Homemade GENERATOR GEARBOX | power almost any usb device.

lmao during your voiceovers you can hear 3d printers going in the background. This man is never wasting time

I have an idea. Instead of drill, connect it somehow with some gears with a bycycle. And then just sit on it and spin as much as possible so you can see how much voltage you can get. It might break, but i think its worth of trying.

3:1 is good, but don't forget to add/subtract a tooth from the larger cog. This means that all the teeth from one cog will mesh with all of the teeth of the other, reducing wear. At 3:17 it looks like you have a 20t/60t setup. A 20t/61t would be much better!

What a wonderful project. Not only did you explain the concept of gear ratio in a simple way to understand, but you also explained how alternating current works. I had to show my kid your video immediately. Your simple demonstration brought that concept over clearly. Thank you for that. I also like the comment lower down of using a bike on a trainer as the power source. Maybe you can make a project out of something like that. Imagine people sitting Zwift pedaling away, and generating enough power to charge a phone or other stuff.

That is a fun project to do. I really enjoyed how you explained the improvements on the gear design. Making arrowhead gears easy is one of the great advantages of printing them.
My wife and I tinkered with a similar design once and we used the DC motor of a truck windshield wiper as a generator, making the electrical setup a bit easier. Where these simple designs all fall down sadly is that while a human can easily go way beyond the power output of what a USB charger can take, spinning these devices for hours on end is not fun. So the endgame of these is adding a more powerful intermediary battery storage and then control the outgoing voltage and that is where we noped out of that project.

For directly charging most phones (including iPhones) you just have to short the data pins together. Many USB power supplies use this way to tell a connected device that up to 1 Amp can be delivered. Also, you should use one of those step-down converter board instead of a linear voltage regulator as the latter can only supply about 200mA at best without overheating if you don't attatch a heatsink. And they also require an input voltage that is at least 2V more than the output voltage, which usually isn't the case for the (by the way much more efficient) step-down boards.

Friend: Can I borrow your charger
This guy: Ok, sure
Friend: What is this?
This guy: spin it

Eventually this guy’s house is gonna be powered by a 3D printed generator

Awesome! I think it’d be more useful though if powered by some sort of potential energy storage like a rock tied to the device by string, that way you can just wind up the rock (or weight) and have a given amount of power without having to do it manually

The way you thoroughly explain every part you add is so awesome and shows awesome skill, thank you for that. I feel like I learned a lot!

Hi!. I actually did the same thing (Just the electrical part) for my engineering project this semester at college. I think the iPhone actually requires to be feed in a sequence of values. I used a TPS2511 in my project and that did the trick. While in community college another team actually made a mains powered IPhone charger. They used a 200omh resistor with no voltage in the data lines and theirs charged but with a limit in current. I think the iPhone can draw only 200mA on with the 200omh resistor. I don't like to make spam but there is a video of it working in my channel.

Very cool design. Excellent work.
I feel late to this, but it would definitely be cool to see a pedal powered one of these that you could put up against the wall, and generate some extra torque that way. Maybe get a bit more power from the system.

I'd scrap the belt, it looks cool, but it takes energy to bend the belt and overcome the additional friction.
Also the linear voltage regulator wastes excess voltage as heat. You could use a DC-DC converter like the LM2596 instead (ready to use boards available), which can convert almost all of the input power to 5V.
Many smartphones accept chargers with the data lines shorted together, you could try if that works.

The voltage regulator has a current limit.
Had the same problem while doing almost the same experience.
Still trying to find a way to regulate without having to make a huge complex circuit. Your generator is really well done!

You should find a way to pump the output power into 1 of those portable chargers you can get. So you could charge the portable charger (to build up a good amp level) and then when you need it you can fast charge the phone. Basically using the portable charge as a large capacitor.

It seems to me that rather than trying to power it entirely by hand with inconsistent force, you might be able to recycle energy to make it more efficient. For example, have you given thought to maybe setting up a system where you'd fill a reservoir of water, spin up the generator to remove the initial force input, and then have a waterwheel of some sort take over maintaining the output from the reserve you filled? I could see small versions of this set up in a basement so that grey water from bathing/showering/dishes could be reused to generate the power for phones, maybe?

You should put a 3.7v LiPo battery and a charge board in line with it to boost the voltage of the battery to 5v, then run your USB input off the board. This way you can store the power and charge once you have some built up.

Great vid and tut. I am also thinking about such kind of generator however by using gravity with a cord and weight, similar way used at an old mechanical clock. This system can be mounted on a wall and can charge a battery or powerbank. To charge the battery you need to manually rewind the weight to the highest position. When released, it starts the charge process. There must be a limit for the weight to fall down like at a mechanical clock so you need special gears for this. This must be not too slow and powerful enough (enough weigth to handle resistance) because when the generator (motor) provides current to the battery, the generator has some 'mechanical' (flux) resistance.
It would be great the system can run for a few hours, more than enough to charge the battery to full capacity. This system only needs one preparation for a cycle, gravity (free) and some time to charge it (but this is a normal procedure when charging).
What do you think, is this possible?

FULL BRIDGE RECTIFIER!!

If you want to make this more practical, have it charge a set of supercapacitors. That can work as a pool to hold the energy you're creating while the phone charges off of it.
The other thing I would change is to move from a hand crank that you constantly have to move to some kind of foot pedal that you can just press down release and press down because you can repeat that action without thought all day while sitting down doing something else... Similar to how sewing machines used to work before electric motors.

For improvement, maybe add sound/light indicator that beep/blink at certain interval to indicate the optimal cranking speed

Cool vid! Might be good to add something like a clutch so that the flywheel can coast when the crank stops. Since you seem to be nowhere near your own limit for torque (arm strength), a shorter crank handle should give you higher RPM.

Found your channel by accident.
So now I can say I'm loving physics by chance.
Amazing work.

I enjoy that while it not have been on your mind while making the video, your explanation of a coil surrounded magnet rotated by gears to create a current to charge a battery is exactly how an alternator operates in cars.

"damn it! I killed a phone" - Mehdi, after forgetting to add a voltage regulator

Awesome video. For the power you were outputting, the generator is hilariously oversized. I remember way back in the day making a handheld version of this that could do around 10W. Was loud as hell, very uncomfortable to hold, and strained your forearm (I still remember the cramps) but could charge a phone from dead to full in about 1.5 hours. To this day I don't think there exists anything you can buy at that size that can match it, mainly because it's impractical.
A more practical idea would be to shrink this way down and find someway to attach it to a bike with a decently sized battery for very reliable portable energy. That way you could have headlights and phone navigation that never needed external power.

Put the generator on free wheel so you don't have the gear drag after you stop cranking and it will continue to produce electricity. Also you can use a buck converter to make more amperage before you regulate the voltage.

I love this stuff. It takes simple concepts and produces something that mildly ... if best... interfaces with modern technology.
We have evidence of the Antikythera machine, showing that the ancients DID have knowledge of gears and gear boxes. It wasn't widespread, but likely the best scholars and highest governments knew of it.
It just amazes me, I watched a survivalist channel, where a guy was able to make iron from mud out of a riverbed. If you were from like 100 BCE and followed some old man hermit genius into the forest for a few days. He might be able to draw out iron and copper from the Earth. Form them into gears, making a gear box and a generator to spin. Then he could make a battery out of acid formed from rain water mixed with the sulfur in volcano domes. He could charge the battery and possibly a capacitor to shoot a bolt of lightning and strike a man dead from a distance. You would run and tell the nearest king that there is a witch in the forests doing demon magic.

I’m in 5th grade and this little video literally just made me understand all of how this stuff works my teacher would make it so much more confusing and a lot longer

As far as I understand, the effect of herringbone or helical gears running smoother than spur gears is based on that there is always at least one point where the teeth are engaged, at any angle. This would require that each tooth's end at one face of the wheel overlaps the next tooth's end on the opposite face.

this video is what exactly i've been looking for, thank you 3000 for providing us a very infomative video like this, keep it up!!!!

Ok this is pretty cool. I wonder if there's any waste energy in the AC-DC conversion, or in the smoothing out (like for reducing peaks or something). If there is, I wonder if it's possible to harness that to put it back into the crank shaft, making it easier to maintain that speed. Regenerative Generation or something

these videos help me with my science lessons and they're entertaining at the same time. keep up the good content 👍😃

a linear 5V regulator will require about 7V on the input to operate meaning you have to crank the generator even harder. for improved efficiency consider using an LDO regulator or getting fancy and use a buck/boost regulator that can boost lower voltages up and buck higher voltages down

You're well within the USB spec with 4.9V, any USB device should support supply voltages anywhere between 4.4V - 5.25V. The phone is probably trying to exceed your 200mA current limit though, by default it'll assume it can pull up to 500mA as the USB specification states and depending on what resistor configuration you put in the charger it'll use a different limit up to a point. The really fast chargers have to communicate with the phone over the USB data lines to unlock the higher limits i think though so those get a bit more complicated to design.

I learned what a full bridge rectifier is in this year, but I didn't see it being used so thank you 😊

If I were stuck on a island with a 3d printer and computer I’d want to Be with this guy.

I did this with two Nema17 stepper motors running on a compact 64:1 pulley system consisting of 3D-printed parts, quality bearings and GT2 timing belts. I found that I had to use large arrays of parallel signal diodes because of the fast frequencies of >50kHz on each phase at full crank. Normal power diodes did not work because when the speed of the motor got too fast, it felt like the resistance disappeared and the cranking handle felt rally weird, like a slipping clutch. I also found that the voltage would skyrocket and start shorting inside the motor if there was not enough load attached but this was solved by adding super capacitors.

this was my final year project, but instead of hand winding it, i did it using hydro. didnt think of using gears to increase the power ratio though, but cool stuff indeed!

this could be efficient since the more gears you add, the ratio multiplies and increasing speed and increasing the amperage and maybe the voltage too

hey, that generator is an amazing piece of work, the only faulty thing there is the electronic design. That 3 phase full rectifier is the way to go with AC, but if the motor is outputting around 10 VAC you are losing ~15% of that voltage in those diodes, maybe a DC motor could solve that. And last that regulator, try a switching regulator, some are as easy to use as a low drop out linear regulator.
This is great idea for a portable charger, excellent job

Dude literally just gave me an understanding towards Gear ratio’s timing better than Before😮

That was a really interesting video to watch! I had also made a similar project recently but I used a DC motor as the generator because it was easier attach a USB port onto. Is there any reason why you used an AC motor instead of a DC motor? Would love to hear!

Entering in to the electronics field, you can build a full range converter to improve the system performance.
That will stop the power loss due to the voltage regulator.

That's a great project. How do you protect your device from overcharge, if you spin the handle too fast?

Your alternative/direct current conversion explanation was better than my electronics teacher in college.

Maybe you can add a 1:2 gear into that so it’s ratio is 1:18 and it would generate a lot more electricity, and maybe you could add an LED with a circuit board so you can specify an amount of voltage and whenever you exceed that it just sends the extra to the LED?

Using a switching regulator ( buck/boost converter) instead of the linear regulator you will have a more efficient solution.

That linear regulator could be eating up over half of your total power or more, depending on the motor voltage

Just a suggestion, Why not use Wire string to make the fly weel havier?
that way, it helps with structural stability

Could you make this such that the gears are spun by a weight which slowly lowers, allowing you to just put the weight back up again, removing the requirement for constant action to maintain it?

This is pretty cool I don't know if it'll help but I had the idea if you put a another flywheel at the beginning of the system or just change the location of the flywheel it might give you a chance to not have to crank all the time

Wow you made me understand gears and a Generator in less than 10 minutes pure Genius you need to be instructor professor I've been looking for someone to simplify these two subjects now I need to find a place that could you do a 1:20 rpm one revolution to 20 rev I just learned speed increasors gears are called overdrives or mutlitpliers trying to find specific gears with large diameter like 72 tooth with 3/4 inch bores with set screws and 40 tooth with a 11 tooth side or change gear built in or insert is crazy I am so new to all this but fascinated.

i love the 3d printing sound in the background. this man doing work all the time.

Not sure if this is a silly question but what is stopping you putting a generator on each of the gears or for cost effectiveness only on the last few gears? The extra inertia to overcome would still provide a decent return on power and wouldnt be too bad if was just on last couple of gears?

Great work! The explanation is easy to understand too! Something harder than it seems.

Finally someone who actually makes the content we want to see

Well done sir. This is fantastic.

I'd be interested in seeing the CAD workflow in designing this

Appreciate the dedication man!!!

You might want to add weights to take control of the lever and transform it into a gravity reliant generator to power it with constant force and so you don't underpower the system.

This is a very good proof of concept!
You can get more electricity out of the flywheel definitely, perhaps by coiling copper wire yourself and having magnetic weights in the flywheel rotate around it, instead of the other way around?

You are a good teacher 👍Keep up the good work.

omg i came up with a very similar design creating a homemade generator it is crazy. i used hand wound coils though and made much less power but the construction and concept is nearly identical.

I made a homemade hand crank generator for a science fair. The theme was to be green so we made a bunch of charging methods. There was a wind turbine, sunlight panel, the hand crank charger, and a potato charger. The potato one was the worst to make. It took a ton of potatoes. Anyways, the only ones that REALLY worked was the sunlight and hand crank. The wind turbine would only work when it was really windy, and it’s just inconvenient to have like 20 potatoes to charge your phone. The crank took forever, though.

i always wonder why there isn't a pedal generator, like those of old sewing machines...

I've designed one that can be mounted to a wall or hung on the ceiling where weight can turn the gears and a reset mechanism that pulls that eight back up once it reaches the ground. It also feeds the output to a battery that powers the resetter...

Wonderful Video and Work, You might Point Out that The Diodes are necessary to allow for the Currents to pass one way, so you Cancel Out The Alternaring Phase, and you get The Distinct +/-

That looks like a fun do-it-yourself project. I kind of miss back when I had time to just up and do random stuff like that I wouldn't mind building one of those and having a decent battery Bank pack build it into a stationary bike so that I can exercise charge your battery bank and use the battery Bank to charge random stuff around the house like the weed wacker and my drills and stuff

awesome video man! have you thought about printing some other attachment to turn the gears and motor? i guess im thinkin similar to wind, or other natural ways for energy. this could be an awesome homemade low energy kit or something

Now that I've seen this and another video where you used a weight to spin the gears, I'm kind of curious if it's possible to make a really long gear box with a weight on the slowest gear to power something.

I wonder if you could make something like the GravityLight so that you don't have to manually turn the crank.

You should try making one that gears up much higher and connect it to a treadle. I won't suggest 3D-printing the _entire_ thing, but done right it should offer a heap more power than a simple crank.

What if you had a higher gear ratio and a system that allows the generative disk thing to not stop when you stop turning the lever?
Basically turn a bike into a giant generator that can reach insane speeds and the momentum of the speed can run long after you stop because its spinning freely

9:09 woow.. thats soo cool!! and satysfying - that sounds and "free" power and marbles😍

Very informative and interesting. Keep it up!

Supposedly, you can generate DC power more efficiently using a dynamo instead of generating AC power with an alternator and rectifying that into DC. A dynamo is not particularly tricky to build. You might want to investigate that. It won't magically make it practical, but it could be some interesting additional content.

3D printing the transmission/timing belts out of TPU is the most 9 MILLION IQ move I've ever seen

You should add some electromagnets in the dynamo, to increase the magnetic field ;
My guess is it would continuously increase the torque required to turn it, but it would also continuously increase the productivity

Hook up an electric motor directly to the handle, powered by the generator, then give it a little spin. The increasing gear ratio will cause steadily more electricity, and in an electric motor, more electricity means more speed. Once you’ve done that, see how long it takes for the circuit board to explode (Or the motor, whichever comes first).

that's awesome. do you think there's a room for improvement with the gearbox? 3d printing is cool. but if it becomes mainstream and available to more people we will have our own plastic factories at home lol

Resistors don't limit voltage but current ;) nice video though. Love the prints!

Love it! I was wondering if there's a way to mechanically prevent a wheel from spinning beyond a certain number of revolutions using gears.

I learned more about how electronics worked from this than from my second college physics course

I also build a gearbox but its made out of Lego, because i sadly have no 3d printer. Have you tried to connect the gearbox to a bicycle, would be fun to see :D

So, in theory, if you were to create a system that used this generator box, but to have it be ran by a water wheel system, would your only limitation then be the water that is in the reservoir?

Just loved your content, keep it that way

Hey bro, cause of your gear ratio, most of the difficulty of the turns is due to the gears (not a bad thing btw), but if you just put on a slightly bigger generator to the back of it (perhaps to bump it up to 5v 1a) i bet you wouldnt even feel a difference.

One idea would be to connect it to the rear bike wheel. You would get a lot more power and if you bike to work it could give your phone a decent charge...

The different sized teeth are just a system optimization small difference but it does work and helps with any slightly binding spots

Instead of spinning it by your hand, can you make it spin for a long time by connecting a heavy object to the edge of the slowest moving gear?

There really is just something about gear based mechanisms that makes them so satisfying and fun to see and work with.

You should try to make it run off itself, make it start manually then it powers a system to spin itself constantly. Idk if this is possible just think it would be cool

Amazing video :) Great job!

I saw so many videos to try to explain how generators work but you did it in 40 seconds!

I have negative 3 iq... but you explained this in a way it actually made sense... props to you mate this was very interesting

Make one that either has a little bit bigger of a generator, or just a flipped dc motor, (If you flip the diodes on stuff it makes energy), or make it go faster. I'd probably choose a bigger motor so it's easier on the gearbox. But anyhow, that should help with the charging. I would love to see what I said or something like that, it's would be the same size too, nust a bigger hole for the generator. If you dod that this would totally isnspire me to make something like this for a blackout.

Cool starting project would like to see u scale it up some more. . Good job with this print

how did you cutout the hexagon shape for the bolt on the print? amazing stuff

Im not really sure how all of this works, but would it be possible to create some kind of push pedal powered gear box like this? Similar maybe to those spinning pottery wheels where you pump a pedal on the ground, but you could do something like this were you power a small machine?