Why bother with complicated solar panels and grid tie paperwork when you can power your device independently. That is exactly what I was looking for with the Weighted Dynamo Light - and I will describe how it works.

You will need the following:

• Efficient Light Source (3W or less LED)
  
• Capacitor
  
• Standard Crank Dynamo
  
• Mini Gear System
  
• Small Chain (between gears)
  
• Long Chain (for Gear2 and weight)
  
• Weight

Luckily you can cannibalize an existing crank light to do this - messing around with calculating energy consumption and production can be tedious. Instead we move the math to the gears and weight.

Think of the gear system like a bicycle, but the goal is to reduce the slowdown of the crank to your needs. After all, this can be a 5 minute light or a two day light depending on the gear settings and weight.

A simple two gear system has one connected to the old hand crank, and the other gear is connected to the weight mechanism. Someone had suggested completely taking a page from cycling and including a "dynamo dérailleur" - but that is complicated, you can change the gear more easily by hand.

This project is not difficult, but it does require some common sense. Your lamp, gears and whatnot will only handle so much weight - so a brick may be too massive. Elegant design involves copious amounts of simplicity and balance, a better weight may look like the brass pine cones from traditional Black Forest clocks - again, no bricks.

I do hope to see these kinds of LED lamps in retail stores - until then it is DIY time.