The world according to Riff.

Well...I got my 12volt 5watt zener diodes in the mail, and started playing with the circuit. (To update everybody) I have a 24 volt gear motor that puts out 40 rpm. I am spinning the output shaft by hand in order to get voltage out of the wires you normally hook up the current.  To help regulate the voltage (12-50 volts depending on how hard you crank it), I decided to use zener diodes......My goal is to have a durable hand cranked generator to re charge batteries out in the feild if im deployed in an area that has no utilities working or available.  This would allow me to keep any radios, or lights going, in order to get the job done so to speak. (I,m a 1st Lt in the Texas Medical Rangers, we respond to help out in disaster situations, in a medical capacity) OK back to my boring story....lol...What I did was to follow this circuit...the input voltage is the "unstable" voltage, meaning me cranking on the motor lol...and the result is 12 volts out...so far..I used a nice ceramic resistor from some ols 1960 style equipment in the appropriate range that could handle the watts...the first time was with some 1/4 watt radio shack stuff that got real fricken hot under a small load..(a 12 volt light).....next step is to find a battery charger at wal-mart or somewhere that can be hooked up to a cigarrette lighter and rewire it a bit to hook it up to my generator...and test test test...results to follow ....hope it doesn't involve a mushroom cloud and the fire department...ha ha a diagram is below....riff