Nerdiskerator - Generator from the 3d printer

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A few days ago I posted the building instructions for a project of mine: WinDIY a 3D printed wind turbine.

Even if I still have some work ahead of me, most of the functions of WinDIY are already working. What unfortunately has not yet worked is the main purpose of a wind turbine: generating energy.

Because the generator I installed in WinDIY does not match the expected speed of the wind turbine. While the generator delivers approx. 30W from approx. 20 revolutions per second (!) The wind turbine would probably be destroyed at this number of revolutions.

Here I have to invest a few more hours at the workbench. 🙂

Since the generator works in principle and it may. there are also scenarios to which it could fit, I still want to introduce it here. At least tips for developing your own generator should be extracted from it. 🙂

And why actually "nerdiskerator"? This nickname of the disk generator comes from "NERdiys DISK genERATOR" = Nerdiskerator. 🙂

Overview

  • Disk generator than can be mainly 3D printed
  • One stator disk containing 12 manually or automatically wound coils
  • Coils are cast with epoxy
  • Two rotor discs, each containing 20 neodymium magnets 
  • Each rotor disc is supported with a ball bearing 

Pictures

Below are a few pictures of different components from different stages of development.

Videos

Development

I have documented most of the development and the individual difficulties on Hackaday.io. You can find the link here. 🙂

https://hackaday.io/project/172445-nerdiskerator-a-3d-printed-disk-generator

Electronics

In addition to WinDIY, the nerdiskerator also has a few security features.

Since the generator is made from filament the temperatures in it should not be too high, as the filament used can then become soft. This is because three NTCs are encapsulated in this to monitor the coil temperature in the stator.

Of course, some electronics are required so that these sensors can be read out and, if necessary, responded to. To do this, I started developing a circuit board on which all the necessary components are housed.

You will find information about this here on Nerdiy.de soon.

The following components are currently installed on the board:

  • Three-way bridge rectifier
  • Step-down regulator
  • Three independent charging circuits for one LiPo cell each
  • Three I2C motor drivers to control the motors of the brake actuator and the pitch actuator
  • various current and voltage sensors to measure the energy generated and consumed
  • Connections for two Hall sensors for measuring the generator speed
  • Connections for three sliding resistors to measure the positions of the pitch actuator and the brake cylinder
  • Connections for two force sensors to measure the contact pressure of the brake cylinder
  • Connections for four NTCs to measure the temperatures of the generator windings and the load resistance.
  • Connection to discharge the rectified voltage to a consumer
  • Connection and electronics to be able to connect a load resistor PWM-controlled.
  • Vibration sensor to detect abnormal vibrations
  • two temperature sensors to monitor the temperatures on the PCB
  • an electronic compass
  • a micro-SD card slot
  • a climate sensor for measuring the ambient temperature, humidity and air pressure

Software

The software is developed using the Arduino IDE. You can find the current status in the Nerdiy-Git under the following link:

https://github.com/Nerdiyde/genCtrlr

2 comments

  1. Great idea to build a generator yourself. I've also been toying with the idea of building a wind turbine completely myself for a long time.
    Regarding the generator, however, the plans in my head look a little different and I think that this would also increase the low power of your generator.
    With your construction the magnetic flux remains open. I try to explain this with simple ASCII graphics: [NS] represents a magnet, that = the coil
    [NS]=
    [SN]=
    [NS]=
    The magnetic field lines (similar to the electric current) always try to take the shortest path, whereby they spread more easily in metal (or magnetically conducting materials) than in air. In the above example, they only flow from the left [ to the right ] through the air. This represents a very high magnetic resistance and only a few field lines actually "cut through" the winding, which is the prerequisite for current generation.
    Better would be an arrangement in this form:
    [NS]=[NS]
    [SN]=[SN]
    [NS]=[NS]
    I.e. magnets on both sides of the coils. Just by holding the magnets with the opposite poles against each other, one already notices the strong attraction that arises from the fact that the magnetic flux strives to reduce the resistance that the air between them represents.

    The whole thing would be optimized if one N and one S pole were connected on the outside (opposite the coil, marked by the 3 I) and a magnetically conductive material amplified the flux through the coil, like the screw in your case (air acts like an insulator).
    I[NS]=[NS]I
    I
    I[SN]=[SN]I
    I
    I[NS]=[NS]I
    My tip for the magnets would be to use them from the good old spinning hard drives (I've been collecting them for years for my project....). I found the thickest ones in the older server disks (about 10GB). The kidney shape and arrangement of the poles are just ideal for such a project. In addition, it gets a particularly sustainable touch if the difficult to manufacture Neodyme are reused and do not end up on the garbage dumps.
    Another tip: If the screws become very warm, this is due to the loss of magnetization. You should then use transformer sheet metal. Theoretically, the ferrite rods of the medium wave antennas of old radios would also work.
    Keep reporting on your project, I follow it very interested and look forward when it "flies"!

    Reply

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