My mini wind turbine

[fungus]

I'm making a mini turbine now with a stepper motor from a laser printer.

I'm going to get some 12" blades to put on them and then run the wires down the tower with homemade sliprings(stereo headphone plug and socket). I'll add more photos and more posts when I get the parts etc..

Here is me lighting a string of LEDs by turning it very slowly by hand:

Here is my workbench (lol very messy(made of plywood)) where I am getting some of the parts(I may use part of it as plywood for the tail).

To get it down the tower I'm going to pair two wires together so I have three wires which will go down through the stereo plug. I'm hoping to charge some large capacitors and run some LED's.

[electrondady1]

useing the sterio jack is a clever idea!

[fungus]

I may instead use a 12v DC plug as a slipring, although it would mean more loss because it would have to be DC.
I've sent money for some blades to put on the stepper and they should arrive soon.

[ghurd]

A couple things that could save you some effort or frustration.

I would just leave some wire hanging instead of slip rings. If the tower is level, it won't twist up too fast or too often.

It is going to need DC to charge a cap, and LEDs are DC devices. The bridges can be on the tower, paralleled, then 2 wires down the tower. Voltage losses for the bridges shouldn't have much effect on the output.  The amps are more internally limited, not so much the voltage.

What kind of blades?   Good fast small blades can have a hard time getting past the cogging to get started, and will work better with a washer or 2 or 3 under the leading edge side, to increase the angle of attack. Makes for a little more torque.   RPMs won't be a problem, after it gets started turning.

G-

[fungus]

I've already got the caps sorted out and the sliprings are more experimental. I'm going to use some wooden 12" blades. I know what I'm doing with this and I know electronics quite well. I've made a very small board with the diodes, cap, resistor and LEDs on it. I did some testing with a capacitor and it could put 24v into one(it was 24v rated so it wont go much higher). It's got quite high internal resistance, 6 ohms per phase. I'm going to mount the rectifier at the bottom of the tower( a bit of around 3 foot tall thin pipe).

[ghurd]

CNC 12" blades?  Man, those get going fast!

[fungus]

I received the blades yesterday and they work great!
I havent made the tail yet, but I tested it out in the wind and I got around 8 volts rectified in an(I think) 10 mph wind. I'm not exactly sure about the voltage as I have no capacitor and no load on it so the true voltage could be higher or lower. I mounted the motor on a plate I had hanging around which coincidentally fitted it perfectly. It's rectified at the top with a plastic cover over it. I drilled a hole maybe 1 foot from the bottom where the wire goes through.