Generation Experiments
Some progress on the Dodo Automata. I’ve an Ikea frame to house the scene, some bookshelf holders to act as supports and some MDF to make the volcano and some plastic to act as the lava. I’ve also some flickering orange LEDs on order.
My plan was to have a small DC motor to generate a voltage for the LEDs. I did a quick experiment with the motor by spinning it and it only generated a tiny 0.3v which is not enough to light an LED. I did think about having a simple gearing to increase the motor speed but I don’t think that is going to be sufficient.
I took a look online and found a selection of hand-cranked generators and these all had multi-stage gearing. Most of these were either large or tricky to integrate into a project.
I do have a selection of gears that I could use to create a compound gearbox but I worry that it would tricky to make it work reliably. To save myself some grief, I’ve ordered some small DC motors with metal gearboxes. These are a better size and should be easier to mount. I made sure that the gearing was just straight gears with no worm drive. I’ve ordered a few different gear ratios so can try them out to see what voltage they generate and how hard it is to crank them.
Posted in: Dodo Automata
Tags: Electronics, generation
Metal sculpture in brass, mounted on an 1800s French Coin
