ElectroCeps

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  Image of the prototype as a whole

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  front view of the prototype

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  Image showing the top frame and the big wheel

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  Image of the big wheel

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  Image of the small wheel

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  Image of the gear system

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  The dynamo

Inspiration

This project was inpired from the capstone project I worked on this semester, It is the gravity light, it has a similar build structure and components, but it has hugely different results.

What it does

The usage of alternative energies is a goal that not only some nations prioratize, It is probably one of the major issues for the whole world now. This can be addressed by my project “ElectroCeps”. ​

The ElectroCeps is a small transportable machine that produces an amount of electricity through a gym equipment machine. ​

The project depends on converting the gravitational force and potential energy of the moving of weight while the exercise into kinetic energy and then into electric one through a recycled dynamo-like electricity generating device. The construction of the project consisted of mainly 2 wheels, a chain, rope, dynamo, and more. So, after modifying the initial design it produced a voltage of 12V DC. Indicating good results. In conclusion, these results indicate that the machine could be applied in various places to produce electricity to be stored in bateries easily, and was able to satisfy the set requriments, which is to be easy to use and withstand 5kg weight.​

How we built it

At first, the prototype was constructed entirely inside the school. It was constructed in three steps. Firstly, the wood was found in the fabrication laboratory along with the steel components and the small plastic wheel. Secondly, the wood was brought and cut and constructed as the ​ skeleton shape of the prototype all with the help of the fabrication lab​ teacher and then everything was tightened together under his ​supervision. Thirdly, all the other components were placed in their place, and were checked.

Challenges we ran into

There were many problems and challenges that faced me and my teammates during the theoretical and research phase and the prototype building phase. The biggest problem that emmerged was during the phase between the implementation of the prototype and the research, which was when I saw a paper of an implementation near in design to my project, but it only produced about 0.3V DC which is not either cost efficient nor usefull, as this ammount of energy may not be able to power a small lamp, or charge a phone. Another big challenge I faced was the time when the original dynamo broke for no reason, it just stopped working and did not generate any electricity, I tried fixing it but that did not workout as I expected it to, so I had to get another one.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The idea of generating 12V DC itself is quite impressive, for a small price of 2000 Egyptian pounds, that is not even with considering the cheapest options available.

What we learned

I learnt that if there is a goal set to you, no matter how impossible it seems to be, there is a way to hack your way through it. I would have never imagined that we would be able to generate this much of electricit, but after implementing the last version, the prototype generated a huge ammound of electricity, powerfull enough

What's next for ElectroCeps

There is a big potential for improvement on the ElectroCeps project, especially concerning 2 major aspects. The first one, which is the materials used in the project, which are not the gratest. If the budget I worked with was more flexible, I would have definately invested in such an improvement The second ascpect is the utilization of Arduino monitoring when operating the project on a large scale, which enables you to control the machine and the electric aspects on it.

Built With

• arduino