That really spins my turbines (dynamic terrain)

Progress has moved along steadily over the past month or so. After identifying and receiving the correct motor, I moved onto putting the structure together.

For the ‘pillar’ of the VAWT, I was able to use a *horizontal* wind turbine model – https://www.ebay.com/itm/402921959389?hash=item5dd0052fdd:g:fBgAAOSwk2FgxCCa. This ‘pillar’ is pretty much perfect for the project (see pics).

Now, full disclosure, at this point I definitely asked myself ‘Why am I putting myself through all this pain and hard work if I can just order a ready-made horizontal wind turbine?’.  Answer – a horizontal wind turbine just doesn’t ~feel~ right in a sci-fi theme.  A vertical wind turbine does.  If I’m going to do this, it’s gotta be a VAWT.  And so, I soldier on. 🙂

Next, onto where the battery pack will be stored in this whole thing.  If you go back to my original sketch up, I envisioned a small structure at the base of the VAWT.  This is where I’ll be storing the battery pack. I decided on polystyrene, as that’s what I have on hand and know how to work with.  I made quite small cuts to make a housing, then magnetized a ‘lid’ of sorts on the top for easy access while still hiding it.  I left a gap in this housing to let the wiring out, which neatly runs into the pillar through a small opening at it’s base (see video).

Next, I’ll be figuring out where to place the motor, and to eventually connect that to the blade mount.  Onward!

Once I was able to figure out how to get power to a motor in a relatively smaller package without shocking myself (heh), the next phase was finding a motor that was low RPM enough to simulate that slowly spinning motion of a wind turbine.

This was an exercise in patience and Amazon returns… I asked those who I thought would know best (hobby shops (including R/C stores), Facebook groups, hobby friends, etc).  I wasn’t able to find one solid answer, so I just kinda tried them all.  I started out with ordering a Tamiya gearbox https://www.amazon.com/Tamiya-70103-Universal-Gearbox-Assembly/dp/B001Q0Z602/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=tamiya+gearbox&qid=1619716515&sr=8-2).  This was able to give me the low rpm needed, but it was also too large and ended being much too noisy, with all the plastic gears at play.

Through this journey on Amazon (and other sites) I stumbled upon multiple lines of tiny motors and jackpot – found a tiny motor set at very low RPMs.  It took quite a few tries to find a good fit, but I found it!  You an see it here – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082GMYSH1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

All in all, I might have purchased about 6 different tiny motors.  Thankfully they’re all relatively inexpensive and I was able to return those I won’t be using.

test test

So here’s the biggest hurdle – how do I make this vertical turbine slowly spin under it’s own power, as if it were gently spinning in a breeze, creating power.

The only way I’ve been able to figure out how to do this well is by using a small electric motor .  I have no experience in this arena.  I thought the best way to get familiar with this is by purchasing and tinkering with a relatively cheap DIY motor kit used for RC planes and cars (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077WWS63B/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).

This was a great kit.  After unpacking it all, I was able to practice wiring a AA batter pack to a switch (I used electrical tape to secure connections), and then to a small motor (which spins way too fast for what I need, by the way).  I was irrationally afraid of getting shocked bad (I even googled can two AA batteries kill you – and (as anticipated) no, no they can’t hehe).

Once I got up the nerve, I flipped the switch and voila – the thing worked!  I’ll upload a video capturing the tense minute when I turned it on for the first time lol.

Now onto figuring out what I need to make a vertical turbine spin *slowly* – probably 30 rpm.