Heated Bicycle Jacket

ZR,

when i developed my winter riding gear i found that the MAIN key was to establish a complete air and waterproof shell.

i use GILL brand sailing jacket and bibs for the outer shell, i use a military issue polypropolene base layer and if needed a mid layer of whats know as the "extreme cold service" brown bear suit.

with good boots, gloves and snowmobile helmet i can ride in -0 windchill and never feel it.

layering under a good shell is much easier and probably cheaper.

steve
 
With enough clothing layers I'm sure that will help. Having those thick layers hold in the heat from the heated jacket would be even better.

Also, I just got the heating elements needed!!! I got an old 49W medical heating pad to use! I can wrap this pad in the front of the jacket between clothing layers.

It's 120V normally, but I already have a switching power supply (SMPS) I built a while back for another project, that will take the 12VDC and bring it to over 100VDC, so I figure that this will do to warm the heating pad. The heating pad should take a DC voltage fine, as I measured 315 ohms in either polarity, so it's just a regular resistive coil!:D
 
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... but dude -- be careful now
you are going to be wrapping this ELECTRIFIED thing around your body

in case of a mishap -- you have been know to have a few

we don't want you to burn anyTHING off your body -- know what we mean ???
I was under the impression that most Direct Current doesn't actually zap you since it's constant. It's Alternating Current that messes up your nervous system. That's why you can touch ALMOST any electrical part on a car while it's running and not feel a thing.... just not anything between the coil and plugs.
 
I was under the impression that most Direct Current doesn't actually zap you since it's constant. It's Alternating Current that messes up your nervous system. That's why you can touch ALMOST any electrical part on a car while it's running and not feel a thing.... just not anything between the coil and plugs.

Sparky, AC or DC it does NOT matter much as far as you getting shocked. It's the voltage that matters.

12V in a car won't shock you even if you tried. In my personal testing on myself, I find you need minimum of ~30V with moist hands, or 50V or more with dry hands to start to feel a shock. It really takes 100V or more to get a good shock. It's the current that shocks you, but it takes a lot of voltage to overcome your body's resistance for the current to flow.

However the spark plug wires and coil in a car are in excess of 20-40KV AC which is a very NASTY shock! (KV=1000 volts)

Either way, it's good to be careful with electric, no matter how much.

However, for this project, I would obviously insulate all connections to avoid shock or short circuits, and also if the pad got too hot, I would either turn it off or remove the jacket.

If I caught fire from this THING, I'll be sure to post it here first! LOL ;)
 
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Sparky, AC or DC it does NOT matter much as far as you getting shocked. It's the voltage that matters.
Pretty sure it's the current that matters most... seeing as how I know a guy who got ZAPPED by a 100,000,000 Volt bolt of lightning and went on to close the restaurant he was working at at the time. Electricity is very trickley, I mean tricky.
 
Pretty sure it's the current that matters most... seeing as how I know a guy who got ZAPPED by a 100,000,000 Volt bolt of lightning and went on to close the restaurant he was working at at the time. Electricity is very trickley, I mean tricky.

ZnsaneRyder said:
It's the current that shocks you, but it takes a lot of voltage to overcome your body's resistance for the current to flow.

That's what I mean. Yes, the guy got shocked with 100,000,000 volts, but there was not enough current available to kill him. However, you can have 1 million amps and 1 volt, and you won't feel a thing.

Wikipedia said:
An electric shock can occur upon contact of a human's body with any source of voltage high enough to cause sufficient current through the muscles or hair.

So, yes it's the current that matters as far as the damage done, but it takes a high voltage for the current to flow, see what I mean. It even says in wikipedia.
 
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Now that all is said and done, enough about the electric is dangerous talk. I appreciate all the concerns, but it really takes away from the discussion and the design in progress.

I do NOT FEAR electricity AT ALL and never have and never will. I purposely shocked myself as I previously stated to make that point.

I'm well aware of how electricity works, and have been since I was 8 years old. I know and understand Ohm's Law. I have recently built a few SMPS, and it takes quite a bit of electrical/electronics/components knowledge to build one to work efficiently. I've also built a 350W RMS audio amplifier with nearly 150V DC across the filter capacitors, dangerous, but only if you touch where you don't belong like a child.

Here's a DIYaudio forum thread I made when I built my first High-Powered SMPS, my name being Eworkshop1708 +/-50V rails (100V total)
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=121666&highlight=

The subject is still the heated bicycle jacket. And because I'm using a 120V heating pad, I plan on giving this pad 100-150V DC to heat it properly, using a 12V SMPS to multiply the voltage from the battery.

I'll keep you guys posted on the progress.
 
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