I had a 350W AC motor that did not work for this purpose. Do I need to have a DC motor? Also, what type of battery should I use? Obviously, it must be rechargeable so should I go with a lead-acid battery? This system will have a human-powered crankshaft, a motor, a battery, an inverter, and will need to produce 100W maximum to charge my laptop battery through the inverter.
A permanent magnet DC motor would be the simplest. Then you don't need to provide any field current, you just spin the motor. I question the need for an inverter if you are charging a laptop battery. Perhaps you can skip the inverter, bypass the normal laptop power supply, and just provide DC input. The battery you choose should depend on how long you want it to last. If you are just using it to charge another battery, I don't see why you need a battery at all, or maybe just a lightweight NiCad as a buffer, but I think you can definitely avoid carrying around a heavy lead acid battery. I'd recommend looking at what input you really need for the laptop, and then think about a simple circuit to regulate the charge from a simple DC generator.
The basics are that a fit person can generate about 1/2 h.p. for about 15 minutes. And this is if you're pedaling. A d.c. generator would probably be best with a converter and NiCad batteries. If a 100 watts is all you need, a hand crank would probably work.
as far as AC,DC goes, remember AC is highvoltage, DC is low voltage Whoever told him that is very confused indeed.
You need an electric bicycle assist motor, which has the regenerative braking feature. Check out this site: www.bionx.ca/
what is the motor for? use a alternator! and a car battery, for recharging purposes. OK hook a alternator to a bike, hook the alternator to the battery, then the battery to the inverter, plug in your computer and start peddling. as far as AC,DC goes, remember AC is highvoltage, DC is low voltage
