MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Righty ho, I've bought myself an Elite Zumo Smart Interactive trainer and as usual with trainer based activities I'm banished to the shed - which doesn't bother me.
The one issue is my shed doesn't have a permanent 240v power supply, so to run the trainer (at the moment) is a case of running an extension lead from the utility room and up to the shed.
I can't really go about installing a feed to the shed as it would involve lifting rather a lot of the patio to get the cable to the actual grassed / bordered area and then run it to the shed. So I've thought about using a leisure battery, with a solar panel to charge it and a 12/240v inverter to power the trainer from it.
I can't see the trainer having a massive current draw as the electrics are only (I may be wrong) powering the sensors, resistance adjustability and feedback to the app via Bluetooth or whatever.
So say, if I coupled together a 110ah battery a simple invertor and a 50w solar panel, would that run the trainer and allow the battery to re-charge sufficiently so I didn't kill it?
Mains - you'll soon get fed up with a battery solution. You can DIY it easily with armoured cable (although you'll need electrical cert if you sell the house).
Battery solution will probably be more faff than an extension lead.
Take it back and but a tacx neo. It doesn’t need external power.
But then you will still need power for fans.
Depends how long a cable you need, but Blagdon used to do armoured cable kits, 3-pin plug to sealed hard wire boxes (for which there are Blagdon waterproof 3-pin plug extensions for). For just a turbo and a couple of fans, you won't come anywhere close to the supply limits.
I'd imagine a solar panel will be pretty useless in the winter anyawy, and they are pretty expensive. Occasionally bringing the battery in to charge might be better?
It does seem strange this should require power at all given all the effort being expended. Why don't turbo trainers generate power to run a fan and laptop as well? Guess it's just economics.
It does seem strange this should require power at all given all the effort being expended. Why don’t turbo trainers generate power to run a fan and laptop as well? Guess it’s just economics.
That's the next idea in the pipeline
I think the tacx only works as a dumb trainer without power. And you'll still want to power the laptop etc (i got fed-up having to set things up and stuck a mini pc into an old tv, so now i can just climb on the bike and press a power button. Any faff just becomes an excuse to not do it.
If it was me.....
Get some 16a cable, doesnt need to be armoured for a temporary instalation but its supposed to be the outdoor rated stuff. Clip that to the fence and put an rcd plug on the house end of it.
Why don’t turbo trainers generate power to run a fan and laptop as well?
Possibly power readings would no longer be accurate?
Get some 16a cable, doesnt need to be armoured for a temporary instalation but its supposed to be the outdoor rated stuff. Clip that to the fence and put an rcd plug on the house end of it.
Fine idea, but I've still got to cross a paved garden path to get to the fence, and frankly CBA'd with cable in the air to get there
The neo is fully smart without power you just lose the downhill drive. I take mine to races and camping and use it with my phone or iPad.
The issue with generating electricity from a turbo (as a commercial product) is that electricity is so cheap. You can sit at 250w+ for an hour 5 days a week and probably get 1kwh total usable (depending on various factors), which is about 12p worth. Do it 50 weeks a year and that's a whole £6. I don't see big companies marketing such a product.
As a fun cheap project with an old alternator from a scrap yard or specific off grid applications it's great though.
I think the tacx only works as a dumb trainer without power.
Neo works absolutely fine without power, only thing that it doesn't do is freewheel downhill.