instructables

DIY Wind Generator

by DIY KING 00

generator from scratch.

The whole idea is to built a small wind generator

//www.youtube.com/embed/TyyTykEkc1E
using relaible techniques and the stuff thats best
suited to serve the purpose while gathering all the
material from the hardware store or a junkyard.

The idea of generating electrical energy using the

Well time to get our hands dirty.
wind energy always attracts me. So now being a well
equipped DIYer its time to built the first wind

https://youtu.be/TyyTykEkc1E

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Step 1: Material and Tools

The following list of materials and tools is what we need to get our idea into reality but the goal is to get the job
done and thus can vary.

List of material used in this project:

Old hoverboard
6 inch PVC pipe
5mm round metal platees
1 inch metal strips
Ply wood
Nut and bolts
2 inch galvanize pipe

List of tool used in this project:

Hand drill
Jig saw
Angle grinder
Soldering iron
Pliers

And some other hand tools...

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Step 2: The Generator

Yes the generator, for that we have decided to use a in good condition but just to make sure they are in
brushless hub motor and the one that we found was working condition, mount the motor on a bench with
from an old hoverboard, as these days you can easily the shaft using a clamp. Now attach a 12v bulb on
find one arround in a scrap yard. The reason for using any two of the three thick wire and give the motor a
a permanent magnet hub motor is the fact that you quick spin by hand. The bulb should make a decent
dont need to worry about the brushes wearing out as glow , now you can do that with the other remaining
in a brushed motor and their effiency, which is far wire as well.
better than a similar size brushed motor.
Next, we dissassembles the motor with the six flat
Besides that these hoverboard motors can produce head screws on the back of the motor. Pull the back
good voltage even when handcranked. Now this plate and remove the tyre with a screw driver. Now
factor is important for a wind generator as even with time to step on the casing and pull the stator using a
slight gusts of wind we can get voltage that can get plier , sure you are going to need some fore doing
the system working. that.

Now with all the factors in mind we have Once the rotor and stator are seperated,
dissassembled a hioverboard and get our hands on
one of the motor. Most of the times these motors are

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Step 3: Blades Adapter

To get the motor spinning , we need to translate the discs.

wind energy into mechanical energy. So to make the
motor spin we need to mount the blades on the hub A template scetch later we did a bunch of holes that
motor and for that we are going to need an adapter. are going to help as mount the discs on the hub motor
and hold the blades aswell.
Now the adapter is made of two 3mm thick steel
plates with a diameter of 6 inch. The blades holder With a paint of coat all the parts are ready for the
are going to be 1 inch wide 5mm thick steel stripes assembly.
that are going to be sandwitched between the steel

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Step 4: Assembling the Blades Adapter

While assembling the adapter make sure that everything is as balanced as it can be because if its the otherway
arround than bearings are now going to last much.

Once we got the adapter assembled on the rotor, we reassembled the motor and this time we cut of the five thin
wires as they are useless in our case.

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Step 5: Main Holder

To hold everything together we are going to use a 2 holes for that as well. Now for mounting that bar on
inch wide 7mm thick steel stripe. We are going to the moving platform we have to get a 36mm hole
mount the hub motor by using a pair of adapters that almost across the centre of the stripe, this will allow
the motor is mounted with on the hoverboard and for the head of the main bolt to be tightened across the
that we have drilled four holes. whole assembly.

The other end is going to hold the tail so two 6mm

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Step 6: Moving Mechanism

Now to keep the blades into the wind we need a Now to mount this moving assembly onto the pole we
moving mechanism. To save us time and money and made a pair of adapters out opf two 4mm thick steel
lots of machining we adapted the hinge mechanism of plates with a diameter of 4 inch.
the hoverboard that allows the board to get tilted in
either direction for turning the board. One of the adapter plate will be welded to the
mounting pole on the roof top with the other one is
We first cutoff the centre piece off the hoverbaord going to be sandwitched with the moving mechanism
body, split the connecting rod into half and with a to mount the whole assembly on the mounting pole.
bunch of holes our moving assembly is ready.

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Step 7: The Tail Assembly

In order to make the tail for wind turbine we are going to need a piece of 10mm plywood. We cut a triangular shape
and mounted using two 5mm metal plates. The tail holder is going to be a hexagonal rod which is going to get the
tail mounted on the main plate.

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Step 8: Blades

The blades are made out of 6inch Dia PVC Pipe. No The blades were 40 inch in length and yes the most
calculation but just a good assumption to get things important piece of advice, make sure you use the
going. The blades were cut down using a jig saw, heaviest gauge of pipe and cut all the blades with the
could be done with a handsaw as well. Each blade is taper/pitch in the same direction.
5 inch at the widest part and nearly 2 inch at the
narrow end. Both the ends were trimmed to give them
a nice shape and make them spin smoothly.

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Step 9: The Paint Job

In order to protect our wind turbine from rust we are going to paint every thing using the matalic black spray and
that gives the wind turbine pretty nice look. Simple as that....

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Step 10: The Final Assembly

With paint dired, we assembled everything together between their tips. Finally the tails assembly is
starting from the moving mechanism. Once the completed and yes with that being done the generator
moving mechanism is assembled we temporarily is ready to convert gusts into sparks .... Yes we need
mounted in on a wooden baord that is clamped to the some more work to gut those sparks into useful form
table. Next we mounted the hub motor on the main of energy.
plate. Later the blades were mounted again making
sure that they are well balances with equal distance

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Step 11: Rectifier Unit

Remember three thick wires poping out of the hub price right at your door step.
motor, yes its a three phase brushless motor and thus
its going to produce a three phase Alternating current. The Design Files for the rectifier unit can be uploaded
Now to convert it into DC volatge (More useful form) on JLCPCB and after going through a bunch of
we have designed and built a customized three phase options you can easily place your order.
rectifier unit.
We recieved the boards within a week and the quality
To make it as neat as the rest of the parts, we is flawless. We than gathered all the parts and
decided to built the rectifier unit on our own sottered them on the PCB.
customized Printed Circuit Boards. Now this
customization is made possbile by JLCPCB, one of With that being donw our rectifier unit is ready to be
the largest PCB manufacturer in China, proving a attached to the generator.
vast range of soultions for manufacturing your
customized Printed Circuit Boards at an outstanding

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Step 12:

In order to mount our wind turbine unit we are goint to use 3 inch diameter galvanize pipe. The lower end of the
pipe is mounted using two metal brackets on the floor and on the upper end of the pipe we have welded the 5mm
thick metal plate to get the flat surface

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Step 13: Final Results

With the rectifier unit attached to the generator, the nearly 5 to 7 m/s. Now that is our first attemp at
generator is mounted on top of our roof.Its nearly 40 building a wind generator so we are looking forward
foot high with decent clearance all arround. to built a bigger one so get some more energy out of
the winds.
Now the rectifier unit coupled with a buck boost
converter is allowed to charge a 12v lead acid battery Hope you like the projects.
to act as a load for the generator. The generator
started spining with moderated gusts and started Regards.
charging the battery.
DIY King
The generator is able to produce nearly 150 watts of
power (12-15v at 14-10 Apms) with a wind speed of

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Brilliant. Watched the video, glanced at the rest and came away significantly impressed. Wish I
lived down the road from you guys!
Great idea to make a wind generator, but if you like how your hands are configured please clamp
the metal plate to the vice table. If the bit catches the plate your hand can not stop it from spinning
causing major cuts to the hands.
You are very smart nice build how did you connect the wires down the pole to the battery so wire
doesn't twist around pole? Are did you make it so it doesn't spin around when wind changes
direction! did I miss something you should consider using dust mask just a helpful hint from your
old buddy Vern! Nice job!
You are very smart so if you want to be a old smart guy GET SOME DUST MASK! When you get
old it's nice to be able to breathe! Very smart build did you make your own plan?
Wow. Excellent. I dont have the skills to build this but I enjoyed reading about it. The blade design
is beautiful. Thanks for posting.
Maybe I'm missing something, but at minute 7:20 in your video you can see that your stator is
rotating somewhat independently of your rotor so that at high speeds the stator and the rotor are
spinning together. That's going to completely wash out any current generation of the device.
Great project and a good design very well done. Thanks for sharing.

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The power output is stated as 5-7 Km/s , at 7 that's 25200 Km per hour, quite a windspeed. I think
you meant 5-7 meters/second. Regardless, nice project and 10 amps is respectable.
Excellent project! I admire the way you took items that might be thrown out and repurposed them.
Also, the PVC fan blades are genius, in my opinion. I would never have thought about that. Good
work, men. Looking forward to your next project...

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