiser had a nice digital SLR so there are some good photos of the energy demonstrations. Here's the pedal powered Plasma Globe,  the top end of the generator made from a Strida folding bicycle, a hand operated Stepper Motor generator and the Watt Box. We also set up pedal generators in the park over the road and managed to blow up a binliner monster though of course the novelty was competing with the attraction of snowballs and making large snowmen. Warmer and more educational stuff included pedal powering 6o Watts of light bulbs and getting some good pictures of Stepper Twirly Discs in a dark stairwell.
On 15th March I went back for the wind generator launch and set up three pedal generators and some LED windmills. I also finally got to see the actual wind generator, a 5kW Fortis.