March 5, 2006

Today I spent a few minutes at The Shop and used a lathe to make a simple steel
coupler to attach the 1/2" axle of Cheech's wheel to a 1/4" stepper motor shaft.

The coupler is made from a piece of 1" diameter mild steel round stock,
faced both ends, center drilled one end to 1/2", center drilled the other end to 1/4".
A pair of perpendicular 1/4-20 setscrews will keep the axle and stepper motor from slipping.

The stand that came with Cheech's wheel had no means to reasonably attach generating apparatus,
so I mounted Cheech's wheel to a piece of 1/2" diameter steel rod,
recycled from an old printer's slide mechanism.

I added a spoke made of steel stock to reinforce the wheel. 
The spoke attaches to the wheel with a couple of 1/4" carriage bolts and large flat washers
so there is no danger to Cheech from the bolt heads. 
SAFETY FIRST!  We don't need hassles from OSHA here at DeguPower!

I drilled the wall of Cheech's cage (Stainless Steel, not fun to drill!) to fit a pair of pillow blocks I had here.

One pillow block is inside the cage, the other is on the outside, each holding a sturdy ball bearing.
The axle for Cheech's wheel passes through the two bearings and the wall of the cage, so that
the generating and monitoring apparatus is safely outside of his cage.

The wheel spins freely in on its new mount, so we won't be losing much of our DeguPower to friction.

A trip to my "Junk Room" yielded a 5.1 Volt 200 step per revolution Stepper Motor. 
The motor is pretty much what I had in mind for initial tests. 
The coupler did its job nicely attaching the Wheel's Axle and the Stepper motor shaft.

For a quick test, I attached a 3 Volt Green LED across a coil of the stepper motor.  Encouraging, but not perfect. 
The LED would light about 1/3 of the time when Cheech was running in his wheel, only during the fastest bursts. 
BORING, but something.

For my next test I attached a 2 Volt variety Red LED across the windings.  
MAGIC, it lights nearly all the time when Cheech is running in his wheel! 
Two Volts at around 20 mA, Cheech is providing an estimated 40 miliWatts of power with this simple setup.

Next I'll test other stepper motors. 
I'll also rectify and filter the output so I can come up with a more accurate measure of the output from
The East Niobe Degu Power Authority's primary generator. 
I'll need to know what range of voltage and current I'll be dealing with prior to designing the input electronics
for the PIC's Analog to Digital Converter.

Working hard to save the world from the Energy Crisis.

Cheech LOVES to run in the wheel almost as much as he loves to play in his sandbox! 
Of course, that's OBVIOUS based on the amount of sand he has tracked into the wheel already. 
He hasn't had this wheel for quite a week yet in this picture! 

He alternates between sandbox and wheel in about 1 minute bursts,
stopping for food, water and naps from time to time. 
(Singing) "The wheel in the cage goes 'Round and 'Round..."

DEGUPOWER