Short attention span...
...I rarely get to finish anything before starting something else.

Just got back from holiday a week ago, and of course had the p inevitable mountain of letters with see-through address windows piled up on the inside of the door.

One of which (and not the last by all means) was an electric bill.

Apparently it's late being paid, so now I have to pay a penalty (we'll see about that) - which is not surprising due to being on holiday the day after it arrived. I suppose it's my own fault for thinking that I might have actually earned a couple of weeks off, anyway...I digress.

This got me thinking...there must be some other way of generating electricity which means I don't have to pay those bastards any more.

I have several motors laying around from a variety of unfinished projects, however, after taking apart an old flatbed scanner I found a nice little 4-phaze stepper motor.

After wiring that into my little breadboard with a resistor (I had no idea how much juice was going to be generated) and an LED, I set about spinning the little bugger up.



...and woohooo - free electric. According to my multimeter it seems to generate about 60 volts!!!

If I can regulate it down to 5v and consistently, then I recon at the very least I won't have to pay those scumbags to charge up USB devices, mobile phones, mp3 players etc... at the very least.

All I need now is some way to clamp my wind blades to it (Which I shall make tonight) and I have at least made a start on the path to free electric.

It helps that we live by the sea and that it's always windy.

With any luck I'll have this finished by tomorrow so I can upload a better (more finished) picture of it in action.
(dchurch bah, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 8:08, 11 replies)

The voltage is irrelevant
(although, for what it's worth, I think your multimeter is fucked), it's the power you are intereseted in. which will be about, oooh, the square root of fuck all, by my reckoning.

You might get enough power from a small wind turbine to run a light bulb or two. They are more or less at any scale a waste of time, certainly in the UK.

Oh, and pay your bills by direct debit.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 9:00, closed)

Really?
Because those motherfuckers are putting windmills all over my county. ALL OVER! And they're planning the SEA NEXT!!!!!!!!
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 9:06, closed)

Direct debit.
If I was crazy enough to have a bank account, I don't think my level of madness would stretch to letting a utility company control how much money they took from it.

Pah - direct debit? Noooooo thank you Sir! Good luck to you with that one!
(dchurch bah, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 9:25, closed)

Do you keep your money in the freezer
or under the mattress?
(TheColonel, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 10:02, closed)

In
a safe. Which is good, because if I go to the safe to get money to pay a bill say, and I am a few quid short, the safe doesn't take another 35 quid or so off me to teach me a lesson, and then do it again a few days later because I had the temerity to ask it.


...and in the till at the local pub.

You'd be suprised at how much easier life gets when you don't have to deal with a bank. Well, you might not be suprised...but it comes to something when life gets easier by NOT using something a private company wants to sell you. Says it all about those types of private companies in my eyes.
(dchurch bah, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 10:03, closed)

I'm
not so sure it is futile.

It will trickle charge the battery overnight for the most part and the 5v devices will be charged from that.

EDIT: I've just googled for people doing similar things and there's a chap in Arizona who's running his laptop and several lights - his place is remote enough that no electric cables run there. He's using a standard 30v DC motor in 20mph winds. www.instructables.com/id/How_I_built_an_electricity_producing_wind_turbine/?ALLSTEPS
(dchurch bah, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 9:30, closed)

Regardless of the futility of your actions, as mentioned above...
I am going to give you a click of encouragement. I hate electric companies too.

*click
(The Kwyjibo A big, dumb, balding North American ape., Wed 26 Aug 2009, 9:07, closed)

It probably will be a negligible wattage,
but I'm too intrigued to care (partly because I'd be tempted to make one myself). Keep us updated on this one!

And have a click for your efforts.
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 12:08, closed)

Quite possibly,
although from having a quick google on the matter, it seems that I'm not the first by a long shot to do this.

Some people are reporting well over 100 watts with similar motors - I'm not so sure I'll be getting anything like that, but then most of the motors they are using are stepper motors. I have one, but am not using that one to start with.
(dchurch bah, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 12:11, closed)

Does anyone else see...
... a naked woman in that picture? Her head's at the top of it, and she's laying on her stomach?

I was so distracted I forgot to read the story, sorry. Give me a few minutes.
(EasilyRecognisable I’m back baby, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 12:53, closed)

Looks
more like an eagle
(dchurch bah, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 12:56, closed)