Engineer's Supercapacitor Santa

thingiverse

This brilliant 3D printed, motorized, rotating ornament screams "engineer-designed" at first glance. Santa, soaring through the air on a plane piloted by Rudolph, rotates effortlessly around this out-of-the-box invention. https://youtu.be/2o5ZmTBL7L0 Print all the separate parts. Add color to Santa and his reindeer friends. Remove one end of a servo extension cable and connect two wires to the gear motor. Insert the motor into its holder. Securely attach the motor holder to the "ring with base." Glue the shaft connector onto the "flying bar." Place the shaft connector onto the motor's spinning axis. Disconnect one end of a servo extension cable and connect two wires to either a supercapacitor or battery pack. Plug in the power source and watch as the ornament roars to life! Despite its massive capacity, this capacitor packs only 0.4 watt hours of energy storage – less than what an AAA battery holds. Still, it can be recharged within a minute and will withstand more than half a million charge cycles. The ornament will hum along for roughly eight hours on a single fill-up. Santa's reindeer and airplane were sculpted from clay by my wife, Annelle. We scanned them with a MakerBot Digitizer, then merged the images using 123D designs on Tinkercad. My talented partner-in-crime took charge of painting duties. Shopping List: A tiny, six-volt DC gear motor rotating at thirty rpm: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009AQLDSS Flexible cables designed for servos: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X5IAZJK One 350 Farad capacitor holding a two-point-seven-volt charge: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0137ILPOQ (1) Digital voltmeter OR a AA battery with its holder