Propeller Hydropower Generator "Blue Freedom" that can charge mobile equipment in the world's smallest river side Review

"Grill stove for generating heat with BBQ"Or"Pot electricity boils hot water"The number of products that can charge mobile devices in outdoor environments is on the increase. Both generate electricity with the power of the heat, but portable hydro-electric generators that can generate electricity with the world's first "hydropower" to charge mobile devices are "Blue Freedom"is. Since what I had invested in Kickstarter arrived at the editorial department, I tried it on the riverbed how much power generating capacity the actually portable size of the hydro power generator hid.

The World's Smallest Hydropower Plant | Blue Freedom
http://blue-freedom.net/

Actually turning the propeller with the flow of the river, you can check how the hydropower is generating from the following movie.

Power generation in the World's Smallest Portable Sized Hydropower Generator "Blue Freedom" (Slow Stream Edition) - YouTube


◆ Photo review
Blue Freedom arrives at the editorial department like this. I was in a dedicated mobile bag.


Looking at the back side,German Design Award 2016It is said that it has already won the award.


Taking out the main body from the mobile bag is like this. It is a disk type like UFO.


The text is in English, but there is also an instruction manual with an illustration.


I tried holding it in my hands and it did not fit in the palm of my hand. The dimensions are 60 mm × 200 mm, the weight is 400 g. The blue part in the middle is a propeller for hydroelectric power generation, remove it for use.


When comparing iPhone 5s sideways, you can see that it is slightly larger as a charger.


When looking from the side like this, the height is about half of the iPhone 5s.


There is an LED light on the side, and it is a geeky atmosphere that the inside substrate can see through.


There is a propeller connection plug in front of "Blue Freedom" logo.


Switch at the top of the logo. Once you press it the white light will light up and the battery level can be checked. Up to five white lights are lit up, and the following are three shining conditions.


When you tap the switch briefly twice, the LED light on the side lights up. Because it is comparatively bright and bright, it seems that it can be used as a light source to light hands in the tent.


There are two rubber caps on the left and right sides of the main body to prevent the entry of water. When it opens, the left side is a USB port for output and a port for inserting a cable such as a solar battery.


Also on the right side there is another USB port for output, and it also has a micro-USB port for charging Blue Freedom's built-in battery.


In addition to generating power with hydraulic power, it is also possible to charge the built-in battery directly from a power source with a USB cable. Battery capacity is 5000 mAh.


When I look at the appearance as a whole, I will make the state capable of hydroelectric power generation. First, remove the blue propeller in the middle.


Take out the flexible shaft (propeller extension cord) stored inside the Blue Freedom ... ...


Connect the tip to the propeller.


Now you can feed the propeller into the water.


Connect the other end of the flexible shaft to the plug of Blue Freedom.


Then, as the propeller thrown into the water rotates with hydraulic power, the plug turns round and generates electricity.


◆ I tried hydroelectric power generation
So, I came to the riverbed and tried to actually hydropower.


It was the next day after the rain, so the river was slightly increased in water and perfect for hydropower generation. I chose a particularly strong point.


You can see how hydroelectric power generation is carried out in riverbed rapids from the following movies.

How to generate electricity with "Blue Freedom", the world's smallest and portable size hydroelectric generator - YouTube


On the banks of riverbeds, there were no rocks or trees that could fix Blue Freedom. Although it was quite uneasy, I fixed the Blue Freedom to the dead tree and tried to generate electricity. The propeller which received the flow of the river began swirling powerfully, the main switch was also lit indicating "generating electricity", and hydro power generation was possible.


Ideally, charging the mobile device from the main body of the hand while turning the hydraulic power generation at the outdoor waterside. However, since the length of the cable is 1.8 meters, it seems to be short to do hydroelectric power generation on the river side. If you sit at the position where you put the backpack, you will be charging the mobile device while sitting on the river side.


In addition, it is because the flow is strong after the increase in water, but the body part of Blue Freedom is always pulled with water and always graze. I could not take my eyes off when Blue Freedom was taken. I bought iPad Pro out of battery, but I did not have the courage to connect unstable Blue Freedom and iPad Pro with a USB cable ... .... So, if you saved it in the built-in battery, such as hooking on a woodside tree that can be fixed firmly, you can use it as an aid to help you charge mobile devices even outdoors.


In addition, in the movie turning the propeller of Blue Freedom by the gentle flow, I started and stop generating electricity repeatedly, so it seems that it is impossible to obtain sufficient power generation if the water current is too gentle. According to the specification, the power generation capacity is 5 W / 5 V at the maximum, it means that a water flow speed of at least 1 meter per second is required.

Power generation in the World's Smallest Portable Sized Hydropower Generator "Blue Freedom" (Slow Stream Edition) - YouTube


◆ Verification of charge output
Because I could not charge outside, I decided to take back Blue Freedom and check the charging performance. In the manual, the output of the USB port is 1 A · 2 A respectively, and the tablet can also be charged. Because it is not written why the left and right are 2A and 1A for some reason, firstUSB simple voltage / current checkerUse the left and right outputs to determine the output. For verification, we have removed only one of Blue Freedom 's propellers for easy visual clarity.


Firstly there is a propeller from Blue Freedom's left USB port. When connecting iPad mini 2, the output was "0.94 A / 4.94 V".



That means that the right USB port should be 2A output, but the result is almost the same as "0.91 A / 5.03 V".



Subsequently, it also verified with Blue Freedom without propeller. The left USB port is "0.92 A / 5.01 V".



The right USB port is "0.94 A / 5.12 V", which is also the same result as before.



With Blue Freedom without a propeller, I recorded 1.41 A on the right USB port only once, but it did not reach 2A.


When charging the iPhone 5s that has run out of batteries, it recovered without problems and it was able to charge up to 100%. There seems to be no problem as output for smartphones.


I tried charging the iPad Pro that has run out of battery, and it will never return to iPad Pro even if I charge it for about an hour. It seems that output is insufficient, so it seems better to keep it on smartphones to charge with Blue Freedom.


· Additional notes April 28, 2016 20: 19
Last time the river increased after the water was increased and the water flow was too strong and the place where the main body was installed was bad, so it was not possible to stably generate the hydropower. In order to confirm the power generation performance of Blue Freedom again, I came to the riverbed with Blue Freedom's battery set to zero.


Although it was raining a little this time, it seems that it is not a torrent as much as the main body can take. First of all I tried to propel the propeller to a point where the flow is relatively gentle.


Then, although the lamp indicating "under power generation" was turned on, it was impossible to generate power stably.


Although the propeller is released fast when the stream of the river is fast, although it rotates vigorously, because the propeller is put in from the Naname against the flow of the river, the distance can not be earned and the propeller is spinning at the water's edge. Therefore, occasionally the propeller touches the land, and stable power generation seems to be difficult here as well.


When you try lifting the main body with your hand, the propeller rotates stably because the body and the propeller are straight against the flow of the river.


The LED indicator indicating that power generation is in progress is always lit. However, it is not realistic because it will be held by hand all the time.


Moving to another place, when I tried putting a propeller from the side against the water flow, the cord was bent and I can not generate power stably.


The fact that I found various kinds of electricity generation points is that it can generate electricity more stably as "the water flow is at a right speed" and "the water depth is sufficient" at "perpendicular to the water flow". The river side is shallow and the depth is deep, so if you put it on the ground of the river side, the water depth can not be sufficient and the power generation efficiency tends to decrease. If there are trees and sticks growing from the river, it is the best, but I could not find it in the river this time.

Then I found the following points. In addition to being able to release a propeller straight against a strong water flow, there are sufficient depths just beside the main body, as the land of waterfront stands out and it looks like a small cliff.


I fixed the main body to the ground and fixed the propeller, and when I tried putting the propeller, the propeller did not get out of the water surface, and it was swiftly swimming underwater.


In the river, the water level will be the fastest at the water surface and the bottom of the river where the water level is about 1/10 to 4/10 of the water surface. If there is a difference in height, the propeller will sink near the surface of the water, so it can increase power generation efficiency. The sinking condition of this time seems to be said that the water flow is just the fastest water level.

The river's water surface and the bottom water are at the same speed
(PDF file)https://kids.gakken.co.jp/box/nazenani/pdf/09_tikyuu/X1100238.pdf

LED indicator lights constantly without interruption. I finally found a point that can generate power stably. We will generate power for 1 hour as it is and check how much electricity can be stored in a battery with zero capacity.


Every 10 minutes I was checking, but sometimes plants and garbage got wrapped around the propeller, rotation was weakened or stopped, so stable hydro power generation may be difficult if it is a river with many drifting objects.


You can confirm from the following movie that appearance of hydraulic power generation actually being stable and the water flow speed etc.

Steady generation with the world's smallest hydropower "Blue Freedom" - YouTube


Every time garbage gets wrapped around, it took a while to generate electricity for a while. The remaining 5 of the battery lights up is understood by the number of white lamps, but the result was only one lamp which lighted up only.


I brought back the Blue Freedom, charged the smartphone with the battery empty, and tried what I could charge up to.


I was able to recover from the state of out of charge, but when I charged just 1%, Blue Freedom 's battery runs out. Since we are generating only one hour this time, if you can generate electricity overnight at Nakagawa, for example at camps, you may be able to store some power in the battery.


Blue Freedom can be ordered on the following page, and the price is 319 dollars (about 34,000 yen) per one. Including postage to Japan, the total is $ 339 (about 36,000 yen).

Store
http://blue-freedom.net/store/