Yo-Yo Action is the Key to Zero Carbon Charger

January 12th, 2010 by Tina Casey

If you’ve ever spun a yo-yo, you’ll have no trouble getting the hang of Easy Energy’s new YoGen handheld charger. According to its North American manufacturer Fame LLC, the tiny powerhouse was a big hit at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show last week in Vegas.

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YoGen was designed to power portable electronics by pulling on a rip-cord, an activity familiar to yo-yo fans worldwide. The device, which has innards that look like clockworks, basically consists of an alternator that transfers enough sustainable kinetic energy to charge cell phones, iPods, Gameboys, cameras, and the like. It might seem like all fun and games, but a gadget like this might play a big role in future U.S. military logistics.

YoGen and Sustainable Chargers

YoGen is just one among a bevy of electronic device chargers that do not rely on conventional fossil fuels and batteries, such as windup chargers, solar chargers, and many others. The idea is that small gadgets don’t need much of a charge, so any human being in reasonable good shape can generate enough energy to do the job.

Sustainable Chargers and the U.S. Military

The U.S. military is hungry to kick the fossil fuel habit and it has adopted a military sustainability policy to that effect. In some ways the military is far outstripping the civilian world in its acceptance of the need to make a radical change. Lightweight, portable products like YoGen fit right into the military’s focus on giving expensive (and life-threatening) fuel convoys the boot in favor of portable fuel cells and high tech batteries, along with energy that can be scavenged or harvested onsite, including portable solar energy and other sources of low or zero carbon power.

Image: Yo-Yo by Mickey Glitter on flickr.com.

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Tags: Easy Energy, electronic device charger, yo-yo, YoGen

About the Author

Tina Casey Tina Casey specializes in military and corporate sustainability, advanced technology, emerging materials, biofuels, and water and wastewater issues. Tina’s articles are reposted frequently on Reuters, Scientific American, and many other sites. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter @TinaMCasey and Google+.

Steve Lavigne

Apparently in the year 3000 the Scooty Puff Jr. is all the rage for military assaults, and it uses a wind up key.
Steve Lavigne

Apparently in the year 3000 the Scooty Puff Jr. is all the rage for military assaults, and it uses a wind up key.
Brian N

Human kinetic energy at a power of 100-150W is a real body work out. A 1 hr effort would only give you about 1/10 of a kWh (assuming a >90% eff generator) ie a penny or two worth of charge. Thats on par with the energy in 1/360 of a gallon of gas or the butanol in a lighter or heat from 341 matches

A hand powered toy in any form would only give you 1/10 to 1/00 that. Sure it could power some LEDs but it could never payback its cost or its embodied energy.

As for solar gizmos most portable gadgets probably rarely get much solar exposure or a chance to deliver useful power like a roof PV. Again most never pay back their cost or embodied energy. They may add other real value but in no are most solar gizmos green.

The military are interested in portable power like methanol fuel cell / lithium battery powered devices and solar thermal plants for base electric power.

If the military see this article, I can really see them splitting their sides with the YoGen.
Brian N

Human kinetic energy at a power of 100-150W is a real body work out. A 1 hr effort would only give you about 1/10 of a kWh (assuming a >90% eff generator) ie a penny or two worth of charge. Thats on par with the energy in 1/360 of a gallon of gas or the butanol in a lighter or heat from 341 matches

A hand powered toy in any form would only give you 1/10 to 1/00 that. Sure it could power some LEDs but it could never payback its cost or its embodied energy.

As for solar gizmos most portable gadgets probably rarely get much solar exposure or a chance to deliver useful power like a roof PV. Again most never pay back their cost or embodied energy. They may add other real value but in no are most solar gizmos green.

The military are interested in portable power like methanol fuel cell / lithium battery powered devices and solar thermal plants for base electric power.

If the military see this article, I can really see them splitting their sides with the YoGen.