DIY 3D Printed 30W Generator

Even Erichsen developed a 30W DIY electricity generator which you can 3d print name "The Beest". 

The Beest is powered up by hand (or other mechanica source) via the series of gears: ‘1:2 + 1:4 + 1:3, so one turn rotates the rotor 24 times. The rotor is set up like a 3 phase axial flux generator, with three stators and six rotor plates with a total of 96 neodymium magnets.

Very cool project, but full instructions are not released yet. If you have some knowledge of electric generators, you will be able to recreate this.

Here is the project description by the creator:

This is a working hand cranked power generator.
The rotor, in the picture, spins up to 1500 rpm, and produce about 30 watts.
I recommend building the rotor as seen in the fbx-file, for more power.
Needless to say – this is a huge print! Minimum 200+ hours....

On the hardware side you need 96 neodymium magnets (25mm diameter x 10mm),
about 1,3kg of enameled copper wire, preferably six steel plates, a pile of nuts & bolts, electronics - including an Arduino nano, display, bridge rectifier(s), diodes, capacitors, resistors, voltage regulators etc.
If you want to etch the PCB yourself, you will need a blank 160mm x 100mm copper board and your preferred chemicals.

Generator in action:




Thingiverse page with all the files:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1119241

There is also a much simpler 15W version at: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:145186

Project homepage:

http://www.justpressprint.no/3d-models/generator-v2/


Here is the Beest fully assembled:

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DIY Gauss Meter with 3D Printed Enclosure

Anthony aka. "Proto G" published this Instructable where he made a useful DIY Gauss meter which is controlled with Arduino Nano. 

Project description:

In this instructable, I will show you how to make a Gauss meter than can measure the strength of magnets so you can compare different magnets you have. It measures the magnets in units called Gauss and has a relatively linear range from 0-4000 Gauss. It will measure beyond that but the numbers beyond 4000 Gauss should only be used for comparison purposes. In addition to measuring the field strength, it also detects the polarity of the magnet and will show North or South, respectively. My favorite part about this design is the ON/OFF switch. It's hidden in the enclosure so the meter can only be turned on and off with a magnet. Since this unit is meant to measure magnets, you're sure to have one on hand. You can use the same latching magnetic switch I designed for many other things like a secret compartment lock. Here's a video showing the complete assembly:

You can see the full construction manual at:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Dual-Sensor-Gauss-Meter/

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Advanced 3D Printing with Wire Deposition for Electrics Projects

Disney researchers developed a 5 axis 3d printer that can also lay metal wire for electric and electronic devices. Wires can be fixated by extruding plastics on it. Since it moves in 5 axis, it can make overlapping wire coils and other intricate geometry objects. 

Project description by Huaishu Peng:

We introduce a new form of low-cost 3D printer to print interactive electromechanical objects with wound in place coils. At the heart of this printer is a mechanism for depositing wire within a five degree of freedom (5DOF) fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer. Copper wire can be used with this mechanism to form coils which induce magnetic fields as a current is passed through them. Soft iron wire can additionally be used to form components with high magnetic permeability which are thus able to shape and direct these magnetic fields to where they are needed. When fabricated with structural plastic elements, this allows simple but complete custom electromagnetic devices to be 3D printed. As examples, we demonstrate the fabrication of a solenoid actuator for the arm of a Lucky Cat figurine, a 6-pole motor stepper stator, a reluctance motor rotor and a Ferrofluid display. In addition, we show how printed coils which generate small currents in response to user actions can be used as input sensors in interactive devices.

You can see it in action here:




project homepage with more information:

http://www.huaishu.me/projects/electromagnet.html


While this project looks interesting, wire deposition with 3d printer head is not new in DIY world. Spoolhead was a RepRap project in early 2010 that did something simillar.




SpoolHead homepage:

http://reprap.org/wiki/SpoolHead

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Printing with magnetic fields to get advanced magnetic objects with Correlated Magnetics MagPrinters

Correlated Magnetics makes printers that print with magnetic fields on metal surfaces to get some advanced magnetic properties and enable them to make magnetic cinematic machines. 

MagPrinter technical description:

Correlated Magnetics Research has developed an integrated magnetizing system to support development and manufacture of coded multipole magnetic structures – Polymagnets® – from any magnetizable material.The system features a computer-controlled platform that moves a platform tray relative to a specialized ‘printhead’ that produces a focused high intensity magnetizing field that creates a single, well-defined, remnant magnetic source element (maxel) at a prescribed location.

The system is capable of producing hundreds of such maxels per minute, and enables the creation of patterned mulitpole magnetic structures that function as no ordinary magnet can. The MagPrinter is designed to print maxels on the surface of any permanent magnet material from rare-earth based materials to ceramics, and even flexible materials.
The fifth-generation MagPrinter incorporates a modular ‘pulser’ subsystem. Multiple pulsers can operate in parallel to support large scale mass-production demand.
The MagPrinter features an advanced user-environment with automated geometry placement functions, a robust editing toolset, and a storage and retrieval library to allow rapid design, modification, physical prototyping, and cataloging of coded magnet structures.
The MagPrinter runs on standard 110V AC power and includes laptop controller, standard print-tray platforms, and libraries of engineered Polymagnet patterns to produce stronger attach forces, controlled field emission and field reach, and multiple examples of advanced functionality for attach-release, attach-repel, alignment, contactless attachment (hover), and switchable force systems.
From Polymagnet concept to completion, the MagPrinter system provides all the tools necessary for rapid magnet prototyping and manufacture.

Here is a smaller Mini MagPrinter version and some more details about the technology:




Mini MagPrinter description:

The Mini MagPrinter® is built for product design professionals to integrate advanced magnet functions into new consumer and industrial products. The Mini MagPrinter system includes CMR’s Polymagnet Catalog® of pre-engineered magnetic functions, and the design software to customize magnet behavior or design Polymagnet functionality from scratch.

The Mini MagPrinter is a desktop rapid-prototyping magnetization system that ‘prints’ arrays of magnetic regions onto a single piece of magnetic material to produce a Polymagnet – a patterned magnet tailored to a specific behavior, strength, and field distribution. Each Polymagnet is a system of smaller magnets (maxels) of mixed polarity in patterns that are imprinted by the Mini MagPrinter. A conventional magnet can be transformed into a Polymagnet by placing the magnet into the Mini MagPrinter, choosing a pattern from the Polymagnet Catalog, and re-programming the magnet to perform new functions not possible with conventional magnetization. The Mini MagPrinter produces Polymagnets on the strongest neodymium magnets, flexible materials, ferrites and specialized materials such as samarium cobalt.

There are many examples of magnetic mechanisms you can make:



More objects and videos are at: https://www.youtube.com/user/correlatedmagnetics1/videos


Mini MagPrinter page:

http://www.correlatedmagnetics.com/minimagprinter/

MagPrinter page:

http://www.correlatedmagnetics.com/magprinter-product/

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3d printing organic structures for science and education

Here is an interesting application of 3d printing: using it to print organic structures of cells and different organic molecules for research and education. If you can touch it and manipulate it, you can understand it.

Here is an image of printed Beta Cell model. Sometimes parts are individually painted and glued or they use magnetic connectors as links in molecules.

Cyanovirin in spheres with ball n stick ligands. 20 Million X.

Those models were done by Scripps Physical Model Service.
http://models.scripps.edu/

Check their cool gallery at:
http://models.scripps.edu/gallery.html 

Another project aims directly at education institutions
http://sciencewithinreach.com/

Here is video demonstration of 3d printed self assembling virus (89.95$):

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