Generator + Turbine DIY Dynamo

^ What the turbine looks like

1 Delinx STEM Science Experiments Kit

1 Pencil Eraser head

1 Cap of a stony field yogurt patch

1 Roll of double sided tape

1 Soda can tab

2 1.5V Double A Batteries*

1 Elegoo Upgraded Electronics Fun Kit

1 Pair of Nail Clippers, or a Hobby Nipper

*This was orignally supposed to be made from a solar pad from the Stem Kit, but it was a cloudly day when I was making this and therefor couldnt use it. So if you live somewhere low on sunlight use batteries.

First rinse out the cap if theres any yogurt stuck at the top. Second, take a look at it, take notice of the protruding walls keeping the plastic circle attached to the base cone.

Make sure you're in a clear area, as there will be many small and large shards of very sharp plastic that you will want to clean up after; I recommend working at a clean flat surface like a desk or table. If you really want to be careful you can put down something on the surface to catch the scraps, like a box, or cooking sheet.

Start by clipping off the largest pieces of plastic you can off of the side, the goal is to get enough open space to where you can start removing the walls which keep the outer circle attached. After getting one or two of them detached, I put on my gloves as the edges were starting to get sharp. It also helped me have a steadier grip and allowed me to tear off some pieces of plastic on my own. As your near the end the pieces of plastic you're cutting are going to get smaller and smaller, that's fine.

Once you're done it should look something like the last photo. Dont worry about any left over edges from the walls, it wont really affect anything in the long run.

First rinse out the cap if theres any yogurt stuck at the top. Second, take a look at it, take notice of the protruding walls keeping the plastic circle attached to the base cone.

The hobby nippers are much easier than the nail clipper. Just position the nippers and clip the walls. It should look something like the third image, dont worry about rough edges left over from the cap, it wont notably affect anything for our purposes.

More about nippers:

Off the bat I should say if you don't plan on using the nippers after this I do not recommend buying a pair. The majority of quality/half decent nippers are made in Japan, for Japan, and so delivery can take a while depending on your location. And given you probably already have a pair of nail clippers, I do not recommend buying any nippers for this.

Nippers are also almost exclusivity used for plastic model kits, so if that's something that interests you you might wanna buy a pair

The pair in the image is the Tamiya 123. An all star (albeit expensive) pair of precision nippers, for any in the market.

Take your pencil eraser head, take your now stripped cap, and place the eraser cone facing out into the cap. It should fit perfectly.

Now, open your Stem Kit and pull out the cube with the pole at the top and the funny little face on the one side. When you have it you should push the eraser side of the cap and eraser combination down on the pole. It might take a little force but it will slide on.

Next, wrap your soda tab in a layer of double sided tap and press it onto the cap until it sticks.

Start by opening your STEM and Electronics kit and taking out the following.

Then place your batteries into the holder*. Then, (assuming you're using the same colored wires as I am) place your black wire on the first slot on the positive column, the red wire on the first negative slot, and a blue wire directly below each.

Take the red wires from your battery and breadbox and clamp them together with your red clamp, then clamp your black wires together with your black clamp.

This will not work if the red wire is clamped to the black wire.

Take your white and green clamps and clamp them onto the blue wires (doesnt matter which), then clamp them onto your turbine (doesnt matter which end).

When you've done all this flick your batteries and it'll all turn on!

*Like I said earlier, if you live where there is sunlight use the solar pad instead.

When making my turbine I only really ran into two issues, resistance and batteries.

Because of the erasers weight if the turbine is under light amounts of physical resistance it will stop spinning, so make sure to keep it clear of obstacles.

And for an hour once I was scrambling to figure out what was wrong with my circuit - for a moment i thought the breadbox was broken, only to realize that the batteries were, embarassingly, put in the wrong way. I couldnt see which was was positive and negative because the engravings were too dark on the battery holder.

What is Renewable Energy:

Renewable energy is energy which isn't material based. Think the sun, wind, and nuclear.

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/renewable-sources/

What is the law of conservation of energy:

The law of conservation of energy says that energy will stay conserved unless energy leaves or enters the system. But in simpler terms, its: energy cannot be created nor destroyed.

Example of this is when you fuel a car with chemical energy it becomes mechanical, and then the energy is released in the form of CO2 which is then taken by trees and turned into potential energy in the form of an apple hanging on their leaves.

https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Law_of_conservation_of_energy

What is a the difference between a machine and a simple machine:

Simple machines often rely on physical forces, like motion and the such. One exmaple of this are a lever, which is a bar that flips along a fixed point when sufficient, often light amounts, of force is applied. A second one is an axel which is a kind of bar that is used in wheels; it spins as the wheels do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_machine

Complex machines meanwhile are more electronic based.

What are electric charge and fields:

An electrical charge is the magnetic charge of an electron. An electronic field how we define it when an electrically charged particals surrounds a field, often due to magnitism.

What is electromagnetic Induction:

Electromagnetic Induction is the process of electrically charged particles being charged magnetically.

What are electric circuits:

There's a lot about this very vague question to answer, so instead ill talk about what I understand the best in regards to it: Why batteries need both a positive and negative side.

The voltage - which is also known as electrical potential difference- is what pushes electric charges to move. The voltage is created by having some kind of difference between these two points: a positive terminal (higher potential) and a negative terminal (lower potential).Electrons, which are negatively charged particles, are repelled from the negative side (because it's full of electrons) and attracted to the positive side (because it has a deficiency of electrons). This movement of electrons from the negative to the positive side is what creates electric current.For current to flow, the circuit must be complete, meaning there must be a path that allows electrons to travel from the negative side, through the circuit (where they do useful work like powering a light bulb or a motor), and back to the positive side of the power source.

What is Ohm's Law:

Ohm's law is an equation that defines the relationship between the values of a current, resistance, and voltage in a circuit. Say maybe my turbine isn't working for some reason, what I can do is I can find if one of the three values in Ohms law are off in one way or another, and I can accomplish this now by using the triangle.

An illustration of this can be found here: https://www.eimtechnology.com/cdn/shop/articles/what-is-ohms-law-calculation_1.webp?v=1710797283

The only things I would change about my turbine is the power source. I unfortunaltey as mentioned could not find a time where it was sunny enough to get my turbined solar powered, but besides that I think it was pretty alright.

Klein, M. (2015, September 17). How to Use a Breadboard. YouTube. Retrieved March 8, 2025, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WReFkfrUIk

Starting Electronics. (2023, January 12). Tutorial 1: Building a Circuit on Breadboard for Beginners in Electronics. Starting Electronics. Retrieved March 8, 2025, from https://startingelectronics.org/beginners/start-electronics-now/tut1-breadboard-circuits/

Tutorial 1: Building a Circuit on Breadboard for Beginners in Electronics. (2023, January 12). Starting Electronics. Retrieved March 8, 2025, from https://startingelectronics.org/beginners/start-electronics-now/tut1-breadboard-circuits/