Old PC Fan ----> Wind Turbine in 10 Minutes

I looked at some old PC Fans I have and thought that they can be used as Small Wind Turbines.

It has been my dream for a long time to make a wind turbine generator even to light an LED.

The PC Fan is Brushless DC ( BLDC) Motor. It can be converted to a generator in 5 Minutes.

This is my website:

AeroArduino.com

Here is my Channel on Youtube:

AeroArduino

Banggood

eBay

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Deutch

Amazon France

Aliexpress

eBay

I also found this little great tool on eBay for only $36 from here

Stuff you need:

PC fan : old or new from Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR, Amazon ES, Amazon IT or eBay

Amazon Egypt (Souq), Jumia Egypt , Aliexpress

Crocodile Clips from Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR, Amazon ES, Amazon IT or eBay

Amazon Egypt (Souq) , Aliexpress

Soldering Iron from Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR, Amazon ES, Amazon IT or eBay

Amazon Egypt (Souq) , Aliexpress

You can read this article in Arabic in my blog arabic-embedded-egypt.blogspot.com

يمكنك قراءة هذه المقالة باللغة العربية

http://arabic-embedded-egypt.blogspot.com/2014/02/blog-post.html

يمكنك قراءة هذه المقالة باللغة الإنجليزية

You can read this article in English on my blog embedded-egypt.blogspot.com

http://embedded-egypt.blogspot.com/2013/07/pc-fan-wind-turbine.html

Further and future work :

I want to try these ideas

http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wind_Turbine/Howard_Community_College/Spring2012/p1502sid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_wind_acceleration_turbine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEreOk1OS5A

Step 1: Concept

The concept is simple. You can skip this part and start directly with the conversion.

The BLDC motor used here has a stator winding and a Permanent Magnet Rotor. The motor is supplied by 12V DC. But the magnetic field rotation is generated by electronics ( Electronic Commutator ) . As the name implies , the electronics components convert DC into AC which makes the magnetic filed in the stator rotate.

The electronic commutation is achieved by a small IC.

To get the induced current from the motor used as a generator , you must remove this IC .

Step 2: Disassemble

This is what I 'll show you how.

First remove sticker on the back of the fan.

Then you 'll find a small piece of plastic lock that holds Fan shaft secured , Don't brake it. Remove it with a crocodile clip...

This crocodile clip is very useful in this job. Many people have been asking how would they remove this plastic lock and I've answered them that they can easily use the crocodile clip to do it without breaking it.

Amazon Deutch

Aliexpress

PC Fan at Jumia Egypt , eBay

Step 3: Winding Soldering

You can see 4 poles of winding connected in series and have only 2 terminals. To get the induced current , connect supply wires to those terminals and let the fanrotate.

With a solder iron , gently remove solder under IC pins and then remove the IC.

Remove any surface mount resistors or transistors.

Remove the supply wires form there place to put them in the holes of the removed IC.

Connect the supply wires in the winding terminals .

Make sure that you connect the terminals ( from which you will get the generated Voltage ) in a way that makes the two sets of winding connected in series.

PC Fan at Jumia Egypt , Aliexpress , eBay

Step 4: Final

Assemble the fan in its place and lock it with the piece of plastic I told you about.

Put back the sticker.

Connect LED terminals to the Supply wires. Don't worry about +ve and -ve terminals , the LED will light if you connect it any way , trust me.

Roll the FAN

This video shows the fan in action. I connected a voltmeter to see the output voltage.

Video is in the frame on the upper photo. And you can also find it here

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152946131930113&l=317628537734358881

Here is a video that summarizes it:

Here is the link to the project on my blog

http://embedded-egypt.blogspot.com/2013/07/pc-fan-wind-turbine.html

كما يمكنك قراءة هذه المقالة باللغة العربية من على مدونتى

http://arabic-embedded-egypt.blogspot.com.eg/2014/02/blog-post.html

http://idea-arabic.blogspot.com/2014/11/blog-post_26.html

This is my new website:

AeroArduino.com

I saw a product sold on Amazon that uses the same concept to charge the phone and MP3 using the wind energy

I also found this little great tool on eBay for only $36 from here

Thank you for reading my instructable.

You can also find my book Learn By Making on Amazon website.

You can read it for free if you join Amazon Kindle Unlimited program ( Free Subscription )

Thank you for visiting our instructable.

Here are some of my latest books on Amazon.

Learn By Making

Backyard Wind Turbines

Comments

[Marhab24]

I want to generate constant current

[gordon04]

nice idea bro

[ahmedebeed555]

Thank you.

[Ishpreet SinghB]

So what to do exactly with the circuit? Mine doesn't have any resistors or transistors. The IC has 4 pins, but there are only 2 supply wires, one positive and one negative. Where should I connect these wires?

[ahmedebeed555]

You are welcome.

[tornadp77]

Is that generating AC or DC ?

[ahmedebeed555]

It's generating AC.

[Yegana]

what should i do now?i want to make little wind generator like you.can you say me next steps pls?

[AdamB259]

Thanks Awsome project. I used a 40v model AD1248HB fan. Easy project for begginers. That said: begginers to remove the chipset/coil just wiggle it left to right it will come out after sometime, but be carfull not to pull the coil wires of when you manage to pull it loose.

[CaleyG2]

I'm trying to remove the coil from this NMB 3612KL-04W-B66 fan frame. I have got the blades off just fine but I can't seem to get the coil out of the frame.... It seems to be pressed into the plastic?

Thoughts?

[CaleyG2]

well it seems the coil and frame were one assembly. I ended up just breaking the legs, which will probably be better because I can remount this to orient it horizontally to be omni directional. However I'm looking at the back of this board, and it looks nothing like the picures... are all these IC's gonna be a bad thing?

[CaleyG2]

well it seems the coil and frame were one assembly. I ended up just breaking the legs, which will probably be better because I can remount this to orient it horizontally to be omni directional. However I'm looking at the back of this board, and it looks nothing like the picures... are all these IC's gonna be a bad thing?

[dianadfonseca]

Thanks for sharing! can this fan light a strip of LEDs?

[chakra]

hey! you just blasted away my headache of "what to do with the circuit"!!
now all i need is a AC-DC converter (may be a bridge rectifier will suffice), a small battery (mobile LI-ion batt..?) , an output terminal and a mounting frame. and voilà! I have a travel charger for my phone!

[RyanC168]

I believe this fan would create DC current, and your phone charges on DC current as well. Wall chargers take in AC and convert them to DC so that your phone can use them, but PC's usb output etc all is in DC, including the usb portable battery chargers etc.

[marierose31]

can we use this to charge a 100AH lead battery?

[Jonathan42]

well, not really. first you have not defined the voltage of the battery but I infer 12 volts. Second, while it will put out electricity, it might not be even enough to counter the natural loss of a lead acid battery (like a car battery) so you would need a number of these to have any measurable effect.

[RyanC168]

You totally can. You have to test the voltage and amp output, but you can certainly string the same size fan together in series or parallel to achieve your desired results to break the resistance threshold, etc. :) Happy Energy!!

[ironbil]

Can someone remake this adding a video with all the details??

[drogar3]

I am trying to do with old manhattan 7.5cm pc fan 12v DC, doing motorized servo for my beam for cctv camera. Is it possible to do it without programming. I searching some tutorial but no luck. Sorry for my of Topic!