DC 2 AC Power Conversion

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This blog will show a little DIY project on converting Direct Current (DC) power to Alternating Current (AC)…

Fun project!

Well DC is what batteries provide. Home and office outlets are almost always AC. This is because generating and transporting AC across long distances is relatively easy.
I’m not going into the theory of AC and DC as there are lots of sites and videos out there explaining it way better then I can.

My nephew has a nice explanation about magnets and how they work (Dutch - shameless plug 😄):

The fun thing is that magnets can also be used to create current. An electron that just sits there creates an electric field. How could we get a magnetic field? The answer turns out to be by simply moving the electron.

a law stating that when the magnetic flux linking a circuit changes, an electromotive force is induced in the circuit proportional to the rate of change of the flux linkage.
– Faraday’s law

So by creating a coil with an iron core we can create power by moving permanent magnets over it. The faster you do this and the stronger the magnet is and the amount of loops on the coil determine how much current will be created.
This little setup below demonstrates it…

Parts

Coil

A coil with an magnetic (iron / steel?) core. This one I removed from an old TV I demolished (recycled) last weekend.
It is of course completely possible to create your own coil. You do need magnet wire for that.

Battery

I used a 3.7v 18650 battery as I have lots of them, but it can be done with any battery or even by hand.

Magnets

I used neodymium magnets as they are wicket strong and come in small sizes.

Wire

A bit of wire is needed to wire it all together 😂.

On/Off Switch

I used these switches
to turn the generator on or off.

TP4056

This module is needed to charge my 18650 battery and protecting it from over charging.

Aligator clips

For easy attachment of the wires coming from the coil to the thing you want to attach to 😄. I already had these. Don’t know where I bought them.

DC Motor

This motor I salvaged from an old radio controlled toy car or some such. They can be bought

How

Just look really close at the pictures provided and it should be evident on how to wire this setup.

make sure the space between the magnets and the iron core of the spool (coil) is small but not touching. The magnets must be able to turn
freely.

As the poles of the magnets turn fast from south to north and back again we invoke Faraday’s Law and generate an AC current.
So in this case we use a Direct Current (battery) to power a motor to invoke a magnetic field on the coil (spool) and that generates an Alternating Current.

Totally fun to try out.

Cheerz,

Ivo.