stirling motor driver/holder

thingiverse

I've acquired one of these amazing ringbom Stirling motor models. They're truly captivating, as they can already operate with the temperature of the palm of my hand. However, you need to hold them in your hand or place them on ice for them to work properly. I have nine of them on my desk because it's great to observe their performance. At some point, I'd like to make them run while using my computer. This led me to the idea of incorporating a Peltier element that can be heated electrically. So, I built this Stirling stand with an integrated Peltier element, a switch, and a jack for connecting a USB power supply. The Peltier element I have draws 6 amps at 15 volts, which would definitely damage my beautiful model if used at full capacity. However, since it's powered by the 5-volt USB adapter, only up to 1 amp flows through it, and this will decrease further as it heats up. With the resulting 5 watts of power, the Stirling motor runs perfectly. Yes, yes - I'm aware that running a Stirling engine with electricity is somewhat unconventional, but.......