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Wind energy to electric energy

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huh , i suppose as long as they are flat , we could use them.. :D
i shall take one apart ..
what grade do ya teach?
 
this 5- 1/4 drive has lots of neat parts inside
its got
a mechanical actuator which when power is off it applies a Brake to the plattens..
also cylindrical , a platten speed indicator..
a linear mechanical slide with a little over 1 inch of travel ..
and like Foxy said it has a 400 steps/rev stepper moror driving the mechanical slide..
but alas no magnets.. :(
oh it also has a platten drive motor which could be used as a mounting mechinism for our Permenent Magnet Generator..
 
Yes, old drives can yield some good mechanics. I've a collection of spindle motors and linear rails from them, most make good, light-use bearings for other things, some (especially older motors) have too much cogging. A shame they are generally tricky to drive, not having sense outputs. Also, they don't give a useful output as a generator unless spun at silly speeds!

Some of the spindle motors have the spinning centre exposed at both sides, with the physical mounting points on a fixed outer edge. These would be good for smaller PM generator-type uses, allowing the magnet/coil assembly to be on one side and allowing easy machanical coupling to the driving mechanism on the other side.

I am head of science at a small, independent school, teaching 11 to 16 year-olds up to GCSE level in the UK.

FoxyRick.
 
I decided to make a fixture for the Armatures. This will keep them the same thickness. I plan to pour Resin around them , so when they are done i can move them around individually till i like where they are , then i can fasten them properly..
i started with plaster around the shape of my magnet. took out the magnet , poured resin into the hole where the magnet was and what i got was picture 3 , after some sanding and fileing .. i tapered the fixture so it would come off when it was done..
I started with two squares of heavy sheet metal ( from an old computer case ).. cut it with a pair of sheers.. filed and bent the edges away from the inside.. then i bent some 10-24 threaded rod for the handle ..
so now the armatures will all come out the same thickness..

Picture 3 shows the molded resin which i'm going to wrap the wire around.. i had two tapered screws all set to use on the inside to attach the handle to but then i got the idea to use the threaded rod , so now i am hoping that the nuts dont interfere with winding ..
 

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Vaibhav i see on your site you are into Marconi , I used to live right down the street from where he did his "Wireless" transmissions from..
this is a bad picture , but I wound the first armature and poured the resin in .. it will be done in the morning..
i have 80 turns of 20 gague wire on there
 

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the first pic is the face of the armature

in the second pic , Arm4 , is the side shot , as you can see , it worked !!
 

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Vaibhav Birit said:
I have a 1.2GB hard drive(gone). It has a stepper motor, with three terminals. Can this be directly used for our purpose.
sorry, i would have answered earlier if knew the answer..
 
Hi Vaibhav,

Three terminals makes it sound like the spindle motor (a brushless DC motor), not a stepper motor. It's not really much use for anything, except maybe as a light-duty, very nice bearing. Being a 1.2GB, it probably has two nice NIB magnets inside it.

Take a look here for some internal details of a modern drive, not the really old ones with stepper motors)

https://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/storage/story/0,10801,64716,00.html

**broken link removed**

FoxyRick.
 
williB said:
bryan1 said:
Eh WilliB,
I'm looking for some magnets aswell and I wonder if 15mm dia x 20mm thick would be suitable as www.oatleye.com have them under the general items page. These magnets are "Very strong NEODYMIUM IRON BORON RARE EARTH MAGNETS" quote from the webpage.
anyway I'll keep looking over here in Oz for them and if I find any I'll let ya know straight away.

Cheers Bryan1 :D
.. due to the size and shape of the ones on that site , if you stacked three in a line , with the same polarity facing up that would work..

Eh WilliB,
Eh I found some magnets finally and they are coming from the US as the Oz ones are over $22 each when bought by the hundred. The link is www.windstuffnow.com and the site is full of windpower stuff which is top reading.
Take a look mate I'm sure you'll be impressed if ya aint seen it yet.

Cheers Bryan1 :D
 
Bryan nice find..
i just looked at the site..
i really liked the ones at the bottom of the budget builders page , for $.99 cents each , thats within my budget.. :D
 
after some initial testing i seem to be getting 2 V peak to peak sine wave from four coils and eight magnets..
it is a real nice looking sine wave :lol:
i ordered some neodium magnets yesterday cant wait till they get here :twisted:
as it is now all i have are the magnets from home depot.. :(
 
update:
after reading this page
**broken link removed**
i repositioned the magnets , and now i am getting 4V peak to peak from eight coils and eight magnets..
 
Vaibhav Birit said:
Thats great.
But can you tell me two more things

1. What is the speed of rotation. Is it rotating by wind or artificially rotated.
2. What is the Short circuit current that is generated.
1)Yes it is rotated by hand , right now.. just spinning it..
2) dont know yet
It is still under test..
also if i could place the magnets closer to the coils i would get more voltage out of the generator..
as it is now , i spin the magnets and place them over the coils
i used a 5 1/4 hard drive bearings to hold the magnets in place , i hot glued them to one platten..
i also hot glued the coils to the other platten..
works quite well for testing..
 
before reading this site i had the magnets evenly spaced around the platten.
**broken link removed**
 

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ok preliminary results are..
depending on which meter i use for current i am getting anywhere from 50 to 100 mA short circuit current @ 1.2 V by just spinning the works by hand..
i am using those glass diodes because of their lower forward voltage requirements.. in a bridge rectifier set up..with a 220uF cap across the output..


i also took apart two old western digital Hard Drives 170 MB , they each had four elbow shaped "sort of" Neodymium magnets so i connected them to the previous picture..

does it seem right that with 6V peak to peak pre rectified volts..
that i am only getting about 3.3V no load rectified volts ??
 
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