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Joined: 01/10/2003
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Posts: 52

Posted: 06:42pm 30 Jun 2006

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First of all I'll start off by saying GREAT SITE! I've completely enjoyed reading through the site and this great forum. Got lots of great ideas from it, and the projects presented here are very inspiring.

I've been interested in renewable energy sources for many years, but never done anything about experimenting with it. I really like the idea of building my own permanent magnet generator... the whole "scratch built" concept really appeals to me.

I also just love the "stepper motor" generators. What a great idea, and a remarkably easy way to get into the hobby. Since reading this article, I've gone through my pile of old junk parts in the basement (can't seem to bring myself to throw any of these things away as I always seem to find some use for one part or another), and was amazed at how many different steppers I came up with. I pulled them from an old Fujitsu DL1200 dot matrix printer, a Commodore 1541 disc drive, an old 20 meg IDE harddrive and an old 360k IBM floppy disc drive. One of the steppers even had a rating of 12v/1a

This is going to be my first project as I'd like to build a few different stepper powered wind turbines for the fun of it. Maybe a even a whole windfarm of them! Heh.

Anyways, I'm having a great time with this. Haven't constructed anything yet, but am getting geared up with the parts I need to get on with it.

Thanks for the site, the forum, and the valuable information!

Sincerely,
Thomas Christoph

Gizmo

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Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 5107

Posted: 08:31am 01 Jul 2006

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Hi Thomas

Thanks for the comments about the web site.

The little stepper motor windmills are good fun. You can throw one together in a afternoon, and they cost nothing if you have a few bits of PVC and timber floating around, plus a stepper motor of course.

The only problems with them is rust and noise. I suggest you paint the motor, or mount it in a tube to protect it from the weather. Add a few drops of oil to the bearings occasionally, they tend to fill with water and rust up. Some stepper windmills can make a slight whistling noise when they run, if you get a noisy one just mount it further away

The old DL1200 printer must have been a popular unit, I've junked a few over the years, good stepper motors in them.

Glenn

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ

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