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Tired of reading about wind, hydro and solar power? Here’s the next thing in renewable energy – breath. Actually, is this classed as ‘renewable’? I guess so, although if one of the by-products of breathing is CO2, is this something we should be promoting? So many questions. I suppose if you’re planning on breathing anyway you might as well have a look at this ‘cause it’s pretty cool.
I recently came across the website Instructables.com, which is basically a ‘how to…’ site filled with all sorts of interesting (and sometimes not so interesting) projects. If you have a gadget that can be charged via a USB port then this instructable shows how to make a device that will charge your USB-capable devices while you do what you do best. Breathe. Using some parts scavenged from an old CD-ROM drive, a simple electronic circuit, and a few rubber bands you will soon be huffing and puffing your way to fully-charged pseudo-useful electronic gadget nirvana.
Beware: this project isn’t as easy as the ‘how to’ I posted on making your own solar charger, and requires a wide range of skills, such as PCB board manufacture, dismantling of electronics, cutting and drilling plastics, mixing epoxy, designing a gear train, kludging together a bunch of parts, bending paper clips, and risking the well being of your ever so expensive phone, camera, or PDA.
There are basically four steps involved, which you can go through in detail if you visit the site:
1. Scrounge up some suitable parts for the generator
2. Build the charger circuit
3. Assemble the generator, thorax coupler, and mechanical return
4. Connect the charger circuit, and test
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