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From: gravityisweak
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  • that is cool..

  • Hi, did you ever get a workable response to your question. I knew a guy who made a water wheel of spoons. He charged car batteries with it. He used a voltage regulator and the altanater (?) from a motor cycle. It was a very simple system and he just rotated the batteries as he needed. He powered lights in his cabin and a water pump to get water to his cabin where he had a tank. Gravity feed into the cabin gave him indoor plumbing! Wish I could remember his system. I sure need that info now!

  • @brendahodgins Most of the responses Ive had say the same thing: put magnets around the rim and make them pass by coils.

  • @gravityisweak Darn, doesn't tell you how to get to the part where you get to plug something in... It gets very complicated on the videos I have seen so far. I am still going to search on and off line. I will let you in on any successful outcome. I just need to operate a water pump for aquaponics, It is windy here! I have bicycle wheels! Thank you for your reply and great video.

  • OK here is something you might look into. Consider Marine sources of electricity used on sailboats :)

  • this is really neat, I'd like to recreate this at my house.

  • You could epoxy some Magnets onto the rim and run some coils by it mounted to that post....

  • maybe you could make a wind powered bicycle out ot it

  • For ours we are using a ceiling fan motor with added magnets. We are connecting that to a marine battery and then connecting that to a inverter for the house. But we are building the wind turbine fan part with 4 inch PVC pipes, 24 inches long, split down the middle and metal blades as the arms holding the fan blades

  • It's my project youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEF­92AAEB55331709

  • Very cool

    To see more innovative videos like this or want to share your own ideas visit ThinkStageDOTcom

  • Cool, you could use one with a cog on it and chain-drive some kind of small generator. Maybe you could put a speedometer on it and see how fast the wind will spin it!

  • check out the

    "Honeywell Wind Turbine with Blade Tip Power System"

    google it

  • @yougeo It's funny, I just saw that in the newest issue of Popular Science. Guess I need to find a rim just slightly bigger than this one, and place it on the outside. Hmm.

  • locate neodymium magnets on the outside edge of the wheel, have the magnets travel near a coil and produce electricity via the lines of magnetism crossing the windings of the coil. light a small lamp or just drive a volt meter for wind speed indication...I love bike parts for their common availability and their high functionality....

  • guys would it be possible to use solar panels instead of tape, then while its spinning and the sun is on it its like double benefits

  • Take some rare earth magnets (ie) "neodymium" and attache one magnet to the end of each spoke adjustment screws. then mount a coil of copper wire with an iron or steel core between the forks. the rim would spin, passing the magnets by the coil as it spins. the amount of power you get from it (say 12volt)is determined by the amount of windings in the coil. add a bridge rectifier, battery, and power inverter. you are generating 120V AC house current. make a great green outdoor power plant.

  • TopCatCam

    Great idea, good suggestion about external magnets-you don't want anything fixed to the wheel, unless it's in perfect symmetrical balance, then you could achieve a flywheel effect, almost perpetual motion, it's certainly got potential, if the idea becomes successful, Governments will probably impose a crippling tax on the sale of bicycle wheels!

  • What happens if it rains? The tape will be damaged...

  • try adding magnets to the wheel passing fixed coils. Great looking wheel windmaill by the way

  • idk if you put a belt on the wheel it mite just slow it down...and stop it in slow wind....mybe a line of magnets on the out side of the wheel.. and have it pass by a generator...small dc current and get a converter? im not sure i dont play with wind mills im just starting out?? please message back im vert intrested

  • What you have made is called "Yard-art".

  • OMG! You need to look for the generator by Honeywell. Put these together and wow! what part of the world doesent have bycycles?  I like it

  • bickle chane extend it if you need to get the bike and use the crank assemble mount a pulley to the other side of the sprocket to run the generator head. but that is a lought of work but I would not use a bickle rim I would use an airconditioning blower whill squirrel cage - furnace blower if your not shure of what im talking about just look at the fan in your evaporator indore ac (But dont take my word for it do your own research and come up with your own conclusion)

  • dont use tape get a thin waled 55gal plastic drum make a template out of stiff construction paper cut and shape it to resemble a blade then remove 2 spokes at a time replacing them with the new blades that you cut from the 55gal drum the lighter the better alternate the spokes and the blades as you would puting on a car tire use the back tire ((replace the sprocket with a pulley whil then you can get a small generator head and run it off of a belt.)) or if you want to mount it higher use the

  • .....Sturmey (sp?) Archer dynamo hub?

  • Oooooh tooouuuuucccccchhhhh.

  • go russian style a hammer and biSICKLE

  • К такому прикрепить пошаговый двигатель от старого принтера...

  • @HWman1991 Thank you, attaching a stepper motor from an old printer is a great idea. I'm not quite sure what the best way to do this mechanically is. Maybe a belt connecting the stepper, or have it contact the wheel directly, or maybe even use the stepper motor as the bearing of the wheel. Good possibilities here, thanks.

  • @gravityisweak

    You're welcome,

  • Comment removed

  • Use small magnets around, add a stationary air core coil. If no magnetic material is close to the wheel it wont clog and will move in low winds like now.

  • genius!

    All you need is a chain and sprocket onto a small dynamo, you can use an electric motor in reverse, use a voltage regulator to even out the output. (small Voltage regulators are cheap)

  • Excellent video!You could use ur setup to run  " Partial Parts Kit for Bedini SSG Motor Energizer". . P.s John bedini sells these thro R charge you can buy thro them . . OR. . .make it with instructions freely available on the net . . or from the dvd. .parts are very cheap! let me know how ya go;)

  • put magnets around the wheel and a coil near it for power generation. bzguy from Atlanta GA, USA

  • Hey something you could add to it is.. PUT A CONE SHAPE IN FRONT!!! so it will send the air to the clear sheets.. and turn it faster with less wind! ... kinda like an old airplane nose thing! ... hope you understand lol

  • awesomeness! now i know what to do when my brother trashes his bike. lol.

  • i like your house

  • Years ago was there not bike wheels with a dynomo built into the hub for the lights? As the bike moved the wheels went round (only one wheel had a dynomo) the centre hub dynomo created electric which powered the lights, they where a bit dim, this i seem to remember in the 1970's in the UK ..

  • Nice idea-----Simple , Affordable & Sort of recycling!!!

  • клас

  • 4 magnets, a casing for it and some copper wire

  • Could also be used to power a low volume water pump directly? - the kind that a drill attaches to a means of driving. They are only a few quid (£s).

  • @matthewbrooker no not enough torque

  • I've never made a generator and have very little elect. knowledge, but I'm thinking you could line that spinning rim with all S or N magnets. Have the opposite magnet on the base, and a wire in between them that would collect that would collect A/C.

    Good luck. I like your windmill.

  • Clever

  • I don't own a dynamo and I wasn't willing to buy one just for this project, as they are quite expensive. But I'm sure it would work. I'm not familiar with a reel light system though, you're the first one to suggest that.

  • @gravityisweak This may be old news, but there was a great hub dynamo called the Sturmey-Archer 'Dynohub' that was popular a few decades ago. Bikes fitted with these still turn up regularly at household recycling centres and scrapyards. The Dynohub was often combined with 3-speed gears in the rear, but they also came as pure dynamos in the front hub. If you can get one of these, plus the forks and headstock, you get the perfect swivel mount. Just add a fin to make it weathercock...

  • you can use a dynamo hub or a reel light system

  • You should paint the clear tape with translucent paint. You could make some fun patterns and wild colours. You'd have more of a folk artsy thing going

  • Comment removed

  • put magnets on the outter parameter and set a coil on the stationary arm with a diode for DC or not, you might even set 2 coils one for - and the other + depending on how your magnets are attached, I am sure there are 100 ways you could turn it into a generator, I actualy like the simplicity of the concept. I'll have to try one!

  • Looks like it is responding to convection currents as well

  • Wow this is the most efficient windmill I've seen period, the thing practically turns with no wind, if you put some kind of wind channeler on it it might be even more efficient, try it dude, I think you're on to some thing big here.

  • I would use back rims so that you could connect several of them. If you do this vertically they will still be a will to turn into the wind if they were mounted on a swivel and a directional tail. Then you could attach magnets to the outside of the rim so that when it spins they could pass by a magneto.

  • great idea...

  • a dyno hub (i think that was the name) i had a bike with a dynamo built in to the hub .....

  • Google "Generator bike hubs"

  • You can get generators made for bicycles (designed to power a headlight for the bicycle) almost anywhere bikes are sold. Why don't you use that?

  • Magnets on the spokes near the hub and coils on the wheel mounts would do the trick. Or put the magnets on a disk (CD ROM, wood, whatever) and attach to the spokes. Coil(s) on mounts. Etc. Will require higher start up winds, depending on magnet / coil distances, strength of magnets and the like.

  • get a mountain bike wheel with gears on it..

  • pout a generator !!

  • NOW, how to draw power from this! You'll need a even # of rare earth magnets, a bike wheel windmill, a piece of wood 3" thick by 10" wide 13 inches long (for 26"rim) to get 33% of rim. You cut the wood on a band saw to the shape to look like a wood brake shoe,make174windings in 24g wire to a strip of ? and glue it to it in the curve. The magnets are glued at a equal distance inside the rim on a filler material in NSNS etc, order, mount the wood very close to the rim, wheel spins over windings.

  • As far as making that free spinning rim and tape assembly generate any electricity, (and seeing as how I do not have time to read 10 or more pages of comments to see if anyone said)... a magnet moving past a coil induces a current.... now all there is to worry about is whatever creates drag or resistance to the spinning. How many magnets on the rim, how many coils surrounding it? Good luck!

  • so briliant idea!!!!!!!!!!!1

  • <3!!!

  • Use a bycycle headlight generator, it is ac. Use a diode and a condenser and convert it todc, and charge your cell phone and perhaps a laptop...

  • I had a similar arrangement when I lived in Melbourne, AU. I used an old old hdd cylinder motor as a 3 phase generator and drove it with the rim's spoke guard band. I even built a boost regulator for charging 18V drill batteries. It maxed out at about 36 watts in a 20-24 MPH breeze.

  • @ajofscott If you've got any pictures I'd love to see em.

  • @gravityisweak Sadly I don't..my exwife considered my wind fettish trivial and unimportant, I do however still have the charger, one of the few items i returned to the USA with. I'd be more than happy to redraw the schematic and try and find the pcb layout and print them on pdf for you. If you have Ivex winboard and windraft I could send you the files themselves.

  • @gravityisweak I set a small pole and mounted my wheel on it and shot a short clip of it, it has 360 degree pivot. I have a hankering to line the rim with multicolored led's and make it a light show at night.

  • with a dynamo hub doesent work?

  • @gravityisweak you can use a dynamo hub or a reel light system

  • @ajofscott Wouldn't solar system be more efficient in AU ?

  • holy wow....thanks, friend (who sent me this!)

  • This is very dangerous, high speed = high danger

  • how much do u guys think this would weigh?

  • @andresrodolfovids Its quite light, its almost all aluminum and the rubber tire and tube are gone. It weighs only a couple of pounds.

  • how much would that weight aproximately?

  • Hi, All u have to do is get some donut shaped neo magnets and screw them on the od of the wheel and put coils on that pce of black channel u are using as a mount..If u put another wheel on the other side (now 2 wheels) you could put a tail on it and put a pillow block bearing on the channel and it will turn and face the wind with 2 props and twice as much coils the more coils the merrier wind your coils twice as much as you need and regulate the voltage..thanks for the idea's its easy

  • @jimdennett Thats a great idea, thanks for that.

  • @gravityisweak jim dennett is right on with his idea , i saw an old popular sscience mag with the bicycle wheel windmill on the front cover i wonder if any body can find it . it was about 30 -35 years ago

  • @derrick713 I know that you can look through old pop sci magazines if you add /archives on the end of their website url. It might be worth a look.

  • along with this kind of a propellor add about 3 large rotors/propellors and pick up a wind generator motor from servo motors and attatch it to this.it should generate electricity

  • @scientist375 when you say add 3 large rotors, do you mean on the outside of the rim?

  • @scientist375 yup

  • You destroyed a bike, so why don't you use the dynamo, which powers the lamp, to generate electricity

  • Pretty crafty!!! Like it and will try.

  • I have an old bike wheel with a dynamo hub. Looks like it's going to find a new use

  • you could put a belt around the outside of the rim going to some sort of electric generator like an alternator

  • Put magnets in the wheel to make it spin for ever, and you can generate electricity.

  • After viewing your video, I set out to use a bicycle wheel to generate electricity. I mounted the wheel on a wooden post with neodymium magnets at opposite ends of the wheel. When they spin they go past a coil that is hooked up to two LEDs. and generate enough to flash the LEDs when the wind is 6 mph or greater. To view my video go to EdEngelmanDOTcom Replace the DOT in the web address with a period. Steel, including nails, cannot come close to the magnet or the windmill will stop.

  • Comment removed

  • That's great. Good idea.

  • Really good idea! I like it. :)

  • You need a bike wheel with a hub dynamo - or take the bearings out and stick it on to a treadmill motor - would work well in a strong wind. :-))

  • did it work???

  • An effective low speed way to generate power is to use stepper motors with dc converters

  • Like a solar fan for a enegy saving. That good idea you make them.

  • Use several REAR wheels (I've got 4), and a chain to link them together. You can then drive a low output alternator. A motor cycle alternator works (150-200 watts) and it's got the regulator built in.

    I'm using angle iron from bed frames, one each side to mount the wheels between and fixed a gear wheel onto the shaft of the alternator and fixed it on the frame so the chain runs in line with it.

    Just gotta get the whole thing on a pole and get it to face the wind now.

  • hi...what about fixing your wheel onto and old(but working) car generator/alternator...se what it can produce! if it works well put a voltage regulator on it! maybe will work!! good luck

  • how many watts?

  • Really cool idea. I'm surprised at how easy it spins. I always thought you would need a lot of wind to make a windmill spin, but this seems to spin with barely anything!

  • Hey, it's easy enough to generate electricity out of this. As you can see, the outside of the rim is perfect for runing a long belt (kind of like a drive belt or a fan belt that you'd find in a car, just a bit longer, then attach the belt to the rotor of, say, a treadmill motor (the most common kind for DIY windmills) and then use a converter and charge controller if need be, and plug her up to a battery. I'm using this design for one currently, but instead of tape, I'm welding in old beer cans.

  • @AlisterFawkes

    a belt around the rim would make it hard for the wheel to run , no?

  • Congratulation! God bles people like u. May your brain expand forever. :)

  • Try and find a old wheel with hub dynamo. That would be the easiest way.

  • you can easily generate electricity but it wont be very powerful using that and efficent depending on where u live...

    all u need is a dc magnetic motor and mount the wheel to the shaft of the motor

  • put magnets on the rim of the wheel and a pick up coil on the post

  • find an old front wheel with a hub that is a generator... there usually on the old raleighs and are 26 inch wheel.... hope that might help at all...

  • if you use a rear wheel with a cassette on it you could use it to drive a chain and then drive a generator

  • i made 2 videos called wind turbine wiring 1 &2

  • what would help you on your way ' is use the rear wheel off an old ten speed with the gears on it' some are made of aluminum very lite and the bigger wheel will give you more mass also. then put gears on a alternator and use a bike chain.

  • with the super simple yet super sweeeet setup you got going i thing any power produced would be .......simple. like for exsample use it to power an led bank above yer garage or an small radio in a shed i dont think it would be worth spendin on wiring and big magnets. although it spins nicely w/o a load on it that could change drasticly with a load so. wow im sounding like a nay sayer but thats not it i think id try one properly wound coil on your mounting brace and small mags around the rim GL!!

  • me likes........seriously tho. i really like this....as for energy generation thats why we have google. try searching this "Renewable Energy Canada Savonius" it'll be the first link

  • just get a big rubber belt, like in cars, and put it onto the rim and then put the other end onto a small generator like an alternator with the volt regulator taken off or just a homemade one

  • ill make one and show you e-mail me at jkraftj@yahoo.com

  • does the windmill actually generate energy?

  • @SuperSnakes28 It will if I set it up properly yes. In this video it does not. I hope to have a new video up soon where I show it generating electricity.

  • @gravityisweak cool, because i am trying to to that. i already make the windmill and i am trying to hook it up so it will generate electricty. 

  • @SuperSnakes28 Awesome, If you do please make a video to show! Feel free to post it as a reply to this video, myself and a lot of other people would like to see!

  • @gravityisweak well i need to get an alternator. ma father works at an auto body shop to that wouldn't be a problem.

  • @gravityisweak yeh im tryin now

  • @gravityisweak this is just the first part of my wind turbine. Its called Wind Turbine Wiring 1

  • @SuperSnakes28 use the back wheel maybe, with chain to motor...or leave the tyre on and pumped and touch a small eletric generator to it

  • @gravityisweak now attach some magnets to the rim and build some coils to attach to the mount and see what kind of electricity you can draw from it. It would be cool to see you advance your concept to the next stage.

  • Parabéns pelo projeto.

  • Dude... use the rear wheel with the cassette drive to take the power off of the wheel!!!

  • atach a geer to it then run a chain to a generator

  • you should use bicycle wheel with hub generator. there is ready bicycle wheels that have hub generator for lights.

  • There is a relative new book out, "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind," by an African Student, William Kamkwamba, available at Amazon.com. He was raised without access to hardware stores. He used a dynamo from an old bicycle, the little generators that power the head lamp on a bicycle. It gave him enough to power a couple of light bulbs and a radio. Then he began storing the energy produced in a 12 volt battery. It wasn't just for kicks for him -- his family had no electricity in Wimbe, Malawi.

  • @cliffhammond Thanks cliff. I own a copy of that book and its an excellent read. I highly recommend it!

  • @cliffhammond William Kamkwamba actually came to our school and gave us a talk about his life and how he created his various windmills and about the draught and other hardshipps that plauged his villiage. it was really cool, and now to see that i'm not the only one who's heard of this guy

    and ya, i got the book

  • @cliffhammond

    The world is so small...I went to school with William at the African leadership academy. He indeed is one impressive and smart person. He is extremely humble as well. Read his book!

  • @cliffhammond

    Hello,

    I read this book 2 month ago, wonderful! I am a German, the book came out last winter and won a prize with the co-author.

    It gives me hope, and learned me, how luxurius we live, in the western industrie nations.

    W. Kamkwamba was a poor boy in a poor country, and he did not give up, he JUST DID SOMETHING!

    That`s a good example for all of us.

    Kind Regards

    R.

  • I assume you have an aluminium rim but even if it is steel it is no big deal. If you can get a pair of magnets (one and a counterbalance weight would do for a start) and a coil you will be able to make power (not much but enough to charge a mobile phone). Starting with one magnet and one coil will minimise the expense. A small bridge rectifier will be needed to charge batteries. Good luck.

  • buy a wheel with integrated generator in the hub.

  • @fermionsandbosons This was going to be my suggestion. Use a rear wheel with the bike chain to a motor. Just about any motor will do. Yank one out of a vacuum or a power drill from a garage sale. An electric motor and an electric generator are one in the same.

  • if you want energy the most simple way to get it would be getting an alternator and hook up a belt (or chain) to the tire and the alternator, you hook up some old car batteries and WALLAH wind power!

  • NICEEEE

    GOOD IDEA

  • very simple, very smart

  • i can see that the breeze is blowing into the turbine from where we are viewing @ 1;17....does it at anytime revolve in the opposite direction ?

  • @bontromium yes, sometimes it does if the wind is coming from the other direction, but the location of this one makes it fairly rare.

  • Hi, I find this very interesting, I am an electrician. I am going to try some stuff out with it, I'll keep u updated.

  • @SilverTissues Thanks, I appreciate it. I've made a little bit of progress with this so far but having some info from someone who knows a lot about electricity would be a huge help. I hope to have some updated videos some time during the summer.

  • All you need to purchase a bicycle Dynamo Generator Lighting Set and install it directly on rotating wheel,you will make your front lawn as bright as day light.

  • there's a youtube video called '24 volt Bedini Cap Pulser' that may lead the way how to generate electricity with your wheel mill.

    assembling 10-20 of your bicycle wind mill wheels in parallel circuit could be very interesting

  • How to generate electricity with this? Google: Bicycle hub generator. From 30 USD...

  • Would it be possible to use a brushless hub motor to generate the electricity?

  • You can get a charge from a dynohub wheel.

  • Attach a motor to the axis by welding or if you can think of a different way then use that. You could also have a seperate rod coming from where ever you mount it with the wire on it and and small but powerful magents on the spoks

  • When you have found a way to generate electricity using this windmill, you could use the electricity to power a computer fan (any fan you can find inside of your desktop

    (it uses less than 0.7A of power and produces a ton of wind). Then aim the fan at the windmill creating a loop.

    The windmill will generate electricity which will power the fan which will be used to spin the windmill which will generate electricity used to power the fan.

  • Since we already know that the windmill can spin with little wind, this might work assuming that the (windmill + generator) is more efficient than the fan.

    (Less wind more power)

  • Comment removed

  • soooooooo cooooooooooool

  • this is fantastic! You give me an amazing idea! I'm gonna make it as soon as possible... then I think I'm gonna study eolic power! XD

  • nice job. if you want to get free power from that you will need a permanent magnet DC motor to charge 6v or 12v batteries. a bridge rectifier and maybe something to gear it up like bike gears so u can get more CPM with less wind.

  • how about extending your wheel brackets out and put a coil on that black bracket with neodinium magnets mounted around the wheel

  • thanks man you really helped me .appreciate it brother

  • Another beauty! I like the idea. Congratulations!

  • Have you tested this vertically?

    For small ones like this an old 12v portable power drill can be used as your generator motor.

  • @coachgeo No! But thank you for reminding me, I've meant to get working on a vertical version. Thank you!

  • im really impressed by the simplicity of this concept.

    now go find a old wheel with a dynamo built into the hub and your onto a winner :)

  • you should cover the hole in the middle to force the air through the blades instead of simply flowing through the middle. honestly though its not going to produce much of any power. it mainly spins so freely because it has not load on it and bicycle wheel bearing are pretty good.

  • I think its picking up on thermals. warm air rising from the surface. sorta like them old angel that ring the bell using candles and a prop like thing above them, they long since stopped making that Christams Decoration, the candles produced warm air, then the warm air hit the blades as it hit and passed through the blades it casued them to turn.

  • You could maybe get a wheel with a dynamo in the hub, we have them in the uk that give you lights while cycling.

  • good idea i am going to do that because i already have the suff to generate electricity, i just needed a wheel, or a fan for it.

  • Try, placing magnets around the rim, then a wire coil at the base...