Lego Technic Weight Driven Generator

I made this Lego contraption about a year & a half ago as something educational for me & my children.

The mechanism is pretty much like a grandfather clock, a tape goes through a pulley system, the pulleys drive gearing and the gears spin the magnet rotor plates of an alternator. The electricity coming from the alternator is AC which is converted to DC by a MOSFET rectifier and schottky diode. The electricity is stored in a small rechargeable battery pack which powers a small white LED.

More info on my website;
http://www.stop4stuff.com/lego/technic/weight-driven-generator
& a discussion about my weight driven generator here;
http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2005/11/10/191155/99

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• lego generator
• lego
• technic
• generator
• alternator
• electricity
• homemade
• magnets
• magnet
• coil
• copper
• wire
• gravity
• AC
• DC
• rectifier
• mosfet
• free energy
• free electricity
• Weight
• Power
• grandfather
• clock

[headshot965]

you can use a electric motor, too

it´s much easier

[stop4stuff]

yes you can... the principle is the same, but the efficiency not

[Bazzabazeman]

talk a bit less monotonexD

nice construction ;-)

[stop4stuff]

Thanks...

I am who i am, and that includes my voice... boring voice... if you ever meet me you will find I am alot different to the way I sound.

[wondersax]

this is awesome! what did you use to convert the rotation into electricity?

[stop4stuff]

magnets and copper wire... there's a writeup on my website linked to in the 'more info' section (upper right of this page)

[tractorboy8420]

who are you ... Professer Snape?? lol cool lego! i love it!

[D8W2P4]

35% is about the upper limit of what a gasoline-powered engine is (However a Diesel-powered engine is around 50% and an Electric motor is around 90% by the way) so you aready beat what a gasoline-engine can make and all your useing is Lego's and wieghts.

[batlin]

Very creative stuff there. The power isn't that bad really - far more than the led needs at least!

[561inurface]

this vid is so interesting but i cant help but fall asleep due to the monotone narreration...

-.- ZZzzZZzzZZzz

[LordOfTheGnus]

The next step, of course, is a weight-driven car.

[evilmurderproduction]

very well done

[SuperLuigi707]

Hahaha it really does sound like him!

[tractorboy8420]

lol!

[gofojibwas]

haha yeah i half expected him to talk about bezoars