Motors are fun, and high voltage even more so. We’re guessing that’s what went through [brazilero2008]’s mind when he put together an electrostatic motor using upcycled parts he found lying around.
The electrostatic rotor works by connecting a very high voltage, low current power supply – in this case an industrial air ionizer – to a set or rotors surrounding a plastic rotor. The hot electrodes spray electrons onto the rotor, which are picked up by the ground electrodes. If the system doesn’t arc too much, you have yourself a plastic rotor that spins very, very fast.
[brazilero]’s device is made out of an aluminum turkey pan, a few acrylic tubes, and a few cardboard disks; all stuff you can find in a well-stocked trash can. After completing the device, it was taken apart and finished and screwed onto a beautiful painted jewelry box. Very cool for something you can make out of trash, and dangerous enough to be very interesting.
This is an awesome project. It seems like just the thing to build with the kids to get them interested in engineering.
I also like the use of the word’upcycled instead of recycled.
What are the torque characteristics for a motor like this?
why do you say upcycled when you really mean recycled. what use case do you think the word recycled isnt good enough for?
why do you say hot when you mean live? the electrodes are not heated.
why do you have to add the point that you could build it out of trash?
I certainly dont have an ionizer in my trash, or any acrylic whatsoever.
Oh wait, the original article says he got the plastics from the scraps bin at a plastics store. so not trash then, other peoples offcuts that he probably had to pay for.
i have never seen a used anything used to cook anything look as clean as that one did. clearly because it had never been used.
I found the troll!
nah his name’s not fartface
his name is the sound fartface makes when he whistles.
spooky. “doo doo – doo doo – doo doo – doo doo”
He has a point though, articles are often too much fantasy, too little fact. For example when every board containing an AVR automatically gets called an Arduino.
To be fair, if it’s an ATMega chip in use it usually does get programmed using the Arduino IDE because of all the wonderful libraries that already exist for things.
soooo true. never change. :)
Just to feed the troll once and educate those that may not know the difference. Upcycle isn’t a word I’ve used before, but it is more relevant than recycling.
Repurpose (upcycle): to use an item for a different purpose than originally designed for. example- using the plastic off of a bottle to build something with, Using a tire for a swing.
Reuse: to reuse an item again.
example- reusing a water bottle to put water back in. Using the tire with no tread on a trailer or vehicle that isn’t for road use.
Recycle: To use the material in an item to put back onto the supply chain again.
example- to shred the aluminum and plastic containers to be remelted and create a new item. shredding a tire for use as playground padding or mulch replacement.
Recycling is the least efficient use of material, but much better than going to a landfill.
I think you are narrowing some defenitions there!
The waste hierarchy that most are familiar with is “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”
I suppose you could argue that both upcycle and downcycle are ‘methods’ of recycling, however the words themselves are superfluous as the ‘method’ is defined by the process: everyone already knows if its ‘upcycling’ or ‘downcycling’ without having to explain the made up-term (which as we see here, even self proclaimed experts don’t really know the defenition!).
What we could do is only use ‘upcylcing’ to describe trash decorated transformed into gaudy plop sold to idiots at exuberant prices.
Actually we should just not use the word because it has no purpose.
yum yum thanks for feeding me!
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/upcycle
Oxford and google disagree with you, it is a word.
First of all OT – successful troll is successful(pff).
Second. Awesome project! :) I want to know more about characteristics of that motor, of course if You already measured? Like current consumption? By analogy power consumption? Voltage? Rotor inertia? Electrical efficiency? Mechanical torque? Torque vs. speed graph? Why I’m and another people asking this? Because from that characteristics we can think about using in not only for demonstration. But now I have no clue where this can be useful :/
Maybe HaD users have any thoughts? :)
I too would like the info mentioned above ^, particularly torque and power consumption.
Gotta love HAD, the best place to chase trolls down rabbit holes..
I failed to notice that a lot of this info is on his build page(go figure). Although something with more details would be appreciated.
I’m sure every radio operator within 20 miles is in love with you when you run that thing :)