A wind turbine mostly 3D printed , which houses a BLDC motor as an electric generator. Foldable and no larger than a 2L soda bottle. Simple to replicate and with a low manufacturing cost.

For some time the idea of designing a portable wind turbine had crossed my mind. From my experience and for it to be useful I knew it had to be small, maybe the size of a soda bottle, able to fit inside a backpack. Its mass should also be as low as possible.

Since the plane of rotation of the propellers in typical wind turbines is perpendicular to the position of the electric generator, they are initially inconvenient to transport and store once assembled, even when small. I also didn't want to have to use tools to mount and dismount the propellers every time I was using it. Folding propellers, that was the idea, but how to implement it? It took me a while to come up with the answer. Have you seen the way bats sleep? The wings are folded towards the body, that could be the answer. Nature is an excellent source of inspiration, millions of years of evolution support it.

Taking the previous idea as inspiration, I designed this wind turbine.

Since on my travels I usually carry some kind of lightweight tripod to take pictures when the light conditions are low or to make time-lapses, perhaps also using it to support the wind turbine would save the need to carry other equipment. There are thousands of possibilities to support a camera and make it compatible with those pre-existing technologies, I think it would be convenient.

As creators we may have an amazing digital design, but it should be able to be built with the available resources. 3D printing! Thanks to it, we can now replicate this project as many times as we want. If a part gets damaged, we print it again and voila!

The typical dimensions of a 3D FDM printer are usually between 22 cm wide by 22 cm deep by 25 cm high. All pieces were included within these margins to maximize replicability.

In the following video I present the prototype number 2 of this project UNDER DEVELOPMENT. Some improvements have happened since PROTOTYPE 1 was filmed (above video), such as the redesign the Blades for example. I have in mind other improvements derived from the field tests carried out on this prototype.

This circuit serves as the rectification and filtering unit of this Prototype 2!