5w stepper motor wind generator

I've built this small wind generator to be wired into the solar LED lighting system already in place. The generator part of it is a 'stepper motor', often found in old printers and other such equipment. There is a good description of them here
, although I find it enough to simply connect a bridge rectifier unit to a pair of wires and parallel the rectifiers (there is some information on bridge rectifiers and diodes on this page.

The blades are 12" CNC carved wooden blades, I got them from [ richhagen (a t) Juno.com ] . A simple plywood hub holds them together. To grip onto the shaft I used a hub adapter salvaged from a VCR player; which has a set screw to grip onto the shaft and three mounting holes; screwed into the plywood disk. Many similar things should work, and there is ones available off ebay etc, but dont use an oversized adapter as it can lead to vibration.

The motor is mounted onto an aluminium plate with holes in it for the parts and a tail, made out of a piece of plywood, comes out the back, to point it into the wind. To allow it to swivel around, I drilled a hole in the middle and glued a large bolt in with epoxy to hold it in a tube for the tower.

For the tower with a small windmill like this it could be just about any tubing over about 25mm. The tower must be tall enough a) to be out of reach and b) to stay away from any obstacles to the wind which would cause turbulance. This does make a large effect as I mounted mine just above roof height and on a slope and even with strong winds they do not always reach it.

Guy wires to hold the tower securely are recommended. I simply bought steel cored washing line for use as cables. Cable clamps hold the cable, more secure than tying the cable. To hold the guy wires in place I used long wooden stakes hammered into the ground; screw in anchors could also be used.

Pictures;



The guy wires looped through holes in the tubing. (The ivy is because it was put up next to a fence)



A side view of the generator.



The anchors.



The back of the generator and the stepper motor I used.



A view of one of the blades.