Motion powered battery
Contents
Overview
For our engineering design project, we will be creating a motion powered battery. While there are some of these on the market with various designs, our motion powered battery will utilize the model of a shake flashlight. Ideally, we will be able to generate enough stored power to charge an electronic device (i.e. a phone) for a substantial amount of time.
Our three person team will design and build a magnet charging device that uses magnetic forces to generate an electrical current through a wire. We will be using an Arduino to measure the power output and determine if there is a need for a capacitor/resistor. Once the battery is charged, we hope to build power output terminals from the battery so that we can use it to power other things. We will put the entire design into a case to protect the external pieces from breaking.
Team Members
- Katherine Laue
- Steven Schlau
- Henry Roberts
- John Fordice(TA)
- Denise Mell(Instructor)
Primary Goals
- Be able to generate power through the tubular magnetic set up
- Measure output with Arduino
- Connect any necessary components to control the power output before connecting batter
- Connect battery to the tubular setup and be able to charge battery
Secondary Goals
- Make design smaller and encapsulate the design into a more attractive set-up
- Create multiple tubes to generate more power but still have them connected to one battery
Design
- The visual design of our project will mainly consist of a tubular apparatus made of a PVC pipe section with a teflon lined interior and a neodymium magnet that slides through the inside. Outside, there will be a copper wire coil wrapped around the tube which will be connected to the rechargeable battery, potentially with a resistor and/or capacitor between them. The battery will then hopefully have output terminals itself so it can change other devices in addition to being charged. Ideally, the battery will not have to be disconnected from our model to be able to charge other devices. This entire tubular design will be held in a more attractive encasing so as to look more desirable to a potential consumer.
- Electrically, our design will generate power as the magnet runs through the copper coil. Electrons will flow through the coil and then run into the battery where they will be created to chemical energy.
Challenges
- Our main challenge is more of a potential issue with the overall motion powered set up. Most motion powered devices only require small power outputs such as crank or shake flashlights. Existing motion powered devices such as AMPY's Move need vigorous movements such as running to generate power in a reasonable time span. Our device may need to be shaken very hard or for a long period of time to generate enough current and electrical energy to a) charge the battery even a little and b) generate enough charge in the battery to use it to power other devices.
- Once we have built our design, we hope to refine it to make it smaller. This could be a potential challenge as we will want to still generate a similar power output but have a smaller design that could be more attractive to a consumer.
- If we can make the design smaller so we could fit more than one tube into the overall encasing, we would have to make sure that the magnets and the charges do not interfere with each other.
- We will need to experiment with different types of teflon (sheets, spray, tape) to find the material that allows the magnet to slide through the tube with the most ease.
Materials Needed
- PVC pipe - [link] -$2.00
- Teflon (Different Types)- [link] - $20.00
- Neodymium magnet [link] -$15.00
- Rechargeable battery [link] -$25.00
TOTAL: <$70.00
Additional Materials Provided By Instructors
- Wire [link]
- Capacitor [link]
- Resistor [link]
- Electrical tape [link]
- Arduino
Diagram
Gantt Chart
