User:Toluaj/enes100/ProjecT 1

''This is designed for a person working on a project for 4 weeks as part of a 3 credit class. Please copy this form to your user page. Then delete everything in italics when filling out this form.''

Write problem/project Goal
to create a wind turbine that serves as proof of the concept of wind energy and to be to use the wind turbine to create a measurable amount of energy that can be used to supply power to another device

My First Task
get the general information about wind turbine and see how far the previous groups got with their own wind turbine project

Summary of actual work over first weekend
for the first week of my group project, i did some research about the wind turbine and looked at what the past groups that had performed the wind turbine project. i also tested out a motor during class for the wind turbine

Week1 Narrative
Tell a detailed story describing what you did for your team over the weekend. for the first week i did some research about wind turbines, i found out that it converts kinetic energy in form of wind to electrical energy; in addition i look at past groups that performed the wind turbine project to see how find they reached in the project. one group was able to completely finish the project and use the electricity obtained from the wind turbine to power 8 LED lights. I also tested some motors during class to find one that may be used for the wind turbine. I also did some additional research to find out what materials are needed in making a wind turbine e.g copper wires/wires, PVC pipes to make the blades of the wind turbine, motor, screws and bolts, fly wheel, pile stand for the wind turbine. I also watch a video how make to make a wind turbine which gave me some ideas on how to proceed with the project and i also looked for pictures of a wind turbine that my group members and i may be as our design for the wind turbine

here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfz25RbBwk

My Second Task
hopefully I will start getting the materials ready and work on a prototype of the wind turbine that will work and can be used to power up a device maybe a LED light

Summary of actual work over second weekend
At first i planned to create a prototype of my wind turbine, but this couldn't be achieved because there was some issue with the motors. It didn't generate enough voltage to power up LED, then I decided to work on a previous group's wind turbine with my other group members. Basically the plan was changed from creating a prototype to just creating a main wind turbine. Second plan that changed was instead of creating a new wind turbine from scarp, I decided to work on a previous group's wind turbine and improve on it.

Week2 Narrative
24/09/12: Spent sometime with group member planning how we wanted to carry out priorities in making the wind turbine. Started working on the design, and looking on how we were going to get the parts ready and focusing on the wind turbine's requirements and constraints

26/09/12: Spent sometime trying or attempting to work on a prototype for the wind turbine. Obtain the intended motors for the wind turbine to test them by trying to use their mechanical energy to power up some LED lights. Once Patrick was done setting up the bread-board I connected the motor to the bread board and spun the motor to try and generate some power/electricity to light up the LED lights, but it didn't work then I suggested to the team members that we try powering up only one LED light. After this I try spinning the motor to power up that one LED light, but it didn't work. As a group we decided to work on a previous group's wind turbine since our motor didn't work. After obtaining the old wind turbine, I looked at its motor and realized its fan blades were touching its casing when it was been spun, which led to friction. To resolve that I used some sand paper to shorten the length of the blades and tested it to see if the friction was gone, test was successful. After this the wind turbine was set-up.

27/09/12: Went to check up on the wind turbine with another group member. Brought up suggestion on how the wind turbine would be tested in a control environment, and wring of the wind turbine to the device that is planned on been powered. Suggestion for testing were to use a box fan, or any other fan etc

30/09/12: I read about some articles about how to connect/ wire your wind turbine to the device you want to power up e.g battery here is the link : http://www.ehow.com/how_7595210_connect-wind-turbine-batteries.html

My Third task
start testing the wind turbine, wiring it to devices to power it up. Learn how to read the amount of current/amps generated from the wind turbine

Summary of actual work over third weekend
This week my group members and I planned to to have finished working on the wind turbine and have a working arduino program that would be able to read the voltage that will be produced/generated form the wind turbine, but during and by the end of the week this goal was not fully achieved, since the some problems rose with the arduino software.

Week3 Narrative
Tell a detailed story describing what you did for your team over the weekend. 10/03/2012: tried to find a way to test the fans/motor of the wind turbine to be able to generate enough voltage to power up some LED lights in a controlled environment. I decided to use a battery form a power drill, but first decided to use a test motor rather than using the actually motor of the wind turbine just to avoid any damage to the motor. performed the necessary connections and was able to get the test motor working. Then I set up a breadboard connection with Led and resistor and connected it to the wind turbine, took the already moving/ spinning test motor and placed it to the wind turbine's motor to make it spin. The wind turbine's motor was successfully spinning due to the wind current generated by the test motor, but it voltage generated from the wind turbine was not powerful enough to generate enough voltage to power up the breadboard.

10/04/2012: since the previous arudino software program didn't work, Lukas found another one and I decided to test it to ensure it was working. after running the sketch onto the arduino software on the computer, I made a set-up with a machine that could supply voltage to the test motor ( it supplied about 1 v) and connected the motor to the arduino. As the test motor was spinning, the arduino was taking its readings; looking at the reading the maximum voltage been that the arudino was able to read was 32.0v. I try using a leaf blower as a power supply to see what will happen if voltage greater than one will have the same effect since I hope the wind turbine will generate more then 1 volt. testing with the leaf blower I was able to reach the maximum reading from the arduino software program. Then I decided to graph the readings from the arudino software into excel in order to understand them better, but it this come out well, so I plan on finding a solution to it later over the weekend.

10/07/2012: Did some research on how to graph the readings form the arduino, so that my group members and I can understand the reading. Here is the link http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Graph. it requires some downloading some software programs like processing. Hopefully I can work with it on Monday to create a graph a graph of the wind turbines voltage readings

My Fourth task
Finally found a way to test the wind turbine in a control area. Will use the leaf blower to power the wind turbine, but have to be cautious when using, maybe move a few inches away from the wind turbine. I also plan on been able to graph the voltage readings from the arduino into a excel or some other program-me that can graph into to see visually the rate of voltage produced by the wind turbine

Summary of actual work over fourth weekend


For the last week of the project i planned on graphing the voltage readings from the arduino unto excel, but due to time contrast and some limits involved with the arduino software my group members and I decided to go with a different direction for the last week of the project. We decided to make a set-down circuit which would reduce the amount of voltage produced by the wind turbine as it entered the circuit

Week4 Narrative
For the last week, myself and another group member decided to make the circuit for the wind turbine. First we had to test if the circuit will actual work. The circuit was made of a breadboard, wires and resistors. Using a table-top power supply, and connecting the circuit to it; the power supply was producing about 0.50 V and the circuit reduced the voltage to about 0.25v ( check pictures). Using a voltmeter to actually read the voltage flow that was in the circuit. in addition, before the circuit was made, myself and the other group members tested the wind turbine using a leaf blower to power it up, but we very cautious when doing this by maintaining a safe distance between the wind turbine and the leaf blower, and we used a voltmeter to measure the amount of voltage being produced form the wind turbine, the numbers were consistent which was a good indication that the wind turbine was working.

Complete Team Page
Fill out the Team Form (should have already copied the form, created the team page, linked to it and started filling it out).