Lego Air Turbine: Generating Power From Thin Air!

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Can we turn compressed air into electricity using Lego? Let’s find out! In this video, I experiment with a couple different methods of generating movement and energy from compressed air. Which is better, and what gadgets can we power?

The first method is a standard piston-based lego pneumatic engine. This takes compressed air, and turns it into rotational energy via a lego pneumatic cylinder. This then drives a magnetic flywheel, which rotates within some copper wires, generating a small current. This is reasonably reliable, but needs more pistons to drive smoothly. Otherwise it’s quite prone to stalling when a significant load is added (e.g., a high-power light).

What excites me however is the prospect of an air-powered lego turbine. If we can spin some fins fast enough, even though the torque is small, we can use a gear-reduction mechanism to output a much greater torque, albeit at a slower rotation. I like this idea, because this setup allows us to spin the magnetic flywheel up to a great speed before a load starts drawing power at its required voltage. This means we can keep the generator from stalling, and we can force more air into the system to power gadgets that require more power.

Let’s see what we can power!

#lego #pneumatic #generator #turbine