Now I've stepped in it!

[Big All]

I got these for cheap a couple of weeks ago.

Didn't really have any project in mind when I picked them up, but couldn't pass on them.

What would you do with these little guys?

A bank of pinwheel gennies?

Combine with a dremel to make a homebrew cnc?

Robotic flamethrowing spider sentry?

[RobC]

I say, Robotic flamethrowing spider sentry. RobC

[pyrocasto]

I would build one of each, since it looks like you have enough.

Really though, I would probably do a pinwheel wind farm. Although they wont produce much, I dont have a genny and it would be fun to play with.

[wooferhound]

-Hmmmm ,  Thats very interesting

I have those very same motors here at my place

My imagination was telling me to make a small wind farm from those little motors using the ZubWoofer PVC props from small free easy to find small pvc pipe

[Big All]

What did your little steppers come out of?

I'm guessing mine came out of old dot matrix printers.

[wooferhound]

I got mine out of printers, Cassette Decks and toys. Plus some stepper motors from some robotic lighting instruments.

[merkurmaniac]

What is the advantage to stepper motors ?  I have a broken 4 channel tape recorder that I was thinking about robbing the motor from, based on some conversations here.  I have been thinking about building a micro landscape lighting system.  I have built some lights using LEDs and was going to use a cell phone battery or a 12V wall wart to power it.  I would love to do it off wind power.  I would probably need a pitifully small amount of power, but my deed association in my subdivision would frown on anything big.    Anyone got details on how to build a microturbine ?  Is the advantage to the stepper motor that it will produce current if you spin it with no mods, or what is the deal ?

Richard

[ghurd]

It will make AC. A few diodes in the right places and you can charge a battery- really slowly. Some guys (not me) have got 12V out of them.

The big deal is they are almost free, and really fun.

G-

[Kwazai]

steppers are almost always permanent magnet motors with the coils hooked seprately to a driver board- one set of magnets is turned on then off then the next is on so that it incrementally steps-rotates. Fax machine steppers are typically 90 degree steppers (four wires). some of the larger copiers steppers will  have 8 wires.

[Kwazai]

ditto

[Chagrin]

A four wire stepper is a "bipolar" stepper, and a six wire stepper is a "unipolar" stepper. Unipolar steppers can work with bipolar controllers, but not vice versa. An eight wire stepper can work with either a bipolar or unipolar controller but there are also torque and amperage considerations when choosing the wiring method.

The type of stepper isn't distinct to the stepper's intended use. More likely is that a manufacturer will use the same type of stepper throughout their product line (like HP and their use of unipolar steppers in both laser and inkjet printers)

[Big All]

Last night the wind was really gusting by my balcony.

Soooo I ductaped one of the 24V steppers to my tripod and stuck a box fan blade on the front of it.

I was seeing 8 to high 9V AC on a single phase.





Picture was last night, as it was spinning.

I guess next time I'll use no flash so it looks faster.

Tonight I'll be looking for diodes to canabalize from the gadget boneyard.

On a sad note no breeze tonight.