Levitating Lego Generator Runs On Air

[Jamie] decided to build a generator, and Lego is his medium of choice. Thus was created a fancy levitating generator that turns a stream of air into electricity. 

The basic concept is simple enough for a generator—magnets moving past coils to generate electricity. Of course, Lego doesn’t offer high-strength magnetic components or copper coils, so this generator is a hybrid build which includes a lot of [Jamie’s] non-Lego parts. Ultimately though, this is fun because of the weird way it’s built. Lego Technic parts make a very crude turbine, but it does the job. The levitation is a particularly nice touch—the build uses magnets to hover the rotor in mid-air to minimize friction to the point where it can free wheel for minutes once run up to speed. The source of power for this contraption is interesting, too. [Jamie] didn’t just go with an air compressor or a simple homebrew soda bottle tank. Instead, he decided to use a couple of gas duster cans to do the job. The demos are pretty fun, with [Jamie] using lots of LEDs and a radio to demonstrate the output.  The one thing we’d like to see more of is proper current/voltage instrumentation—and some measurement of the RPM of this thing!

While few of us will be rushing out to build Lego generators, the video nonetheless has educational value from a mechanical engineering standpoint. Fluids and gases really do make wonderful bearings, as we’ve discussed before. Video after the break.

4 thoughts on “Levitating Lego Generator Runs On Air

  1. Well I was going to comment on how ridiculous it is that we are still selling refrigerants in a can as air dusters, with them having such a high global warming potential, so I went looking for the Safety Data Sheet for this air duster by searching the product number (from 0:33 in the video) which is PFS5130 along with SDS.

    I found to my surprise listed in the SDS (after being translated from Polish) the main constituents are: 70-80
    percent butane, and 20-30 percent propane…

    So, uhhhhh. Nothing to see here, move along folks.

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