help/advice for small wind turbine installation

[Kiki van Caspel]

Hi Everyone,

I'm not very experienced in electronics, but I'm very eager to learn more. At the moment I'm doing a quite specific project where I could use some help with.

I'm building a small installation/sculpture which is powered by wind. I think it could work pretty simple, but maybe I'm wrong about that.

The idea is that a couple of small toy windmills (I'm making ones that are a bit bigger and stronger that average) power the installation. Every windmill is connected to a different part of the installation that starts moving when the windmills turns (see attached file). These small windmills will not generate much energy, but it should be enough to let an other small thing turn right?

So my first question is: Do you think it could work?
Then I need to know what I need to let it work; what kind of motors would you recommend? What components do I need in between the two motors? Or should I use a dynamo after the windmill and then a motor to move the installation?

It would be great if someone could give me some tips to help me out!

Cheers,
Kiki

 

[(*steve*)]

One option is to have the windmills charge a battery and the batteries power the sculpture *if* the batteries are sufficiently charged.

As for motors, it depends what you're doing. Almost certainly you'll want slow movement, and that means stepper motors or gearing. Stepper motors are harder to drive (and may require heading too).

You may be best off starting by finding suitable motors then determining battery requirements, and finally deciding how large/how many windmills you need to charge them.