LED blow light

Technology
LED blow light

Blow Big
This wind powered LED blow light is really cute, I’m going to make one just like it, and it shall be called LED blowies – [via] Link.

22 thoughts on “LED blow light

  1. hyoomen says:

    Definitely look forward to an instructable on this!

  2. TheThompsonFive says:

    A beer can propeller would be cool.

  3. supertim says:

    LED blowies! Genius name! And we can definitely do it for less than $20. Let us know if you find a good motor to use. Let’s put them on our bikes and car antennas.

  4. Dax420 says:

    Best bet would be a vibrating pager motor with the counter weight taken off and replaced with a propeller.

  5. Kagetsuki says:

    “Best bet would be a vibrating pager motor with the counter weight taken off and replaced with a propeller.”

    I just read that comment and thought “no way you could get that kind of voltage of a cell motor”, so I checked it out. A normal cheapo super standard motor made the red 1.8v LED I grabbed flash up for a split second. A few circuits float up in my mind of how you could make it glow better, but I don’t see any room for such circuitry in the model above.

    So, time for the cell phone motors. I tried 3 models, spun them inefficiently by hand. Nothing I could see. So I spun a larger one with another motor and I got light, but that’s a lot of speed.

    I was aware that standard DC motors weren’t the best generators, but I never bothered to find out why until now: http://www.otherpower.com/toymill.html .
    So, in summary you need to spin the motor something like 20% faster than it’s rated standard operating RPM’s to get the kind of voltage the motor is rated for. If you want better performance from a standard motor you need a low-RPM one that isn’t brushless (anybody know why?). Otherwise make a real alternator and use that. I’m willing to bet the toy here uses a small alternator specifically intended for the kind of RPM you get off of that fan, and there are 2 blue LED’s for a reason: one operates on one phase and the other operates on the other (poll reversed) phase. That way the fan is spinning at a descent enough speed to have both LED’s lighting up in alternating cycles fast enough to be perceived as simultaneous.

    So, let’s look for suitable motors or tiny alternator systems?

  6. volkemon says:

    Kagetsuki! Thanks for the link.
    The rest of your comment made sense after going there.
    I suggest it to others that read the comments also.

  7. Fusion says:

    what about combining this with the sloar engines developed for solar rollers and other BEAM type robots?
    i’m a big fan of the FLED as a circuit myself.

  8. screaminscott says:

    How about a propeller POV gadget?

    Would be neat to have on some pinwheel garden decorations.

  9. jeromelab says:

    Can somebody point me to a source for very small alternators?

  10. Gill says:

    Would the motor from an electric tooth brush work, for say the bike or car ant. mounted idea?

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