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10W Mini Turbine Generator from eBay
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ส.ค. 2024
- Testing a mini turbine hydro generator from eBay and then opening it up and taking a look inside.
This little water turbine generator is pretty common on eBay and is available with various output voltages or an unregulated version where the voltage can spike as high as 80 volts provided the water pressure is high enough.
I opted for the 5 volt version thinking I could use it to power USB devices and charge USB power banks. I expected to get less than 10 watts but didn't expect to top out at around 0.3 Watts!
I removed my shower faucet and screwed the generator in place, a fairly high water pressure test. I doubt you'd be able to get higher pressure without using specialized equipment and certainly wouldn't get that high a pressure from a stream or river, even if you built a mini dam.
For those with a good stream or river, you might want to consider modifying an old washing machine motor to act as a generator.
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If you want an easy DIY hand crank generator, you might want to check out of my other video.. th-cam.com/video/5F40YlfolTM/w-d-xo.html
Gadget Addict try adding some sort of grease?
Thanks for actually measuring the current etc, most people on here light up a bulb and claim they are making 5KW of power from their hardrive motor powered generator. And in all reality they have hidden 220v wires powering their tv / waterpump/ lightbulbs
this is more practical and informative than the whole tesla turbine thing and saves me $5
Thank you for providing a comprehensive review of this device.
It'd be nice to have maybe 10 of these, behind a kitchen cupboard (that actually produced a good amount of energy) all in series so you could then have a hybrid of electric element in your boiler as well as gas. It might only provide a few degrees of heat, but that might reduce your consumption of gas (and your gas bill)
Or maybe charge up a battery to provide power to lights around the kitchen / home.
Or maybe a similar item that would be good to go inside a drain pipe, so you'd make energy every time it rained.
I've tested the 12V version, It produces 1 Watt @ 12V. You'd need a water pressure of about 3bar and a flow rate of around 15 litres per minute to generate that!
Yikes. What a waste of time lol
You need diode to connect battery, if not the mini hydro eat the battery power qnd the rotation will reverse, thqts why when you connect it the rotation was slowing..
Thanks for sharing, you can imagine pretty soon they will have these connected onto the mains water inlet charging up SLA Batteries/Lithium and an invertor to save on bills, Sure the instantaneous wattage is not so large; but if you store that energy over a days water consumption; the saving would be significant. Pretty easy system to install, hardest part would be to integrate the electric supplies together thru the house; though possible.
I like the idea, but at 2 to 4 hrs of water flow per day, from a large family, it would have minimal results. A steady flow is key with hydro electric.
If some one took this idea and built a waterproof cubby hole in the shower and then added some low wattage lights above, you would have non costing lights in the shower while you were showering. BTW they do have shower head lights, and those are great too but I want shower lights above...
I’m 4 years late to see this. Why don’t people use this nowadays as a source of power at home. At least It has been developed during these years. And I think we can use it at bathrooms to light up.
I don't have one of these turbines, so I can't see the parts/circuit used to regulate down to 5V. But the problem may be that they use a linear regulator on the little circuit board instead of an efficient switching regulator. This wastes tons of power when the generator itself produces higher voltages and would account for the dismal performance. Another clue is that there is a version of this water turbine on eBay that has a 12V regulator and another that is "0-80V", which I assume is no regulator - just rectification. So it seems the generator can generate 80V maximum. But I assume you'd never actually see such a high voltage output unless under no load.
So let's optimistically assume that the raw, unregulated yet rectified DC output of this little turbine can go up to 80V at, say, the claimed 10W/80V = 125mA at the highest rated water pressure. They put a linear regulator on there to output 5V DC at 125mA. The linear regulator drops the 80V down to 5V by dissipating (80V-5V) x 125mA = 9.375W of energy, which means it is only 6% efficient when hit with the maximum rated pressure/flow.
For lower pressures, the amount of energy dissipated by the linear regulator would proportionately decrease, meaning the efficiency would be higher. But it still would be poor.
I'm going to order one of these mini turbines with no regulation (the "0-80V" version) or just remove the regulator on a 5V or 12V version and then run the output to a"Sunkee DC-DC Converter Module Step Up Step and Down In 3.5-28V Out 1.25-26V Adjustable" converter from Amazon. Because this converter is an automatic step up and step down switching regulator using buck-type regulation, it will be able to output any fixed voltage highly-efficiently (75%-90%) with little loss at the full range of pressure/flow into this little turbine. In doing this, we may be able to squeeze way more current out of this at 5V.
I'll post my results if this works. It all depends on whether they are using a linear regulator on the board. Maybe I'm wrong and they are already using a switching regulator.
That's a very good point. Of course it all relies on them using a linear regulator rather than switching. I'm actually quite curious now so I think I'm going to open it up again and check. Did you ever buy one? Do you have any updates?
I actually just received my mini turbine a couple days ago. It's a 12V version. I opened it up and quickly reverse-engineered the little circuit. First, the 3 wires from the windings on the generator are run through 6 diodes, which form a 3-phase voltage rectifier, with "+" and "-" (ground) outputs. You can Google "3-phase voltage rectifier" to see how it works and the resulting waveform.
Next, the "+" output of the rectifier is run to the collector of a Darlington transistor, which is a very high gain transistor made by internally cascading two bipolar transistors. This "+" output is also run through a 680 ohm resistor and zener diode voltage divider to ground. The output of this voltage divider is connected to the base of the Darlington transistor. The emitter output of the Darlington transistor is filtered with a small capacitor and then output to the user.
So what does this little Darlington transistor circuit do? It forms a very inexpensive linear regulator. I have yet to probe this circuit with my oscilloscope, but if a 13.4V zener diode is used, then the dual B-E drop on the Darlington will result in a roughly 12V regulated output at the transistor's emitter. At generator voltages above 13.4V, there is a voltage drop across the C-E of the transistor.
This means that the circuit is inefficient. If, for example, the generator is outputting 30V with a high pressure/volume water source, the transistor will drop the 30V down to 12V. That means that (30V - 12V) x current output = power consumed by the transistor and radiated as heat = WASTED power.
A better, but more expensive, solution is to remove the on-board linear regulator and use a separate efficient switching regulator to generate the desired voltage output. I'll give this a try in the next few days with the "Sunkee DC-DC Converter Module Step Up Step and Down In 3.5-28V Out 1.25-26V Adjustable" converter from Amazon that I ordered.
welfarebum Thanks for the very detailed explanation. It looks like your initial theory or expectation was correct. Considering how cheap switching regulators are and that these turbines aren't that cheap, I'm surprised they decided to go the super cheap route at the cost of making the device so undesirable.
The little turbine cost me $13 while the switching regulator cost me $10. I think there are two issues with using a switching regulator. First, it requires a lot more parts than the simple Darlington linear regulator circuit and would push up the retail cost of the turbine to $20+. But more importantly, the switching regulator is physically too big to easily fit in the turbine's case.
The inefficiency of the regulator circuit should be especially bad for the 5V version of the turbine because, as soon as the rectifier starts outputting anything above 5V, the power is wasted in the transistor's voltage drop. In the 12V version, it doesn't start becoming inefficient until the rectifier outputs something greater than 12V at higher water pressures.
I'll play around with this circuit in the next week and plot out some results. I want to attach a fixed load on the raw, rectified output and plot voltage versus water pressure and/or flow. With the voltage readings and fixed resistor value, I can then calculate current and power.
My goal is to remove or bypass the linear regulator then use the switching regulator to convert to 5V. I want to see if I can generate 500mA at 5V, which is enough to directly charge a cell phone.
If I can't get to 500mA at 5V, then there are two possible solutions that I'd like to play around with:
1. Use the turbine output to trickle-charge a battery (lead-acid?) and then run the lead-acid battery output to a DC-to-DC converter (switching) to charge the cell phone.
2. 3D print a more efficient turbine. It would be a fun little project.
I've tested this turbine further and I found similar results that Gadget Addict found. It can output around 200+ mW, which is nowhere near the 10W number that I've seen in some eBay ads.
My son and I used it for a school Science Fair project. Rather than charging a cell phone directly, we ran the output of the generator to a DC-to-DC converter (switching) outputting 6.95V and trickle charged a 6V lead acid battery. From there, the lead acid battery is run to another DC-to-DC converter to produce the regulated 5V needed to charge a phone.
So, in theory, you could run our system for 24 hours using water from a creek or large, multi-story roof top during an extended rainstorm and have enough charge on the lead acid battery to fully charge a cell phone or two once a day.
But a better solution would be to find or design a more efficient yet small pelton-wheel turbine and generator/motor. If you calculate it out, one should be able to generate 10W+ from an average faucet if an efficient turbine and generator were used.
I know this is an old video but you went from a 3/4 inch input to what appeared to be 3/8 or 1/2 inch on the output side. Wouldnt that significantly reduce the flow?
I think you need to produce more pressure. The water isn't pressurised once it exits the faucet. Perhaps you'd get better results if you place a cap with a smaller hole at the end of your hose :)
I think it's their voltage rectification/regulator board that is the weak link. Try using your own full wave bridge rectifier and then an automotive type 12 volt to 5 volt 2 amp phone charging voltage regulator.
Where are you located? United Kingdom? I ask because in much of the UK, showers, sinks and toilets are plumbed to a cistern in the attic or top floor and only have gravity pressure from there. The shower in the upper floor, especially, has very little pressure, but even a floor down, 10 feet below, only has 4 psig of pressure.
Versus in the USA and Canada, where fixtures are connected directly to a high pressure sources (city water - "the mains" in the UK, or a pressure tank topped up from one's own well). The lowest pressures would be 20-40 psig, most are in the range of 40-60 and I've seen household pressures between 60 and 100 psig if your house is lower elevation than most.
From what I could hear in the video, it sounded like pretty low pressure coming from that shower. The potential energy is a stream of water is proportional to pressure x flow rate so if you're at 5 psig instead of 50 psig, there would be only 1/10 the potential energy in that water source.
You’re incredibly wrong. Our showers and everything else are connected to the city water, we don’t store water inside our house and our water pressure is extremely high in comparison to what I’ve experienced in the USA.
This will work in some water sources in the philippines. Specially in maynilad water pipe serving to the residencial homes. The power collected might use to light some street light and charge the battery of street light during day time.
Should adapt with decent rainwater collection from RV roofs (obviously fir both water and MICRO hydro)in tandem with solar and perhaps horizontal wind turbine perhaps?
How do you remove the power limiter?
Sir, can you please tell me what was that electrical circuit inside it
thanks. I have one of these, yet to try it. an hoping it'll produce enough power from the outflow pipe of my fish pond filter to power the UV sterilizer - just as an experiment. we'll see. your experiment is interesting
It's good to see Peewee Herman is still keeping busy educating.
Im jk ty for the review
Little late to this one but I m wondering if some of your issue was the outlet hose. When a hydro unit spins it uses up the waters kinetic energy and along with it a lot of the water pressure. I m wondering if the exit hose you had on it was causing backpressure on the little turbine and therefore limiting its possible output speed. Maybe better to have little to no outlet hose ??
That is a useful generator for blackouts so you can have a shower.
It would have been interesting if you tried lubricating the motor to reduce friction
Thanks, saved me wasting my money. The only decent small/portable hydro generator I can find is the waterlily 15watt but very expensive and out of stock.
thanks. would it be more usefull if we connect it in series? i mean hook up 2 or more thos turbine together to increase voltage.
I wonder if you could use something similar but a little bigger in a circuit to charge a batter or operate a pump. Set up a lower tank and a higher tank, pump water up to the top and then use a siphon method to get the water back down to the lower tank, flowing through the generators
Good demo, thanks. It shows exactly what you can get from 'x' amount of volume and 'y' amount of water pressure through one of these devices, 280ma x 5volts, or about 1.4watts, pretty sad ay! Thanks for the share.
I kind of expected it to be 10x less power than advertised. like most mini amplifiers, radio, speaker, etc ...
Hi great work.
Please can u refer me to any journal or article that talks about this phenomenon
Saya sudah coba turbin mini ini berturut-turut nonstop 24jam. Tidak sampai 2 bulan bocor bagian dalamnya. Akhirnya rusak deh. Harga di pasaran 80rb++ sampai seratus ribu hanya menghasilkan
Can we put the turbines in series?
If i use an electric pump to shower will i be able to use this to power the pump to pump the water to the generator and make power to pump the water out?
Would be great to see somthing like that actuly make usefull power the idear is there should try improve on it it for follow up video great work on this one 👍
All motor and generator are vulnerable to magnetic manipulation because of ion in water affect the overall performance and hydraulic motor are the safest way for future mechanical power
What about putting 4-5 of these generators in a row? You'd still potentially be able to get a decent flow rate if you turn the tap on more, right?
I guess that's something you could consider. But considering each component has a certain loss, it's probably a lot more efficient to simply buy a better turbine from the start and only have one of them.
@@GadgetAddict true! Thanks for the reply!
Oh Sheldon Cooper!! You started with TH-cam now...
Bazinga!
I'm not sure if there was other versions available when you got that one but the one's available today are unregulated, you need an MPPT Charge Controller to make any use out of it but it's definitely better than the 5V version... Without the built-in 5V regulator, it will output up to 80V.
By the way, your water pressure kinda sucks, maybe you should have tried the front garden tap, it might have had much better pressure...
Thanks for that great video and the analysis of this mini turbine generator. You suggested (8:17) trying a larger turbine that might perform better. Do you have a specific recommendation? I have not seen anything larger than these tiny things available. I really am looking for a lower pressure, higher flow device that could work with a rainwater input at about 9 psi.
I have actually spent hours searching on ebay, TH-cam, and Google to see if anyone has ever documented an actual rainwater device or system that generates power, even a watt or two. So far I have come up empty. Most are videos of devices like this that require household water pressure, typically 20-40 psi. For hydropower, this would only be available if you have a head of 40-80 feet to create the pressure needed.
Did you manage to find anything?
I got one and it could only.light)up a 3 watts bulb as per my analysis it can only produce around 3 v to 3.75 volts.
I wish to change the module my generator is the 80v 220ma . My water pressure isnt enough for the gen my question is if i change the module for a tp4650 or microusb boost charger what do you think will happen?
what is torque produced or give the rpm of the turbine shaft?
Can 10 Walt mini turbine generate air pump 7 walt? With volt difference?
WATT IF IT WENT ON THE BOTTOM OF A POWERED BOAT OR SAILING DINGHY THIS WOULD GIVE LIGHT FROM WATER PASSING THROUGH A TUBE WITH THIS WATER TURBINE
The 5V regulator could be burning few watts. The two glass diodes could be zeners that clamp the voltage to not go too high. They could be burning some power too. I would advice to remove the capacitor and the regulator and put a high voltage capacitor - 63V, clamp that to 48V using TVS and regulate it with switching converter.
how many inches is the small water turbine??
Dear sir i would like to know, is it mini turbine generator can increase water flow rate
Using inverter for this turbine 12v DC to 220v ac
What if you had a ton of these connected together onto some thing like a garden hose could you create lots of power?
Yep you are right
Less than if each one had its own intake. You would create destructive back pressure otherwise.
Thank you for saving my dollar from buying that dc motor.
amazing work! thank you! i wanted to power a plant grow led light bulb from an offgrid nearby small river stream. There is an old water wheel there and these lamps are usually 127v. I'm trying to figure out the equipment needed and how to install it. Generator, inversor, etc? I'm a complete newbie in the subject, so any help is appreciated! I'm in Sao Paulo, Brazil. thank you so much!
I was thinking about putting 5 in a row?
It would likely be more efficient and easier to just buy one larger one.
I've been looking for a larger one, and so far no lucky. Which would you recommend for charging a 12v or 24v battery?
Gabriel Villanueva just don't do them in a row because the force of the water pressure will slow it down maybe have each one with a single pvc going through it... I ordered two just got them will test out
Water is free it falls from the sky, and you cannot waste water because it does not go away!
Thanks for testing it out! Very cool technology but you’re right. Not very effective. Love your videos! Wish i can make my own :/
After watching the video. Did you think about how you had the turbine placement. if you go back and watch you had the bulk of the turbine facing down. which means the water is fighting against it self. Did you happen to try inverting it. So it looks more like a sail shell. So the water works with gravity?
Hmm .interesting ..I'm looking to charge a 12v leasure battery from tap water .Anybody know where I can buy a decent mini hydro turbine for this guys ?
Where can I find plans on how to make a generator from an old washing machine? I have a steam where I could test it.
I guess here on TH-cam. There's many videos about doing that :) Washing machine motors are great for that.
Washing machine motors can generate electricity?
can I get the link for it on ebay
Add more of them!
Foxy Hype
A co-worker of mine had the idea to add a generator to his water main. I told him it wouldn't work because the water isn't constantly running and he got all salty for shooting down his stupid idea.
Can it charging a car battery??
Have you ever found a good alternative for this? Just looking to light up a few led strips.
I've not found anything better, sorry.
For a lot of people, solar would really be the easier and better option.
Even in overcast conditions, a large affordable solar panel can produce a reasonable amount of power.
@@GadgetAddict Copy that. I just have this small stream beside my farmhouse and was thinking of a way to somehow utilize it. Solar panels still need a battery to work at night. Water turbines don't. And water flows 24/7.
Good point.
There's a lot of projects that use alternators. That's a good way if you can find a cheap second-hand unit and attach some kind of prop.
@@GadgetAddict I will look into that. Thank you for the info!👍
Hi, with the same turbine, or 3 of theme, can you heat the same water?, I mean, can you have hot water from the shower???, thanks.
No. It takes a lot of power to heat water. The average instant shower is 2000-6000 watts
These little turbines can barely output a couple of watts
Great job.
EXACTLY AS AN EMERGENCY ITS GREAT IF YOU HAVE A LARGE WATER SUPPLY TO RUN OFF IN ADRY PERIOD FOR EXAMPLE WATERING AN ORCHARD WHERE A FEW LIGHTBULBS MIGHT BE VERY USEFULL COULD IT RUN A LIGHTBULB OR SEVERAL AT VERY LOW WATTAGE FOR EMERGENCY IF IT WAS BIGGER AND TESLA MAGNETIC BEARINGS ON THE SLICKEST BEARINGS WOULD IT TURN FASTER AND GIVE 10 WATTS THE WATER HAS TO COME FROM SOMEWHERE AND IT HAS TO GO SOMWHERE
Do you need a generator to do this?
would it work better if you used off peak water?
nope
Interesting and well made video. Thanks
great bid buddy, I just got mine rated for max 80v, min, 5v, doesn't say mah or watts, how did you use it?
I may be wrong but I think you misread the Chinese to English translation of what you are working with (That and e-bay descriptions are horrible at best when buying cheap). I don't think you have a generator my friend. That is a flow meter. It only goes to 5v with low current because it is supposed to present a voltage relative to the flow rate. Exessive current would blow up your arduino ;)
You could make it a generator by removing the rectifying and regulator circuitry and go direct to the motor. Add you own low drop rectifier and I'm sure you will get more than 5W.
I'd be returning that pos and show them the video of it failing
thank you for you video ; -)
can charge phone ok?
Girl down below got it right.
excellent
Chinnes rubish! ! ! ! ! ! !
All motor and generator are vulnerable to magnetic manipulation because of ion in water affect the overall performance
Do you think that by using two of these, then wiring them in parallel that the amperage would be more desirable?
Mate, I know I'm late. But it'd probably be smarter to get the 12v version
how about adding 2,3 or more of them and putting them in series?
nice toy !!!
Can I use it for a model of a hydroelectric power station? The model has only 2 meters fall height
PianoDrumZ nope it requires your water pressure to be at around 40-50 psi to function.
thanks man!
how to raise the amperage my brother? Do you know?
untuk menaikkan ampere bagaimana saudaraku? Apakah anda tahu?
Hi, hello, I would like to know the maximum rpm that the turbine moves as I couldn't find it on the seller's description..
Its not 10 watt its about 0.5 watts. Max 100 mA usyally a bit less
I made a project and putting them 10 in a row. Can i just simply jump the turbine to each other and store it in a battery?
Yes I want to see what happens hooking multiple ones into the water line.
It wont work, the first one or two would use up most of the waters kinetic energy and the back pressure from the ones further down the line would probably lower the output of the first as well
se consiguen de mayor + capacidad ?
can u conect 2 or 3 of them pumps 2gether 2 gather more power ?
Thanks for the warning.
That low efficiency regulator won't be helping too much!
So Free = 3
i would have thought you get more power to maybe it was a crook one ?
+Kriss Bartlett It's possible I just got unlucky. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anyone else who's actually run water through the turbine, just general reviews without testing it lol!
can connect 5 watt bulb?
where did you buy that sir and how much
+ivan cardenas From eBay, a seller in China. It cost 6 USD / 280 PHP, including free shipping :)
Oh, here come the safety police again.. face-palm
Building it into the aquarium filter lul
hello you can give me the link of the items of ebay for make the turbine?
You look like Sheldon Cooper from Bigbang 😅😅😅
china math is strange. i bought a 5000/20000 watt inverter/80 amp charger and it won't do much more than 2000 watts/30 amp charge. blew the fuse,and it's only 25 amps? the fuse in my crappy 300 watt inverter ,has a 30 amp fuse. crazy.
Will it be better if Steam is going through it?
and could you recomend a bigger one?
Cool if they could make one power the electric shower head
Bazinga!!! Lol. Haha
this is just a water flow sensor... is not for power generation... produce 3.3V to 4.5V to indicate the flow....
I did it quickly and efficiently with instructions from Avasva website.