So my boy turned 8, and for his birthday, he got this great little DIY project from a friend:
Well today we finally got around to putting it together, and it worked great… sort of…
See, it’s pretty much a little turbine connected to a small dc motor, which is directly connected to a small red LED. Once assembled, give the turbine a flick, and walla, light.
Okay, well we live in a VERY windy part of the island, and I don’t think the designers planned for a lot of wind, because you’re supposed to screw it onto the top of a plastic bottle, which is a bad idea because it will blow over with much wind. So we tied ours down. Great! Problem solved.
Oh yeah, one more thing, remember how it’s super windy here? Whelp, the LED was fried within seconds of seeing direct wind. Curious, I hooked up a multimeter to the leads and took it out in the wind. 10 Volts+ during gusts! Yeah, the tiny LED wasn’t made for that.
I first thought I’d replace it and install a resistor… but while looking for another LED, my boy brought me his cheap little remote control car with a stripped out gearbox, and explained to me that it had lights in the front we could use. Brilliant! And there were two! Two LEDs in series could handle double the voltage! (hopefully enough)
Well, after 30 minutes of scavenging and soldering, with the helpful hand of an 8 year old, this is our result:
