Dec 16th- Xplorers- Wind Turbines

The Xplorers continued work on their wind turbine prototypes:

This one above uses plastic cups as a pedestal.

This one(above) is sort of a Savonius-type vertical axis windmill( see sketch below). I pointed out that I would be surprised if it rotated, since it would catch wind in both directions. I have not seen it rotate yet.

This one above used  recycled blades from an RC helicopter. It used a Lego axle inserted through a hole in the balsa wood; this caused problems, since a bearing needs to restrict motion to rotation only, which this one does not. The student wanted to use Lego gears to increase the speed to the motor axle by having a large gear drive a smaller gear. I started to create a frame using Technics beams to try and hold the gears in correct position. This can be done--see http://www.moc-pages.com/moc.php/404210#nacelle

I left the student to finish it.

This group's turbine(above) was very finely crafted. They used a lot of hot glue. They asked Mr. Peloquin for help in using belts to connect the two turbines, and he sketched some ideas:

Lastly, the design below seemed like it might rotate, if the blade angles were adjusted:

I pointed out the difference between various prototype definitions-

Basic prototype categories[edit]

Prototypes explore different aspects of an intended design:

• A Proof-of-Principle Prototype serves to verify some key functional aspects of the intended design, but usually does not have all the functionality of the final product.
• A Working Prototype represents all or nearly all of the functionality of the final product.
• A Visual Prototype represents the size and appearance, but not the functionality, of the intended design. A Form Study Prototype is a preliminary type of visual prototype in which the geometric features of a design are emphasized, with less concern for color, texture, or other aspects of the final appearance.
• A User Experience Prototype represents enough of the appearance and function of the product that it can be used for user research.
• A Functional Prototype captures both function and appearance of the intended design, though it may be created with different techniques and even different scale from final design.^[5][6]
• A Paper Prototype is a printed or hand-drawn representation of the user interface of a software product. Such prototypes are commonly used for early testing of a software design, and can be part of a software walkthrough to confirm design decisions before more costly levels of design effort are expended.^[7]

( Wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype )