History
- Toy Magnets
- First prototype
- Second prototype
- Third prototyp with LEDs and lenses
- Generator housings fom 3d printer
- Handmade prototype in carbon tube.
- Handmade prototype in action
- Kickstarter campaign 2012
- Bicycle trade "Rad" in Essen 2012
- Taipei Cycle trade show
- TV report MDR- "Einfach Genial"
- Front Light Rendering
- Prototypentest
- Spritzgusswerkzeug
- Spulenwicklung - Selfmade
- Produktion
- Verkleben der Generatoreineheit
- Auslieferung der Kickstarter Rewards
- 2013: Präsentation auf der ISPO München
- Präsentation auf der Eurobike
- 2014: Zweites Kickstarter Projekt Magnic Light IC
- Fernsehbericht NDR DAS! (auf dem roten Sofa)
- Magnic Light iC mit Microcontroller
- Sieger beim GreenTec Award 2016
The idea for Magnic Light was born on June 18th 2011. After a nice pasta party at home in preparation for a local 6 miles night race the next day (Die Nacht von Borgholzhausen) we made some experiments with eddy current brakes for bicycles. Talking about the mechanism behind and especially the nice fact that aluminium rims can be used although aluminium is not magnetic but conductive we got a cool idea:
If eddy current brakes work with aluminium wheels the opposite should be no problem either! Shouldn't it be possible to build a bicycle dynamo that absorbs magnetic energy from the wheels?
Fortunately we had masses of magnets in our house to make experiments : All those medium strong toy magnets of the children that can be used to build nice magnetic creatures. These were strong enough to make some encouraging experiments. We found out that eddy currents which are induced in the wheels have magnetic fields which can be absorped to produce electricity! While still far away from from producing electric energy we had an idea how to go on.
Everybody can check that no "witchcraft" is necessary. Let a ball-magnet (you can get them in many to toy shops) roll in an aluminum pan or on an aluminium plate. The ball will not really roll (although it should) because it sticks to the aluminium surface. What happens here is caused by a simple well known electromagnetic effect: Since aluminium is conductive, eddy currents are induced in the aluminium surface when the ball moves relative to the pan. These induced currents have themselves magnetic fields so the aluminum pan becomes magnetic for a moment and holds the ball.
You can find many similar experiments using this effect in literature or on the web. (for details look at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current)
After ordering hundreds of power-magnets and dozens of highest level LED lights our prototypes became smaller, lighter and more and more powerful with each version...