All About Converting Stepper Motors To Generators
2020 ж. 23 Шіл.
112 889 Рет қаралды
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Best video ever explaining this subject. Totally no nonsense and easy to understand. Bravo!
You sir are a treasure! Just recently found your videos and am on a binge watching kick with them! Thank you so much for doing what you are doing!
To the Author, you are my favourite teacher online & I love how you use what is around you, even though most think it is ju nk, I 'save' everything hoping one day I can use it 😅 thanks heaps, always good to hear from a brit here in Australia 🌏 the 'colonies' lol 😅 keep up the good work
Man where were you 15 years ago when i had to learn everything the Hardway!!! Your videos are Brilliant, straight to the point, and very easy to understand* Thank you professor 👍 😀
cheers mate
You can figure out the wiring without a meter by shorting the wires and trying to turn the spindle/shaft. When the resistance increases with two wires shorted, you know they're both wires of one coil.
I 'love'this guy 😀 i have learnt soo much, i have a recent quote I want to share with everybody "knowledge cancels fear" thanks so much to the Author & I hope i can eventually get through all your videos 😅😅
I watched this video, although I knew already everything you were talking about. Your voice is so pleasant. One thing I would like to add to your explanation on how to find the two cables of one coil. There is a method to find the corresponding wires without any measuring instrument except your hand. Just connect two wires and try to turn the motor by hand. If it is hard to turn, you found the wires of one coil. Easy to do, but perhaps a bit more difficult to explain why this works. And a bit funny, because it already has to do with power generation. :-)
Thanks for the tip. Im gonna try that for isolating coils. I already identified it with a meter, but I don't always have that available(because i forget to plan sometimes). Good idea for a minimal survival if you need to generate power possibly too!
Really glad to hear your comment 😅 I bought a heap of large stepper motors back in the late '80's and now I know how to use them, thanks for your comment 😅😅
I really appreciated your clear and insightful explanation. Many thanks.
I'd recommend parallel wiring for small wind turbines; with the series config you'll reach the target voltage at a lower speed, but as the turbine efficiency goes up with tip speed ratio (how fast it rotates relative to the wind speed) and small wind turbines have a tiny radius so a high RPM is needed for a high tip speed, you really want this thing to spin fast. Therefore it's probably a good idea to try and wire it up in parallel so that the target voltage is reached at a more optimal RPM. If you don't reach the target voltage this way, you can always decide to go back to series. Very nice video btw!
cheers mate
Keep up the fascinating work you are showing us. You obviously stimulate free thinking, and for that I am very grateful.
Agreed. This channel is wonderful
Wow, thank you mate
I've been looking for a while to find a good video with someone actually explaining things in detail. All I was finding were two hands and elevator music with bad video quality to go by until now, cheers mate 👍 This helped loads, subbed!
I used a mid drive 250watt bldc electric bike motor and used my bike to run my 50 watt tv with super capacitors . Worked great . It was the best energy harvester i made and i think the motor was perfect as it did not require much rpm to create the necessary 12 volts for the screen . It seemed to be around 100 watt i was producing for about 10 min and got 20 min telly time ! The key to its effeciency was using a 48 v ebike motor as the rpm could be low to get 12 volts out !
that is awesome mate - thanks for sharing
Can I ask how you regulated it to provide the exact voltage? 😅 thanks
I'm learning more practical knowledge from you than 2years of military electronics training. I should have gone for fixing the motors instead of the weapons systems.
Love it. I've seen people use LEDs for their rectifiers, as those were the only diodes they had sitting around. Thought that was ingenious. Cheers!
I have done this aswell
it works just fine mate - most folks think a LED is for one thing only - but it is still a diode
Glad to know that. Thanks
would't this heavily limit the current?
Exactly what I was looking for. I want to make a small stirling engine with a small generator with an output of 2W-15W something like that. Just a small demonstrator for fun.
Robert, I caught you just in time. Your "learn away skills" must be something you have had as a profession or something, calm voice, perfect dictation... And best of all, at least for me, perfect topics for Your videos, I'm learning A LOT. You are already successfull, but the sky is the limit for you're YT success. Greatings from Norway.
Incredible Channel you have. I have learned so much. Also putting these I learned to use.😃
You never ever EVER cease to amaze! Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge. I have a largish stepper motor from a surface sander. My younger brother overtaxed it and I replaced it from the nearby DeWalt store. I kept the old one, and now I know why.
awesome mate - I did't know DeWalt used them
Great Rob, thanks! In theory rectifiers are dead easy to make, and I also know the different kinds with their pros and cons. But despite, until this day I didn't make a single one. Thanks to your reminder and your step by step tutorial I will do so and also go and repair my somehow failed crank-generator-battery-flashlight-radio.
That is everything I need thank you so much now to find and smash some printers lol
I love your Videos and the joy you have doing stuff.
Thank you for such an informative video, love your enthusiasm when the LEDs turn on!
So this is why I have been saving those 1980s hard drives
lol - that and the platters for a Tesla turbine I am sure lol
an original st506 would have a stepper motor. That was my first harddrive and i still have it. Soon the head positioning motor was replaced by voice coils which are far superior
Rob, in 8 years on this channel, we have certainly come a long way with you since the Ukulele! Cheers & be well. ;-)
I was thinking about the uke the other day. Did Rob ever finish it ?
@@trevorvanzuydam8115 It might be in line for an electrical upgrade of some kind!
@@chuckdank3869 would be fitting.
cheers mate
yes mate I did and played a tune for you lol - it's an old vid though
This is a great Video Rob! On the other hand, I feel like I'm reviewing all the projects I've done over the past 10 years lol Continue like that your explanations and the ease that you have to do the projects is great. THANKS! :)
That smile at 13:09 is priceless :D nice video, i will try it as generator for sure.
I make small table top concrete displays as a hobby. You could connect a water wheel to the stepper motor which would power a small water pump. You'd have to spin the wheel by hand a few times to charge the capacitors to power the pump to get the water moving over the wheel to get everything started. You'd do away with the electric cord or the battery for the pump. To stop the flow you just stop the wheel until the water stops. That has some real possibilities for some interesting dioramas and other displays.
So you made a perpetual motion machine? Hot dang!
Excellent video Rob. Got to love the simple capacitor and it's ability to store power. I love playing with stepper motors and like how simple you have explained everything
caps are just such strong things lol - and cheers mate
@@ThinkingandTinkering I have a few 500F super caps I should get off my butt and use, I always have a lot of projects banked up waiting for me to finish.
wow exactly. . . you have to remember to regard the two coils as independent voltage sources. I'm learning here and am always delighted with this top-level motivation. thank you so much for that. THX for the vid!
cheers mate and glad you enjoyed it
Wow, you are so knowledgeable, every video sparks ideas that lead to more questions. And I have seen you state we all learn here when someone is correct. Just an overall all great environment. Subbed for sure.
A brilliant description and love the circuit diagrams.
An easy way to find the correct wire pairs without a multimeter is by simply joining two wires together and turning the spindle. If you feel resistance you have found your pair.
you can - unless it is a small motor in which case you are not going to feel it mate - but nice post and thanks for the tip
Great Video! This is the information I’ve been looking for, and you’ve presented it in such a very straight forward way. Your very good at that! Thank you!
cheers mate
Very helpful! Thank you for this video 🙏❤️
❤ The best job and the best explanation
Very informative and valuable, surprised to see thumbs down. Many thanks, keep on.
4 wire types are common, 6 wire types are common ( simply have 2 taps in the center ), 5 wire is pretty rare and have the center taps connected together as in your diagram. ( center taps allow for cheap electronics as you don't need 2 full bridges and the dead time timing and stuff like that ) These are fun to play with. They also deliver phase information when used as generators. If you hook up a led wo diodes and turn the motor with led instead of the axis that's very visible and could be used for rotating displays and stuff. A wind turbine with adds would be fun. These are also pretty good breaks. Tie all wires together and then turn the axis .. if you can ...
I have a 6 wire stepper motor, can you explain anything you can to me about it? Would appreciate any information 😅 thanks
This is the best presentation yet involving the rectifier construction. I've taken apart some old CFL lamps to expose quite a few usable components. The rectifier is clearly visible on the circuit board. Unfortunately, the CFL is hard to come by these days. Lightbulbs (Edison base) now are all LED. Scavenging electronics has always been a hobby, but is limited by the surface mounted components in use today. When Radio Shack finally closed for good, it was a sad day. Well, they were going downhill anyway. At least components still exist online.
yeah SMDs are a pain - but eBay helps
Dick Smith also went down in my country Australia 🌏 but now can get stuff online 😅
THANK YOU for sharing this awesome info.
Something like that is what I was looking for to put on my windmills in the yard
awesome mate
Try a hover board drive motor
This was good. I've been saving these types of motors from electronics for a while. Never knew what to do with them though. Will stop throwing away the capacitors now.
throwing away stuff! that sacrilege mate lol - I joke obviously - cheers
@@ThinkingandTinkering If you saw my yard, you would know, I agree.
You just said exactly what I have bin doing, I brought 4 large stepper motors with around 1.5 deg steps back in the late '80's and now I know what to do with them😅 thanks
I love the teaching style! Clear to follow and understand the basic principles as well as the build, so I went ahead and made my own set too! What sort of amperage and wattage were you getting from yours? My current readings ended up being a dismal 0.02A, but the low rpm-high voltage output (>7V with finger turning) was really neat to play with! Hooked mine up to a voltage regulator to charge a powerbank; not sure how many hours that's going to take though!
Thank You Robert Murray Smith!👍
Just found your channel and love it - hoping I can salvage from some of my broken electronics to make some crank chargers for an emergency or just on the go!
Very informative and entertaining. Thank you for sharing!
Very nicely explained. Thank you kindly!
absolute exact what i searching 4 :) big thanks! :)
Outstanding Rob dang this is wonderful.. (especially there little spindle motors from the cd cases I was asking about) I have a few stepper motors around to play with.. I, like you, hate to throw things away if there are good parts to it.. I always take them apart and if I do not know what to do with the parts at the moment I save them for later.. You have given me many great little projects for the winter time (when I am stuck in the house) this is gonna be a great winter this year!!! Thanks ever so much my man.. I get so bored in the winter I started to play with electronics last year (it is hard to learn new tricks at 68.. I never used to be this way..) This winter will be full of fun.. thanks to you.. carry on! I appreciate all you do..
awesome mate - so I can expect a few vids from you come winter?
@@ThinkingandTinkering sure.. you think I should? well maybe just for you to peruse and critiques maybe.. I just have no idea how to do a video very well... I have one on my page but it was one of my home I made so my friends over seas could see what I have done to it.. If you watch it don't mind my grunting and groaning.. I was in a bit of pain that morning while I filmed it.. Thanks for everything Rob.. your a good man.. and if I ever get to england I will look your up..
@@tinkmarshino for sure mate - I would love to see them and look at my first videos - they were rubbish! lol - and you are more than welcome to visit mate
@@ThinkingandTinkering Thanks Rob.. I appreciate that!
@@tinkmarshino no worries mate
Well explained.great contents ❤
This is very well done. The phrasing is simple and elegant and the video shots of the hands-on work is likewise. One question I have is about the units in your capacitors you have chosen: Is it 500 farads or 500 microfarads? I know even a one farad audio capacitor is about the size of child's shoe, so I'm left wondering. Nonetheless, thank you so much for producing this video. I feel like I was invited into your shop to get a personal session of instruction.
I just found your videos, thank you this is great content!
Glad you like them!
Bloody marvellous!!! I have heaps of stepper motors and use arduino electronics to operate them and have always been fascinated by the control that one can have with them. Thanks for the possible rechargeable torch?
Thank you for this, it makes things so much more clearly understandable, the unmistakable sign of a proper teacher/tutor. I have a 12 volt DC stepper motor about a foot long and 6 or so inches in diameter that I hoped to utilize as a source of motive power. I haven't seen it in over a year, or I would know the amperage, wattage, maker etc. Can this simple circuit be of use in pursuit of my quest? Is it feasible, on the whole, to hope that this motor might serve my purpose, to propel a trike of the Morgan variety, lightly laden? I am off in a day or so to retrieve it and thought I ought to ask. By the time you answer, I should know the proper answers. In either case, thank you.
Hello Rob, great videos! I have to admit, I really got hooked up with the idea of building my own wind generator. Not for getting my whole household running of course, but for the experimenting around for fun. Idea is to have a couple of ugrinsky elements stacked on one axis with a bit offset (don't have a 3d printer 😅). A stepper motor would be my generator. Now, what puzzles me is the question if I risk burning the generator at better wind or what to keep in mind. Should I better go with the Thunderbolt generator concept and what wire diameter is good if doing so? Kind regards from Switzerland. Keep going!
Hey Robert, Here's an Idea for a video. Show The Electronics bits and pieces that you use to build your circuits for making generators usable for everyday projects. If you haven't already made a video of that. Kinda new to the channel. But am loving the content. Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi Rob this video is personal to me because in the previous video I asked exactly about this. Topic. Another motor to look at is maybe the brushless motors from the new type electric drills and also used in electric radio controlled cars. Basically a mini 3phase motor.
they are all built to the same basic design mate - if you can do a pc fan motor you can do pretty much all BLDC motors including the ones in drills. We did a conversion of a PC fan just apply that
I also want to know about using a brushless drill motor for this 😅
Excellent, thanks.👏👏👏👏 I have some stepper motors from past 3d printers so they will be used in the near future. 👍👍👍👍
awesome mate
I like it. Consider using schottky diodes for lower voltage drop and more current.
for sure mate - I am likely to do a vid on the misfit based rectifier - almost zero drop
@@ThinkingandTinkering please do- i want a bigger electrolysis PSU.
@@ThinkingandTinkering I googled that but cannot find it. I suppose thats about using mosfets for controlled recification. I never found how to do that actually. A vid would be nice ....
I did something like that. But I noticed that my generator would generate for both sides. Is that okay or have I made a mistake with the coils wire?
@@AdelsonDePaulo what do you mean with both sides?
Thanks for simplifying that. Very useful.
Glad it was helpful!
I just fpind yoir members are amazomg, so o wrote a question below cant wait for yoir i fo to get this project rocking. mamy thanks.
i understand stepper to diode to capacitor but how does it work after that? I want to use the stepper motor to charge a battery. What does the capacitor get connected to after? A charge controller? I would love a video of the next steps after what was said in this video. Example. i want to charge a 48v E-bike Lithium Ion Battery using a stepper motor as a windmill. I love the idea of the capacitor holding the charge and sending a continuous current even if the windmill isn't in motion. I am a visually learner and these videos are extremely helpful! I would appreciate any help!!!!
Excellent content as usual!
Thanks a lot, you were very helpful
I just found out that the new GM pickup trucks use stepper motors for their cooling fans, looks promising!
OMG thank you!... I have always wondered about making bridge rectifiers! Couple of questions... are there any sources of bridge rectifiers (or parts) in PC components (or even ready made) I could scavenge? AND Could I use a few (or many) super capacitors from the microwave I disassembled to get some storage to run 30 - 60 meters of 50/50 smd led strip lights?
I enjoyed the video, thanks. I have 3 NEMA 17 stepper motors on my 3D printer. It is easy to generate a back EMF when moving the printer plate. I have to be careful to move slowly so I do not zap the electronics. I have seen the printer display light up. Not good. Testing for the wire pair which is a coil is easy to do without a multi-meter. Touch two wires together and try turning the shaft. If the wires are a coil pair you will feel resistance to the shaft turning. The splined belt comes in various pitches and widths. The belt should have the type, e.g., GT2, GT3, etc., but the pinion gear will not have a label, so unless you have purchased a specific pinion gear, it will be important to check the pitch on the pinion to ensure it matches the belt. GT2 and MXL pitches are very close but not interchangeable. My 3D printer is using GT2, but my latest project is an electronic step indexer for the wood lathe and it is using MXL belt, so I have to be careful not to interchange anything. Dave.
nice info mate - cheers
Seems like a handy little hand crank generator I might be able to use something-like this thanks for sharing, if you config a Zener diode at about 5 / 6 v across the C storage in reverse bias it will regulate the V to that V and you will have a rudimentary phone charger 6v~ As long as the Zener wattage is not exceeded but I think it would be ok , you could parallel the Zener for more wattage. Regards
cheers mate
As usual Robert excellent video, keep the coming
cheers mate
I would like to see a simple design for an axial generator attached to a reciprocating stirling engine you featured a while back.
work on it!
Very nice video and very good explanation!!!
Look for outdated reprographic machines that are being replaced. On Craigslist I picked one up for free and another for 25 bucks US. they are loaded with high quality steppers and driver circuits not even close to their duty limit as well as other valuable components like capacitors and gear reduction motors. I probably harvested 20-30 steppers from these two
that is a nice post post mate - thanks for the info
Thank you too bro.. for detailed video
Those are the fingernails of a maker. :-) I love these videos.
lol - yeah - hard to keep them clean lol
Thank you very much!!!
13:10 haha i love it, i actually got the same reaction 😂 Thank you very mu h that really helps me for a University project :)
Nice to watch your vid... Can i ask ? What type motor has least friction when generating output power ? Is motor with gearbox harder to turn on shaft ?
Thank you so much....now I know how to wire it....I've been trying to find I formation on it, but it was way too confusing
Brilliant Rob !!
cheers mate
I am sure that the 5 wire motor is a cheap way to allow micro stepping so you can pulse half a coil at a time and use a micro controller to control the pulsing sequence. I assume that the six wire motors are a similar thing. Thanks for your great videos. I would like to try a wind wall. It is not possible where I live to put up a turbine on a tower without the permission of all the neighbors.
Thank you!!
Excellent, very useful again. It was pitched just right for me and my current level of understanding. ( See what I did there? Groan)
Great video! good thing i find this as i am planning on doing a wind turbine project! Just a quick question, does anyone know what was the voltage rating of the stepper motor used here? a help would be greatly appreciated! :D
Great explanation and drawings Rob :-) If you are short of components, maybe you could wire the two coils in series or parallel before you connect to the bridge circuit. You would then only need 4 diodes and 1 capacitor.
But the coils are 90° out of phase, so connecting them in parallel would be quite inefficient and could potentially damage the motor. Connecting them in series could work, though.
@@GRBtutorials Cheers for that, must confess I had not thought it through, got it half right :-)
you could do that mate - but often the coils are of different size and they are out of phase so there would be a bit of 'fighting' going on if you did that.
@@ThinkingandTinkering I should have known you would not be using twice the bits for nowt :-)
Thanks so much! Super useful and inspiring. As a novice, when thinking about applications, I wonder about how to get a feel for dangers and limitations of this sort of project... e.g., Is there any danger of damaging the stepper motor by turning it too fast?
It's why I do so many small experiments mate - you get a feel but at low cost. Some folks complain I don't build enough big things - if I did that it would bankcropt me - do a lot of small - get a feel and then do a big
Output is very impressive low rpm Great video Robert thanks man also did you know that you can use a Stepper Motor as a Bedini Motor you can use the same one you showed in this video all you need is to make the bedini ssg circuit then hook the stepper motor to the circuit 2 wires will be the trigger and the other 2 will be the power wires the power wires will be the coil with the most resistance and the trigger wires will be the ones with the lowest resistance the orientation of the wires don't matter for each coil but yes the 2 wires that go to the trigger have to go to the trigger what I'm saying is the start and the end of the coil doesn't matter just wire the 2 triggers to the trigger on the circuit and 2 power wires to power wire on the circuit and the the circuit has 2 posatives and 2 negatives so 1 set for the run battery and other for charging battery once it's hooked up just spin the stepper motor by hand give it a quick turn left if it doesn't start spinning then spin it right and you will see it spin it will hum and vibrate a bit on the table also use the potentiometer to a just the charing rate and speed and amp draw on the run battery also you can get it to go into self ossilation mode where it doesn't spin but vibrates and hums and will still charge would be awesome to see you make a video on this think it's very useful you don't have to worry about winding coils and making rotors just make the ssg circuit and get a stepper motor and 2 battery's and your good to go Cheers Mate
nice one - cheers mate
Ahh Thanks for the idea Brandon never thought of it from that perspective. Interesting to say the least will have to experiment with this. God Speed
Outstanding.
hi Robert, wondering if I connect two PMDC motor (treadmill motor) in series will it produce more voltage too?..great video cheers
Thank you sir!!
thanks a lot for this video! when using this in a windmill for example, would it be best to keep the AC to span the distance to the house, and put the rectifiers inside, close to the charge controller?
Yes, AC travels over distance better 👍
Hi! Thank you for your video, I want to control the rotational speed of the motor using a changing resistance (I read somewhere I can do that) but to do that, I need to now the rotational speed of the motor - which I was wondering if I can calculate from the power output of the motor. Is that possible? Thank you!
Great video thank you
Glad you enjoyed it
The turbine was made from what looks like drain pipe, ie half circles. Would the Ugrinsky Turbine be a better place to start experimenting. Is there an improvement percentage over the protype turbine that was used in the video.
Awesome video, I have a few large steppers laying around that now I know what to do with! What kind of amperage are you seeing with this set up?
not much mate - I was turning it by hand! Amp out put is going to be dependant on your input mate
Cant the windings be put in series as well and then use just one full wave bridge and capacitor ? ( for the higher voltage one )
If I want to connect the dc power in series would I simply connect the positive of one phase to the negative of the other phase on the load side of the capacitors? Thank you.
Thanks Sir ..... Thank you very much...😍😍😍😍😍😍
I had a LG washer. It motor was a stepper motor. Realy big. If you turned it by hand it would power the light and buttons. Realy cool
LG - must look out for one
You should see if you can find a broken hoverboard and salvage the wheel motors from it. There are a couple of youtube videos from 'DIY King' using one in a horizontal and vertical wind turbine. The horizontal turbine seemed to work well, but I think the vertical turbine needed to be geared up for better performance.
cheers mate - I tend to use what I stumble over so if one crosses my path you cane sure I'll use it lol
The better diodes to use are the Schottky diodes - they have only 0.4 volts drop. The 1N5817, 18, 19 are 1 amp, 20, 30 and 40 V PRV. Also some diodes on switching PSes are Schottky diodes. The motor with 5 wires has the common red wire going to the center taps of both coils. You must check how you connect the full wave bridge rectifiers -- they could cause a short across the windings.
you mean like I said in the video?
He's enjoying his job again.😉 👍👍👍
I certainly am lol