> Like a small dc brush motor, has a rotating coil.
> You could fit this to your shaft somehow and use
> its curved perm magnets around that. Then just
> full wave rectify and use a zener for regulation.

That's a good suggestion, and one reason why I considered a
small DC motor driven as a generator. Problem with modifying
such a motor (ie "cheap") is that the main shaft has a 12mm
diameter, and  it'll be awful tricky to take parts from a smaller
motor and make them fit "somehow". But, as they say, it ain't
over till the fat lady sings

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different
ways.  See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.