3D printing workshop

The age of buying cheap toys, of throwing broken stuff away is finished. Let's discover 3D printing. The fist part is the digitalisation of what we're making. We're using : - Sculptris for the 3D drawing - ThinkerCAD for the 3D manipulation - Cura for the preparation for the 3D printer The second part is …

Parain of a module

We want to realize a platform of renewable energies and soft mobility, for makers, activist, entrepreneurs and organization that share our values. Our first realization is a mobile renewable energy module on a cargo bike. Vélo M² is a participative project. With our modular bike we want to create a platform where young creative people …

PPP computer charger

The people pedal powered computer charger is a device that harvests human energy to charge a computer. The energy input comes from an ordinary bicycle in a stand that drives a generator. The energy output is the charging voltage of the computer. Find the instructions on WikiFab !

Benevélo mailinglist

Hi there ! Welcome to the mailinglist of the benevélos of Vélo M² ! This list is for sharing events, missions and interesting topics, in Dutch, French and English. You can join the list https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/benevelo What is a benevélo ? Someone who loves bicycles, someone who likes organizing events, someone who wants to be engaged …

Benevélo weekend

Merci to all participants of this weekend ! We had a fantastic time and we hope to see you back soon, greetings from exhausted but satisfied Milena and Florent The projection was a charm, we gave our first PPP badge and we made the energy monitoring work ! There are more events to come, keep …

First PPP badge

We want to encourage benevélos to gain the badge 'apprentice PPP' that demonstrates that you can assist in a good set-up of the People Pedal Power system. Find more at OpenFab ! The fist badge was accorded on 11/11 on the benevélo weekend, maybe we need to scale up the 3D print 🙂 Join the …

PPP cinéma for freedom 11/11

The discovery of the evening is a winter open-air projection. The cold couldn't touch us as People Pedal Power kept us warm ! In memory of armistice day we presented an open air cinema projection of "Paths Of Glory" by Kubrick 1957 powered by pedaling. And this on "Place de la liberté" and totally free! …

Joining OpenFab

This summer we decided to join OpenFab, a FabLab that is 100% independent, that creates an ecosystem to combine the capacities of everyone to become a catalyser of innovation and creativity. This gilde 2.0 that advocates the Open Source concept, starting with the machines to the spreading of the information. Het feit dat we toetreden …

A call for bénévélos (bike volunteers)

Hello all bike enthousiasts from around Brussels. it's been 2 years since our journey started at POC21 and we have exciting times ahead. We are having weekly events all around the city and deposited a Mobile Fablab project with 11 partners. 2017-2018 will be the year for professionalization. With this in mind we are searching to create …

DC connectors

Hier documenteren we onze ervaring met verschillende connectoren voor hoge-stroom DC connectoren. Neutrik : kunnen tot 40A aan, en nog meer, zijn robuust en hopelijk waterdicht. Female plug komt enkel in panel mount uitvoering. Neutrik Cable Mount Loudspeaker Connector Socket, 4 Way, 40A, Screw Down Termination RS-stocknr. 464-684 Neutrik Panel Mount Loudspeaker Connector Plug, 4 …

Organizing a PPP event

Here benevélos can find the necessary documents for organizing a PPP event. Planning a People Pedal Powered Event  People Pedal Power Practical information Preparation checklist The insurance dossier : 20171212-schadeaangifteformulier-vlaamse-polis-vrijwilligerswerk-belfius     * Planning a People Pedal Powered Event * (find the pdf here Planning a People Pedal Powered Event ) Ecology & entertainment. Two words …

Battery selection

First remark : if you can avoid using a battery and work with the people pedal power in stead, this is considerably more interesting for the environment – car batteries a heavy compared with the energy they can store, they are designed for giving high current. – deep cycle / cyclic / boat batteries can …

Traveling trough Brussels with the xyz cargo bike

Preparation : charge the battery, find the keys, checking the brakes, inflate the tires, take a lock, put the saddle at your height. Planning the trip : avoid steep hills (Mont des Arts, Botanique, Porte de Namur), the elevator at Palais de Justice fits the bike, calculate your time (then add some for surprises and …

Renewable energy – what can you expect ?

People pedal power is a form of renewable energy, but how much energy can a human produce ? the numbers 1 cyclist = 100W power generated during 5min = 75W during 15min = 50W during 1h sound system energy used = 1/2 of indicated power (more basses is more power, more volume is more power) …

Supercapacitor

Capacitor An electronic component able to hold a charge. It can be used in the same function as batteries with the following differences : + a capacitor is easier to recycle than most batteries (references will follow). + a capacitor can provide and absorb a higher peak power. – the voltage varies with the charging …

Energy module

The energy module allows to treat the power form the PPP bike generators. It buffers the power to keep the supply-demand in balance and it converts the messy DC power to AC 230V power. The inverter we are using is a 24V 800VA Victron inverter.  

xyz knot

More information on the xyz http://www.n55.dk/MANUALS/SPACEFRAMEVEHICLES/spaceframevehicles.html A good address for Alu in Brussels http://www.hobby-alu.be/  

OpenFab and WikiFab

One of our values is to share what we learn by making our projects open sourced following the principles of Open Source Hardware with our partner in crime OpenFab. Find our tutos in WikiFab and be welcome to contribute !

Expo POC21 is coming near. What are we up to?

It is getting really serious here at POC21. Since a bit more then one week our team is building the final parts for the exposition that will be held this weekend. Our goal is to have at least three working modules or capsules like we call it now: An energy module driven by solar and …

Vélo M2: Multifunctional Mobile Modules for a Sustainable Future

Vélo M2 is a project started by three collectives in Brussels, Urban Foxes, Ciklic & Soft Revolution. Vélo M2 is cultivating innovative open source modules for cargo bikes, one square meter at the time.All existing and future modules will be conceptualized and built in a mind-set of sustainable co-living and co-working, reducing waste and CO2 …

The Electricity Module: Sharing the insides / insights

We are conceptualizing and constructing, designing and building our vital organs at the moment. We want the share the insides and the insights of the energy module with you. If you have suggestions, additions, more efficient ideas, we encourage sharing it with the project, to make a system that is interesting for everyone that will …

Pitching the Vélo M2 Project (with DRAWINGS!)

Vélo M2 is a Pedal Powered Multi Modular Cargo Bike Community! As simple as that! Still questions, come listen about the possibilities.... A Bike can be a great alternative for a personal car A Cargo Bike can be a great alternative for a transportion car A Multi Modular Cargo Bike can be a great alternative …

Vélo M2: a platform for cargo bike module builders.

Hello i'm Yannick from Soft Revolution collective. With 2 other collective (Ciklic and Urban Foxes) we started building at the innovation camp POC21 a cargo bike project called Vélo m2: world's first multi-modular cargobike In the beginning we just wanted to build all kind of different modules for the XYZ Cargo Bike designed by N55 …

Open sourcing the module system: A designer challenge

Time is an important tool at POC21. We just have five weeks to build a Proof Of Concept of or multi-modular cargo bike with solar and pedal power. To be more efficient in our work we decided to organize an open designer session. All the product designers where invited to a massive brainstorm session to …

Three User stories to explain the possibilities of the multi modular cargo bike community

Story one: Organizing a cinema for kids. Two days ago I had a telephone call of a children camp just outside of Brussels who has problems to occupy their kids with all the rain falling down. They found me on the vélo M2 site where I explained how I build my multi media module. I …

What FORMAT for the modules? We need your help cargo bike users!

To all cargo bike users, Like some of you know, we are building a modular cargo bike box system that will be open source. To explain it with exempels: we are building a box with a sustainable and pedal and solar powered battery system, a box with a mobile cinema, a box with an arcade, …

A first step to a cargo bike builders community!

Hello cargobike lovers, Our project is taking more and more a concrete form. We are not only building a modular bike with a self-sufficient battery to project movies, organize parties or cook , but working on an open source community for builders and designers of new modules that can be put on any cargobike in …

POC21: DAY FIVE

I Think day five for our team will be seen as a first leap towards a better understanding of what we are exactly doing at POC21. This five-week accelerator is more then a work camp, it is a place where the way of working and living is questioned every day. Take for example our morning …

POC21: DAY THREE and FOUR

A lot is happened the last two days. It was like everything was happening at the same time. POC21 is a unique experience where you put 100 creative eco-inventers together with all their own skill and you try to squeeze out the best possible thing. So on the third day we started to structure the …

POC 21: DAY TWO

Second day at POC and first full day of work, except we are having brunch at 10 AM because it is Sunday. I woke up a little earlier to go get some blackberries for breakfast. Learning about your environment is as important as working on our project, we heard. After a great buffet for breakfast …

POC21: DAY ONE

Yesterday we finally arrived at POC21, an accelerator camp for open source, sustainable ideas that aim to have a Proof Of Concept at the end of five weeks for each of the 12 selected projects. We, with Vélo m2, the multi-modular cargo bike were one of the lucky few to be selected between 200 other. …