A Homemade Motor -- Out of LEGOS!

[Starwhip]

For physics class my friends and I had to build a motor. We now hold the title of first working LEGO motor! ( In the class, that is...)

Draws about 0.5 amps, have not tested RPM yet. Tomorrow more pics amd perhaps a video will come!

[Flymetothemun]

Cool! Must've been hard to get the thing aligned and mounted correctly with the lego, even harder to wind the rotor. How many volts? I'm guessing 5, 9, or 12.

[Starwhip]

Cool! Must've been hard to get the thing aligned and mounted correctly with the lego, even harder to wind the rotor. How many volts? I'm guessing 5, 9, or 12.

Actually, we used legos because we could adjust our dimensions and components, or make brand new ones, easily and on a whim.

Tested on 12 volts.

Oh, yeah, there are 250 coils on that thing!

[vger]

Aww, no video?

[Starwhip]

Aww, no video?

Soon, my friend, soon...

[Flymetothemun]

Actually, we used legos because we could adjust our dimensions and components, or make brand new ones, easily and on a whim.

Tested on 12 volts.

Oh, yeah, there are 250 coils on that thing!

250 windings is actually kinda easy compared to what I've done, but anybody's first coil will be hard (I'm assuming it's your first, the windings are just a little bit sloppy but you did a good job, and it works, which is usually all that matters for little projects like this). I've wound 1000+ winding coils for crystal radios from 32 gauge enameled copper wire. From the picture, it looks like you used 18-22 gauge rubber insulated wire, which is FAR easier to work with. The high-gauge enameled stuff will break like a thread if you pull it too hard, so you have to be careful.

Edited May 11, 2015 by Flymetothemun

[Starwhip]

It is 26 gauge enamel coated wire.

One reason it spins so fast is because it has neodymium magnets in the two little side holders... four in either slot, stuck together, each about 1cm x 3cm x 5cm.

[Flymetothemun]

It is 26 gauge enamel coated wire.

One reason it spins so fast is because it has neodymium magnets in the two little side holders... four in either slot, stuck together, each about 1cm x 3cm x 5cm.

Wow! About how big is it, in terms of length/width of the baseplate in inches or centimetres? I have no idea about lego, all I know is that it's blocks that go together, so I have no idea of the size. I assumed from the green color that it was rubber insulated, the wire that I get is copper-colored; The enamel is a clear-coat essentially.

[Starwhip]

5 in x 10 in x 3 in or so, I think.

[Flymetothemun]

Yeah, I can see that being 26 AWG, now that I have a good idea of the dimensions. By the way, is that a pen tube helping to even out the coil? I might just have to use that trick sometime...

Edited May 11, 2015 by Flymetothemun
my memory fails me once again...

[Nuke]

i built a few lpes awhile back. i think i made a video of one of them:

thing that sucked most was my air source. i reinforced some coke bottles with duct tape. drilled holes in the lid and inserted a number of plastic tubes and sealed it from the inside with hot glue. then i bought like 4 small compressor pistons off of brick link. drilled out the ports to increase airflow and put them on a crank driven by a lego motor. i would close off the output valves and let the motor compress the tank for about 15 minutes which is enough for about 30 seconds of run time. each piston had its own line into the bottle to improve overall airflow, and there were 2 feed lines for the engine. also drilled out the pneumatic pistons and valves (this is actually major surgery as you have to break them open and reseal them) to improve airflow. when i wanted to run the engine i would just open the feed valves (engines with less than 2 pistons needed to be kickstarted if it was in the wrong phase). i actually did have an rc air car but i could only control the steering, it had a massive trailer to carry the 3 air tanks and i only got a few seconds of drive time out of it.

dont build lpes unless you can afford to replace lego gears, they like to break under the forces involved. never had a tank blow up though.

Edited May 11, 2015 by Nuke

[Starwhip]

Yeah, I can see that being 26 AWG, now that I have a good idea of the dimensions. By the way, is that a pen tube helping to even out the coil? I might just have to use that trick sometime...

It is not. The motor consists of:

-Legos

-Electrical tape

-26 gauge motor wire

-Copper pipe (for commutators)

-Solder

Pics of everything tomorrow!

[Starwhip]

I. Hate. Mobile. Uploads.

I can't do any more, I'll put up more stuff later. Had a whole post typed up with a bunch of pics and it decides to refresh when I switch tabs, no autosave.

- - - Updated - - -

There.

[Starwhip]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ifa0n3xrf5tg2k8/0511151110-01.3gp?dl=0

Video of it running. About 1600 rpm.

[Flymetothemun]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ifa0n3xrf5tg2k8/0511151110-01.3gp?dl=0

Video of it running. About 1600 rpm.

Cool! It'd be interesting to see if you could run anything with it, like a fan blade or something. Maybe you could get it to run some wheels, get a portable power source built into it and make it into a car of some sort.

[Starwhip]

That would be awesome. And since it's lego, I could literally snap it to a car base.

Some gears, a battery connector... a string to make sure it doesn't drive off the nearest bridge...

[Sampa]

That's so cool! I would DEFINITELY want to show my teacher this!

[Deutherius]

12 volts, 0.5 amps, 1600 RPM... Have you measured what kind of torque it can generate?

Definitely a cool project.

[Starwhip]

12 volts, 0.5 amps, 1600 RPM... Have you measured what kind of torque it can generate?

Definitely a cool project.

Oh, not much. It is only 1 phase, so at some point it would stop. And with that brush arrangement it was pulling 1 amp.

Tweaks, then more info, tomorrow!

[Nuke]

from the design it wouldn't be too difficult to add another phase. if you have any of these or these in your lego bins you could wrap 3 coils, and it shouldn't take much to mod your commutator for 3 pole.

[Ethanadams]

Here's a video to inspire to a fully working Lego car

]

Edited May 12, 2015 by Ethanadams

[Starwhip]

from the design it wouldn't be too difficult to add another phase. if you have any of these or these in your lego bins you could wrap 3 coils, and it shouldn't take much to mod your commutator for 3 pole.

I know I've got those somewhere... probably in storage.

Darn.

- - - Updated - - -

Here's a video to inspire to a fully working Lego car

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ObE4_nMCjE

Broken link is broken.

[briansun1]

That's pretty cool. Now I've got to see if my teacher will let us do that.

[Starwhip]

That car is stupidly cool!

[Ethanadams]

Fixed link