Scratch

what-the wrote:

Hi. Recently an old pedestal fan of mine was replaced with a new one and now I have an old one just lying there. What can I do with it?

To help you out.
I think the motor's output is 50 watts.
I still have the controller with 4 settings. Off, Low, Medium, High
I still have the fan blades.
On the bottom of the motor is a stand which can rotate back and forth when a switch is pressed

You can vote on the following or submit something. Please note I have no welding tools so it should be simple.

This is what I have come up with so far.

A Rotating Christmas tree!! (A rotating platform) (Easy and quick. I have have some old metal from a door)
Some kind of robot (Just thought of that now so who knows where that'll go)
Very slow electric bike (Expensive might as well buy a kit)
A Blender?

The choice is easy A ROBOT 



I once started to make a battle robot out of 2 old lawnmower motors (From robot wars).

OB6160

Last edited by ob6160 (2010-12-13 09:03:09)

what-the wrote:

ob6160 wrote:

The choice is easy A ROBOT 



I once started to make a battle robot out of 2 old lawnmower motors (From robot wars).

OB6160

Hmm. The motor doesn't have a reverse. I wonder if I could use a switch to change the  direction of the current. Probably depends on how the motor is setup otherwise I will need a gear box. (For wheels)

Wait I know how it can work. I could use the motor with a spinning blade and it could cut things.

There's a lot of things I can do with this motor. I might make a rotating platform first as this will be the first time I've actually construted something with moving parts.

On a side note this reminds me of the time when I had to make a marble race track out of recycled material for school. I ended up being sick on the day so I didn't get to do it. When I got back to school they said it was a fun thing. That night at home I constructed a marble race track out of toilet rolls and newspaper. It was awesome and it had drops and turns.

(Lol google indexed this post after about a minute. I found it searching)

Hmm.

Is the motor a DC one?

If it is you can reverse the rotation by swapping the power supply around 


OB6160

what-the wrote:

ob6160 wrote:

what-the wrote:

Hmm. The motor doesn't have a reverse. I wonder if I could use a switch to change the  direction of the current. Probably depends on how the motor is setup otherwise I will need a gear box. (For wheels)

Wait I know how it can work. I could use the motor with a spinning blade and it could cut things.

There's a lot of things I can do with this motor. I might make a rotating platform first as this will be the first time I've actually construted something with moving parts.

On a side note this reminds me of the time when I had to make a marble race track out of recycled material for school. I ended up being sick on the day so I didn't get to do it. When I got back to school they said it was a fun thing. That night at home I constructed a marble race track out of toilet rolls and newspaper. It was awesome and it had drops and turns.

(Lol google indexed this post after about a minute. I found it searching)

Hmm.

Is the motor a DC one?

If it is you can reverse the rotation by swapping the power supply around 
http://robot.avayanex.com/wp-content/up … tation.jpg

OB6160

I think it is DC but the whole thing plugs into 230 - 240v AC

This is all the specifications I can see. (This is written on the case that contains a tiny switch controller)

Input 230 -240v Max AC (standard power spec in England)
Output 50hz   50 watts

The cord containing all the little cords from the controller to the motor says constant DC current. So I think it is DC. I can't be sure because I don't have stuff the measure it.

Also what's strange is there's no Earth wire anywhere.

If it's insulated well most appliances don't generally need a ground connection 
However the mains voltage is Ac so you might have a transformer in there converting it into dc 

Also if you can you could wire it up to a sealed lead dc battery 

I bet you could get it running that way safely without the mains.

Best Regards

OB6160

You could use the blades to cut stuff, but also use it as wind power to move the robot.

I know nothing about mechanics, so I can't suggest anything, but this sounds like a fun thing to do.

Sorry to double post.

I took apart the spinning platform and mounted it on to a bike and then I tested it. The results weren't that great so at best the fan motor would power a small robot. More information about the bike is on my blog.

http://technologyintelligence.wordpress … -flatform/


I found out some more specifications on the motor. Because it is a fan motor it is single phase AC and appears to be an induction motor. This means that to use it as a generator I have to have it on and make it spin faster than what it normal does.

That gets rid of my plan to use it as a wind turbine to recharge batteries but I could still use it with a petrol motor to convert the mechanical energy output into electrical energy.

The only other think I can think of doing with it is to make a robot. But it will have a very long extension cord or $1000 of batteries with a DC to AC converter.

Any other ideas anyone?

Last edited by what-the (2010-12-15 00:39:12)