Final Photos:

With this project, I had experienced a lot of failure during the first few steps of the process. I had spent half of the total project time figuring out the flaws to the prototype, fixing uneven gears and holes. Although it took a while to start on the main design, the prototype provided me with crucial solutions to some of my biggest problems. Despite this, still have some points I would improve on if I were to get another shot at this project.

Areas of Improvement:

– I think that I could implement a better method connection between the motor and the LED. Currently, the two pieces are connected in an improper way; the LED is wrapped around the motor without any wires in between to have a better connecting line.

– Another part that I would change is the fan blade. The 3D model that I printed was a bit too large for the wooden connecting shaft to hold properly. This causes the blade to tilt forwards at the top, creating uneven motion and causing the walls to collide into the fan.

– I would also change the majority of the hot glue out for proper glue for the materials used, but because it was the most accessible and easy to use, I think that the use of hot glue was necessary at some parts.

Other than these areas of improvement, I think that the execution of my design was somewhat successful and I met my goal of converting energy in a way where it was visible through lights and/or motion. The user of this energy conversion project would be able to understand the conversion of kinetic energy to mechanical and electrical energy by the fan producing wind and the LED producing light from their motion of turning the handle. From this project, I also learned some skills in using basic electrical components, and also a lot of Fusion 360 since I had to design some parts for the project.

The negative environmental effects of this project would be inbwtween minuscule and none at all. Because the source of energy is not from an external power source such as outlets or batteries but rather the kinetic energy, it is able to convert to mechanical and electrical energy.

This project provided a wide variety of concepts to choose from, and I think that the topic I chose was challenging yet helped me grow the skills I lacked in before. The hand crank mechanism was hard to grasp, but I think that my project was successful.