Generating power with a stepper motor

January 28, 2011 3:42 pm If you want to generate electrical power from about a tenth of a watt up to several watts, a stepper motor might be worth considering. Im going to go into detail here on a specific stepper motor that can generate up to a little over watt.

First a few key features: 1. Inexpensive: New this stepper motor costs $2.95 in single quantity. At this price it probably isnt worth scrounging for one out of an old printer, especially since Im going give you the performance specifications for this motor when used as a generator. 2. Stepper motors generate power at low RPM. You can get usable power at just a few hundred RPM. For Stirling engines, wind turbines and other low RPM power sources this means you can drive the stepper motor directly from the source without having to use gearing. 3. Efficiency above 40% is possible depending on how you load the motor. While not great (Id consider above 75% great) its pretty decent for these low power levels and considering the low price. Keep in mind that not having to using gearing or belts means you wont lose more power to friction. 4. Stepper motors are brushless motors so the only wearing parts should be the shaft against the bearings. 5. A stepper motor used as a generator puts out alternating current and must be rectified to produce dc. For some applications, such as driving LEDs, you can use two LEDs so that one conducts in each direction without the need to rectify the output. This article is written for people with some electronics background. If that doesnt include you, dont despair, Ill provide a future article with more of a cookbook approach for a few circuits that you might want to use with the stepper motor generator. The following chart shows the voltage output versus RPM for the stepper motor with various load resistors.

Youll notice the above chart show Vdc. The measurements were made with the circuit shown below. The key components are the diode bridges and the filter capacitor. Although I used Schottky diodes, the stepper motor as generator has sufficient compliance that ordinary silicon diodes will work. You can also use an ordinary bridge rectifier IC instead of individual diodes. For the highest power output the Schottky diodes will provide a slight advantage.

This stepper motor has a 7.5 degree step size so you get 48 steps per revolution. The frequency of full wave rectified pulses should be 48 * RPM/60 for computing your filter capacitor. At 300 RPM you are already at 240 Hz so flicker on LEDs even without filtering is not visible. If you need low ripple for the DC voltage then filter capacitor value required is even less than for working from a standard rectified 50 or 60 Hz AC power. This next chart provides the same data as the first but in a current vs RPM format.

One property of stepper motors that can be useful in their primary application is detent torque. This torque holds the motor in discrete rotational steps, even when no power is applied. To overcome this torque resisting rotation requires a relatively high drive torque and causes inefficient operation at low power levels.

Even with zero electrical power output, the minimum torque starts at just above 40 g-cm. To achieve reasonably high efficiency you need to operate the stepper motor with a reasonable load. Also worth noting is the torque dropping rapidly at higher RPM for the 47 ohm load case. I dont have sufficient expertise in motor/generator design to be sure, but Im guessing this is a magnetic saturation effect. Note that even though the torque is decreasing, the overall input and output power are still increasing, although they are doing so more slowly. The following chart shows the efficiency (% efficiency = 100*electrical power out/mechanical power in).

Notice that the maximum efficiency occurs with a 100 ohm load over the full RPM range. The 47 ohm load will result in higher current but lower efficiency. You can see from the chart that higher RPM might continue improving the efficiency (slightly) at loads for 100 ohms and above. I obtained this stepper motor from Jameco. The part number is 171601. Jameco provides a link to the data sheet for the part; a few of the specifications are: MABUCHI MOTOR COMPANY PF35T-48L4 Mounting hole spacing: 1.65 in (42mm) Shaft diameter: .078 in (2mm) Motor dia: 1.38 in Motor depth: .58 in The motor has a dual shaft and a 10 tooth brass gear on one shaft. The other shaft (actually the other end of the same shaft) is just visible in the photo. Posted in Generators and motors | No Comments

Simple Stirling Engines built from the plans

November 17, 2010 7:55 pm Occasionally I hear from others who have built the simple Stirling engine from my plans. Most people end up making some kind of modifications to the plans. Thats fine with me, in fact I enjoy seeing how other people solve a problem. The only area where experimentation could be risky (in terms of ending up with a running engine) is probably

with the power piston and cylinder. Those two components need to achieve compression with very low friction. If you find a readily available and inexpensive piston and cylinder combination with low friction and decent compression please post a comment. Anything from 1/2 inch to 1.5 inches diameter would be useful. Of course if you have a lathe you can make an even closer tolerance piston from aluminum easily and it works well in the brass cylinder. Ive also had good experiences with nylon pistons. My goal on the simple Stirling 1 engine was to design an engine that didnt require a lathe or tapping, just a drill press, a hacksaw, and files. Peter Gross in Tasmania built this engine with a few modification. Most notable are the use of a PVC displacer cylinder (ABS is apparently not readily available where he is) and the use of a CD to attach flywheel weights. And some detail photos of his engine:

Peter Gross also offers this advice for cutting the brass tube for the piston, cylinder, and other small brass tubes: 1. Using a drill press, drill a hole exactly the same size as the tube OD in a small piece of wood (eg. 8x2x0.75 dressed pine) then clamp the wood in a vice. 2. Push the tube through the timber to the required length then cut against the wood using a junior hacksaw with a sharp fine blade while holding the tube from the other side of the wood. 3. After cutting the end of the tube can be smoothed accurately using a fine file against the wood. This gives a nice square end on the tube without crushing it or cutting your fingers. 4. The wooden jig can be used many times by simply drilling extra holes of the required size. For the larger tubing sizes I used a hole saw.

Powered by dry ice

Ryan Proctor built this simple Stirling engine. The video shows it running backwards using dry ice. Ambient air becomes the heat source. Ryan later went on to design and build a larger Stirling engine as a college project. Posted in Simple Stirling 1 | 1 Comment