Stepper motor as a generator??

[Jonathan]

If you're thinking of making a wind turbine then you might be interested in the (roughly) 1kW generator & variable pitch wind turbine I made:

(In no particular order)








The good thing with making the generator this way is:

• It's coreless, so no cogging = low cut-in speed. Energy density/efficiency is worse, but you make up for it with big strong magnets.
• Since you're winding the coils you can get the right voltage without gearing (less maintenance and SIMPLE).

My wind turbine does use a wind turbine, but not for the generator. It's to vary the pitch of the blades via a worm drive and bevel gears:






As you can see mine (along with many others) uses a hub (like a trailer wheel hub, except I made one to fit better) and tapered roller bearings. That means the rotor is mounted on six M12 rods which is plenty strong enough.

The reason I made my CNC router was to make the blades (3.1m diameter) for this wind turbine....which I've still not done as I keep changing my mind.