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My first Windmill
By claude, Section Wind Posted on Tue Oct 10, 2006 at 09:27:37 PM MST
stepper motor, what else..?

Hello everybody!
I just wanted to share the joy I feel when watching my first mill. The output is 6-15V and 0.150 Amps - but hey, it's working. My portable radio plays when I spin the blades by hand. One super-bright LED does work at low RPM. Up to three at high RPM's.

The blade is cut from a 10cm plastic tube, the body was some L-shaped toilet tank pipe I had around and the tale is komacel (some white sturdy aerated plastic sheet used in outdoor advertising - very light. The stepper is from a inkjet printer, inside the body there's a full bridge rectifier with a 47uF cap on a veroboard.

My initial idea was to insert a 9V 140mA battery in the body along with some small holes in the tale's lower side for three white LED's to light up the area around it.
The stepper would charge the battery that would light up the LED's. I wanted it to be completely autonomous so a daylight switching circuit would be required. The plans I found for such a thing were way too power-hungry for my 9V battery. I finnaly decided to take the wires out - it's more fun when you hold the wires ion your hands figuring out what use could be next :-)
As I'm a graphic designer it was only natural to make some stickers... the final touch. Looks nice. I still have some glueing to do in order to keep it waterproof, but that will come. I already plan to start building a bigger one...
Thanks to everybody on this forum for enlightening me. Even when the wind's not blowing. :-)

My first Windmill | 13 comments (13 topical)

Re: My first Windmill (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by ghurd on Tue Oct 10, 2006 at 03:54:08 PM MST

Cool!
G-
Ghurd.info

Re: My first Windmill (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by hvirtane on Tue Oct 10, 2006 at 05:15:47 PM MST

I like the looks.

- Hannu

Re: My first Windmill (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by Titantornado on Tue Oct 10, 2006 at 05:33:39 PM MST

Pretty darn cool! I think the only thing I would have done differently is to have the bent tail pointed down, to lower torquing forces on the yaw axle and prevent rain from possibly finding it's way to the stepper motor. Might cause some hunting though, being it will be in the wind shadow of the tower.

Rod

Re: My first Windmill (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by claude on Tue Oct 10, 2006 at 10:33:55 PM MST

I actually considered it. But I didn't liked the look of it. The yaw point is drilled considering the overall balance so that's the point where it's leveled. The tail will be sealed with some cap cut in half and glued. As I said, I still have some finishing touches left to do. Thanks for your appreciations.

Claude.

[ Parent ]

Re: My first Windmill (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by kenputer on Wed Oct 11, 2006 at 05:23:57 AM MST

All my years plumbing and that is the best use I've seen for a 2" flush elbow.
looks great!

[ Parent ]

Re: My first Windmill (3.00 / 0) (#12)
by richhagen on Wed Oct 11, 2006 at 04:33:03 PM MST

Looks great! I would still put a drain somewhere in the bottom of the flush elbow for any rain that makes its way in. Rich
'A Joule saved is a Joule made'
[ Parent ]

Re: My first Windmill (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by powerbuoy on Tue Oct 10, 2006 at 07:45:49 PM MST

It actually looks like a true product. Not bad what a toilet piece combined with graphics can do to impress the human eye.

That's the best piece of toilett I have seen in a long time. Keep flushing ...

Powerbuoy

Re: My first Windmill (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by claude on Tue Oct 10, 2006 at 11:34:50 PM MST

Yes indeed, the simplest thing changes when labelling attracts. I gues that's why we keep buying stuff that just looks good when packaged. I'm in that business, so I know. But I still make the same mistake.

Now that toilet pipe was just laying around. No plans to use it soon. Actually "the bathroom pipes department" over here has the widest range of pipe sizes and diameters. It was a good idea to use that. Ironic, I wanted to write on the tail a big "WC" with a small "wind charger" text bellow but I said to myself that it won't be much of a charger so let's not overstate things.

I'll keep flushing, thanks. :-)

[ Parent ]

Re: My first Windmill (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by CG on Wed Oct 11, 2006 at 02:52:36 AM MST

Well done, claude, tiny turbines are great fun.

Re: My first Windmill (3.00 / 0) (#9)
by electrondady1 on Wed Oct 11, 2006 at 10:16:15 AM MST

slick !!

[ Parent ]

Re: My first Windmill (3.00 / 0) (#10)
by RogerAS on Wed Oct 11, 2006 at 12:43:23 PM MST

Claude,

If you can find the stepping motor from an old 5.25" floppy drive the head positioning motor makes a neat little mill. It will produce more power and these types of motors have a nice set of bearings. I have a couple that are over 3 years old and still spinning nicely.

Good work and it's nice to see there is more than one graphics person using this forum.

Roger AS
9 Years off-grid & counting

Re: My first Windmill (3.00 / 0) (#11)
by claude on Wed Oct 11, 2006 at 02:26:34 PM MST

Hy Roger!

Actually I have one stepper like you mentioned. It was my first choice initially. I even used it before final assembly. Took it for a ride outside my car's window and at 20 Km/h I got 80Volts (!) but a VERY dissapointing 0.05 Amps. So I changed it. I still plan to use that floppy stepper to light up ONE LED as it's all it really can do.

The next one will be using this stepper
http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2006/9/4/6719/74772

this stepper is a 5-phase motor and I wired it accordingly (thanks ghurd). The output is around 12 Volts at 0.5 Amps. I also have another big stepper taken from a big old laser printer. It puts out easy 12 volts at 0.8 Amp. These babies will be the weapon of choice on my future projects.

I'm only doing this to gain some sort of experience. I have a wide range of hobbies and this seems to sum up several of them. (model planes/carpentry/basic electronics/mechanics). I'm still testing materials, I actually made my first electronic circuit for this, I'm gathering stuff, so it's a real learning process to me. The satisfaction I get from making this ... let's just say that those little LED's powered by free energy lights up my soul that's dimmed by too much fluorescent office lights.

Claude

[ Parent ]

Re: My first Windmill (3.00 / 0) (#13)
by prabs on Wed Nov 01, 2006 at 08:18:03 AM MST

The WindGen looks very nice!!.

[ Parent ]

My first Windmill | 13 comments (13 topical)

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