Blow-Powered LED Flashlight

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A Self-Powered Flashlight is a device that generates electricity through the user's physical effort, eliminating the need for battery replacement or recharging from an electrical source. Various types utilize distinct operating mechanisms, harnessing energy from different motions such as squeezing a handle, winding a crank, or shaking the flashlight itself. These flashlights can be distinguished by their energy storage techniques: a spring, flywheel, battery, or capacitor. Now, I've developed a Blow-Powered LED Flashlight that turns on with a simple blow of air through the mouth. While it has some limitations - excessive use may cause dizziness, similar to blowing up a balloon - it's an innovative solution for powering a flashlight without batteries or recharging. The device consists of three main components: Generator, Vertical Axis Blow Turbine, and LED Flashlight. The Generator utilizes a brushless DC motor design, which is surprisingly simple. It requires only coils made from 0.2mm magnetic wire and two magnets with a diameter of 15mm and thickness of 4mm. The Vertical Axis Blow Turbine features five blades, each shaped like an arc with a 72-degree angle (five equal parts of a circle). To blow the flashlight, you simply use a mouthpiece, similar to a wind instrument. To light up an LED, which requires DC 3 volts, I employed a Bridge Rectifier circuit for converting AC input into a DC output and a Joule Thief circuit for boosting the voltage of a low-voltage device. When you strongly blow through the mouthpiece, the Vertical Axis Turbine and generator magnets rotate together, connected by their shafts. The coils in the generator produce AC electricity, which is then converted to DC output by the Bridge Rectifier circuit. However, the generated voltage is only around DC 0.5-1 volts. To reach the required DC 3 volts for the LED, I used a Joule Thief circuit. A supercapacitor replaces traditional recharging methods in this design. Non-3D-printed parts include coils made from 0.2mm magnetic wire (10-20m long), two magnets with a diameter of 15mm and thickness of 4mm, a Bridge Rectifier consisting of four diodes and one supercapacitor, a Joule Thief circuit comprising a 1k Ohm resistor, an NPN transistor, a Ferrite Toroid core, an LED, and assorted wires.