Nicole Zurita Wind Project

Simple wind energy project, using an old Compact Disc as a propeller, a 12 volt DC motor, LEDs, mini switches, some cables, cardboard, an unused board and a great desire to make it work as a school project.

Safety notice: The entire project must be done with the help of an adult.

Materials.

• 1 old Compact Disc or DVD.
• 1 Table 30 cm x 38 cm.
• 2 mini ribbons 20 cm x 3 cm.
• 1 DC Motor 12 volts.
• 50 cm cable.
• 1 red LED (it can be the color you prefer).
• 1 green LED (it can be the color you prefer).
• 2 mini switches (from old toys).
• a cardboard box.
• paint to your liking
• 3 to 5 screws.

Tools

• 1 cutter (for adult use).
• 1 soldering iron (for adult use).
• 1 metar ruler (for cut the cardboard, for adult use).
• meltable silicone (with adult supervision).
• pliers
• screwdriver

You can use a 30 x 38 cm board, but this will be up to you as to how big your project will be with all the trimmings. Then you must screw the 20 cm slats, in my case I used 2 forming a "T". You could use one depending on its thickness and whether it is capable of supporting the DC motor.

The screws must be for wood and ensure the fixation according to the thickness you selected for the wood.

Another point to consider is whether you will put a small wooden base on top of the mast. It might not be necessary if you are going to use a thick strip, in my case I preferred to place a small wooden base to then glue the DC motor.

The base of the DC motor can be made of cardboard, securing the DC motor with another piece of cardboard that covers it. The measurements for this depend on the size of your DC motor. All the cardboard must be glued with meltable silicone (hot silicone), I don't know the name of this type of silicone very well in English, sorry about that.

After having the base ready and the motor fixed, you could paint everything before starting with the wiring and the house.

Making the propeller

We use the CD as a propeller, for this we must make 8 cuts with the cutter, according to the image. Then using a candle at a safe distance and in my case no more than 2 to 3 seconds, heat the base of each blade and gently bend it, remove it from the lit candle and let it cool. Remember to look at each blade to adjust and leave each one at the same distance.

Important: Make each cut here up to the first line of the central circle. You should not cut beyond the gray circle, to ensure sufficient clamping space for each blade.

Then you must cut 4 cardboard circles, the same size as the central circle. You use 2 on each side, with the objective of fixing to the motor shaft.

I used the reference of "The CreativeOut" on their YouTube channel "Como Hacer un Ventilador Casero con un DVD". Thanks The CreativeOut for your great video!!.

After gluing the DC motor to the mast, it is time to place the Propeller on our motor. You must use the cardboard circles, make a hole in the center and then glue it to the shaft of the DC motor using silicone.

In my case I used a lot of silicone to adhere the propeller to the DC motor, and I let it dry for more than 15 minutes before turning it manually. This fixation is important, since if it is not firm, the propeller could come out of its place when we spin it.

It is important that the propeller does not touch anything when rotating. Any contact with one of the blades could completely damage it.

The electrical circuit in the image is quite simple. We will connect the negative pole directly to the negative of both LEDs. We will pass the positive pole through 2 switches to control the switching on of the LED that we want to make shine.

We could think about using an electrical resistor for each LED, but I decided against it, since the brightness dropped quite a bit, perhaps I didn't have the right resistor. Anyway I made sure to check the voltage generated and we managed only 2.1 Volts maximum.

I did this school project with my daughter, we had a lot of fun checking out the benefits of wind energy. She quite enjoyed running this with a hair dryer (cold mode so as not to melt and destroy our propeller) and watching the LEDs she selected light up. It is important to consider that when selecting both LEDs, they will shine less.

She decided to make a house and decorate it with her mini friends "Star Monsters", assuming that they are the workers of the electricity generation plant. I must say that she always has great ideas.

This is a fairly simple project if we have the right materials, the key is always to use a good propeller that achieves sufficient speed to generate an LED voltage. There are many tutorials on YouTube for this, the most important thing is to do it in good company!!

A simple video showing the red LED and spooky lighting of our little friend Star Monster.