LED LIT GARDEN WHIRLIGIG USING WIND POWER.

For home and garden ornamentals and rotating flowers or birds I thought I would add some lights which would be seen at night .Then along came the new LED contest which initiated a flash of get busy -- So I wanted to have a novel method of lighting a LED other than a battery. I used an old VTR recorder motor to generate energy to light a LED when the propeller turned in the wind.That is it.[[Video(Propeller rotation turns motor/generates 2 volts for LED).

Step 1 MATERIALS/TOOLS

Motor- Use the main capstan drive motor from old tape recorder.It runs on 2 volts. ,Resistance 30. ohms. Clockwise will produce about 2 vdc, at 40milliamps. Enough to light a 2v Led.Rot.=60rpm.

Aluminum sheet 12 to 20 mils thick.I used left over Al house siding.
Central rod. A skewer .075Dia.x15 in. long [Dollar store} Has a wooden handle for tail fin.]
Wire to mount device- Coat hanger wire .062Dia.x 10 in. long.
Propeller Hub. Block of Foam Polyurethane 1 in. thickness to cut out 2 in. round. Can use wood too.
LED- any color. I used red led 2v. 20ma. from Rad Shack. The longer lead is plus connected.
Screws/nuts- 6/32 x 1/2 in. long to adhere the motor.
Large rotator 4 in. diameter pop bottle. Smaller size can be a pill bottle 2 in. dia.
A bottle cap and an inner corked wine stopper.
Pulley- rubber band. I used a ladies hair rubber band.
Tube- mounting of prop on tube and slid onto above skewer.
TOOLS- E6000glue. as required to hold prop blades into the polyurethane Hub.
Epoxy paste- Spread over exposed Hub to seal from water=rain.
Scissors . pliers, screwdriver.small clamp to hold prop at front of axle skewer.
Soldering Iron 40W. and 60/40 solder. To connect motor to Led.
Paint or decals.

Comments

[kdjo]

Si usas un diodo (1n4148) en serie y un capasitor de 1000mf en paralelo con el LED logras que se mantenga con brillo aun en condiciones de bajo viento y no necesite tanto viento pues el capacitor guarda la carga mientras no hay viento pero no por siempre If you use a diode (1N4148) in series and parallel 1000mf capacitor of the LED you manage to stay bright even in low wind conditions and will not need as much wind as the capacitor stores the charge while there is no wind but not forever

[mistic]

good info [kdjo] i will modify it to add the 'lytic and 1N4148 . my biggest problem now is getting the right pulley material that can last a long time outdoors. I am trying an VTR cord now as it seems rugged.

[mistic]

I added more propeller area about 10 sq. in. Now the prop will rotate at 10 MPH wind speed to lite the LED.

[mistic]

hit by a 60 MPH downburst storm 6-19-09 . Im happy to report the whirligig not only survived but also generated enough voltage to really light up the LED. I also added a green LED and they both lit up nicely in the rain storm. Mistic