February 21st:

  • Attempted to assemble the complete circuit system together.

The circuit did not operate as it was supposed to do.

February 23:

  • Cut out the wood pieces and PVC pipe for the turbine fans.
  • Assembled a few turbine fans together.

February 25th:

  • Completed assembling all six turbine fans.
  • Drew and cut out two identical hexagons to hold all the fans in place.
  • Used wood glue and nail gun to attach the turbine fans to identical hexagons.

March 3rd:

In school:

  • Completed assembling all parts of the wind turbine.
  • Soldered the USB type A port.
  • Tested how much wind would be needed for the turbine to spin.
  • Sawed the dwell piece that is appropriate for the dwell piece.
  • Drill pressed a hole in the turbine cylinder stick.

Outside of school:

  • 3D modelled the sleeve and base of the wind turbine.

March 7th :

  • Completed final product.
  • Fixed the circuit and re-soldered it.
  • attached the ball bearing piece to the  turbine.
  • super glued the 3D printed base and reinforced it with two more extra wood bases.
  • Tested out our final product.
    • Feedbacks:
      • The sleeve and central dwell of the wind turbine could have been shortened to make it more stable, so it doesn’t wobble that much when the strong wind blows it.
      • The fans of the wind turbine are also a factor that could affect the efficiency of the wind turbine, so if the fans were lighter, maybe it could spin faster.
      • If the scale of the device is smaller, maybe it might have been more efficient.

      Improvements made to the prototype while making our device:

      • The wood piece is not directly nailed to the middle of a half PVC pipe because we thought if we put nails through one of the sides of the piece. The design might be more aerodynamic to generate more electricity.
      • The shape of the middle part was changed, which is used to hold the wind turbine fans in place. In the beginning, the central plate is a circle piece to let it serve as a surface for the fans to be glued to. But instead, we decided to cut out a hexagon because it can save wood, and second, we can easily place the fans on each side of the hexagon, so it is more manageable for us to align the fans and keep the fans the gap between them identical.
      • Instead of directly attaching the dynamo to the wood cylinder, it was decided to make a device to help the wind turbine spin around the dynamo with less friction. A ball bearing device was created to reduce the friction and last we made a sleeve and base for it by 3D printing.
      • Since the 3D printed sleeve was not able to fit the metal ball bearing inside, and due to time restrictions, we had no choice, so we forced the dwell in the sleeve with force, and even though it cracked the already fragile sleeve, we were able to cope with it by using rubber bands and zip locks to tied it in place.
      • The 3D printed base was not strong enough to hold the turbine in place, so we had to use two extra flat wood pieces to stabilize it, with dimensions of 15cm by 15cm and 18cm by 18cm.
      • The last issue that had to be fixed was that needed to have something fill the gap between dynamo and sleeve, so the turbine does not make the dynamo spin along with it, but bring the stick on the dynamo to spin which will generate electricity for the battery. At first, hot glue was going to be used. However, the hot glue might seek through the sleeve and glue cables together, which we did not want. So instead, popsicle sticks were used to wedge the dynamo in place, and the extruding part of the stick was cut off to make the base flat.