Star news
Flashlight without batteries. Eternal lanterns (dynamo lanterns). Brief overview of interesting models
As you know, pocket flashlights come in battery-powered and electrodynamic types. The flashlight case contains batteries or a magnetoelectric alternator and a reflector with an incandescent light bulb.
Unlike battery and electrodynamic flashlights, our flashlight will contain a small battery, which is like a reservoir of electrical energy. We can charge our flashlight from the home lighting network, which must be done very carefully.
Try to make the flashlight exactly according to this description. Under no circumstances can the case be made of metal. Buy plastic or bakelite cases for flashlights at the store.
For our “eternal” flashlight we need the following parts:
non-metallic case for any flashlight,
2 flashlight batteries type D-0.1,
2 diodes type DG-Ts-24,
resistance 600 ohm/1 W,
resistance 1 megohm/0.25 W,
capacitor 0.4-0.5 uF/500 V,
plug,
incandescent light bulb 2.5 V/0.1 A.
The schematic diagram of the flashlight is shown in Fig. 1. We see that a 2.5 V/0.1 A light bulb is powered by two batteries connected in series. Remember, guys, that you cannot use other light bulbs (check the inscription on the base!), as this can lead to battery failure. There is a switch in the light bulb circuit. The second part of the circuit is a rectifier, which is used to charge the battery from an alternating current network. A circuit consisting of a capacitor and two resistances reduces the voltage to a predetermined value. Two germanium diodes rectify alternating current, because the battery is charged only with direct current.
As you can see, electrical diagram The flashlight is not at all complicated. We mount all its parts in the flashlight case. In the bottom wall of the case we attach two plugs, intended for connection to a lighting outlet during charging.
We mount all the parts on a small bakelite (or other insulating material) tile. We arrange the details randomly. Do not forget that the voltage for which the capacitor is designed should not be less than 500 V. Otherwise, diodes and batteries may fail. Particular attention should be paid to the correct installation of batteries and diodes. In Fig. 2 shows the appearance of the battery and the dimensions are marked, and Fig. 3 is one of the ways to attach it. Both batteries must be located in a holder, insulated with the gasket facing up. In Fig. 4 there is a wiring diagram for the flashlight. For trouble-free operation of the flashlight, it is important to connect both rectifier diodes correctly and accurately according to the diagram. It is best to solder all connections. The distance between the plugs (axes) of the plug must be at least 19 mm so that they can just fit into the socket.
And finally, we remind you that you cannot make any tests connecting the flashlight to the network before its final assembly. A properly built flashlight ensures complete safety. The battery charge is sufficient for continuous operation of the flashlight for two and a half hours. Charging itself takes a long time (small current consumption from the network), so we recommend leaving the flashlight connected to the network overnight.
Based on materials from the magazine "Horizons of Technology for Children" (Poland)
Winter is gradually coming. The first snow has already fallen in some countries and cities. However, the main thing for us is that the days have become shorter and the nights have become longer. This means that you can stock up on flashlights to at least somehow fight the darkness on the streets. We present to your attention another useful homemade product, which is most relevant in the winter, due to the fact that many of us often go home from work when it is already dark.
We encourage you to spend a few minutes watching the video.
What do we need:
- plastic spray can;
- syringe cylinder;
- copper wire insulated with varnish;
- diode bridge;
- Light-emitting diode;
- shutdown button;
- Neodymium magnets;
- capacitor with a capacity of 47,000 and a voltage of 16 V;
Let's start making a flashlight and start by winding copper wire around the syringe barrel. You need to wrap it as tightly as possible, leaving no gaps. At the end there should be two ends of copper wire left.
We fix the resulting winding with adhesive tape. Note that you can slightly lengthen the tips of the copper wire, which will allow the structure to generate more energy.
Let's move on to the next stage of assembly. I'll cut out the base of a plastic spray can.
The next thing you need to do is solder the diode bridge to the capacitor. We solder the wire coming from the negative of the bridge to the wire coming from the negative of the capacitor, and the positive one to the positive one.
After this, you need to solder the copper wires to the two remaining wires of the diode bridge.
Finally, the positive and negative contacts on the capacitor need to be routed through the switch to the LED.
Separately, we note that the LED receives energy from a capacitor, which is charged from the syringe barrel. One question remains to be answered: where exactly does this energy come from? The secret is to use neodymium magnets, which you need to put in the syringe and seal the holes in the cylinder.
After assembling the entire structure and placing it in a spray can, the flashlight will be ready for use. It works according to the following principle. In order for the capacitor to charge and turn on the LED, you need to shake the flashlight thoroughly. The energy will last for a couple of minutes, which is quite enough to walk through a dark alley on a winter night, because after all, not all streets these days are dark and scary, like in horror films.
Eternal flashlight or Faraday flashlight This is the name for a flashlight with an alternative power source. That is, this flashlight does not require batteries or battery charging. To “ignite” it, you need to shake it. The flashlight itself contains a generator and a battery.
Let's first take a look at the factory flashlight:
I tried to paint the design as much as possible. The point is that the cylindrical constant magnet dangles freely in the tube-housing between rubber stops or springs (wherever). And in the center of the tube there is a coil wound. When shaken, the magnet moves up and down inside the coil, creating alternating electricity in it.
Let's look without the case.
We see a solenoid, a cylindrical magnet, limiters, a small board with diodes, a switch, and batteries. Oh yes, and the LED on the board.
Shake the flashlight and turn it on. Works!
Here's our prototype:
Tick-tock box. The tube on which the reel is wound is the body of a ballpoint pen. A couple of magnets from hard drive, there are some there. Yes, capacitors are used instead of batteries. White LED. a couple of diodes.
There is a peculiarity of coil winding. As you probably noticed from the diagram, the coil consists of two windings, the total length of the coil is 40 mm. Divide mentally hit. In the first half, we wind 600 turns of the thinnest wire with a diameter of approximately 0.08 mm. And in the second half there are 600 turns. That's all - the two-section coil is ready. Further according to the diagram.
It so happened that for some reason that is not clear to me, I have a huge interest in all kinds of useful and universal devices. In this case, I want to make a short review of dynamo lanterns (“eternal lanterns”), which can be extremely useful both in everyday life and in survival situations.
Eternal Faraday flashlight "Universal"
This sample is interesting because there is no need to buy batteries or accumulators for it. It does not need to be charged from the mains. According to the manufacturer, the lamp of this sample is designed for 11 years of continuous operation. It also has good dust and moisture protection.
The flashlight contains a high-capacity capacitor, to charge which you just need to shake the flashlight. In addition to the long-lasting LED, as described above, the flashlight also has a lens that significantly increases its power.
Its light weight and relatively compact size make it easy to carry it with you in a bag or backpack.
According to reviews, it is not super reliable. So they are unlikely to be able to hammer in nails and pegs.
Lantern size: 17 x 3.8 cm.
Charging time: from 30 seconds.
Material: plastic
Can buy .
Eternal flashlight “Hight Power Headlamp” (headlamp)
This flashlight is convenient, first of all, because it does not take up space in your hands. Does not have batteries. Capable of charging mobile phones (a cord for Nokia phones is included, and adapters for other manufacturers can be bought in almost any market).
The flashlight operates in two modes - 1 LED and 3 LEDs.
Charging is carried out using the charger included in the kit. Connect the flashlight using a cord (all included) with the charger, rotate the handle for a minute, and the flashlight works for an hour.
Size: 5 x 6 cm.
Charging time: from 1-3 min.
Material: plastic
Can buy .
Eternal flashlight “Dynamo VIP”
Capable of charging a mobile phone (for a conversation up to 30 minutes) or a camera. All necessary adapters are included in the kit.
It has two operating modes - 1 LED and 3 LEDs. Brightness and power are increased using optical lenses.
Charging for a minute provides you with light for one hour.
The design is comfortable, the body has rubber pads on the sides. The charging handle, if not needed, is retracted into the case and is out of the way.
Size: 15.5 x 5.5 x 4.5 cm.
Duration of work: from 60 min.
Charging time: from 1-3 min.
Material: plastic
Can buy .
Eternal Flashlight in a transparent case
Flashlight with built-in battery and generator. Charges when you press the lever with your hand. Halogen lamps. A wonderful gift for a car enthusiast. The size of a pack of cigarettes.
Size: pack of cigarettes.
Material: plastic
Can buy .
Eternal flashlight "PIRANHA"
The flashlight does not require batteries. To charge it, just rotate the knob on its body for a minute, which will allow the 3 LEDs to burn for more than 40 minutes. The LED lifespan is 50,000 hours. The model has 3 lighting modes: 1 LED, 3 LEDs and “blinking” 3 LEDs. The body of the flashlight is waterproof, which allows it to be immersed in water to a depth of 10 m. The head of the flashlight can be rotated 320°, which makes it easy to use: just place it in a convenient place and direct the light beam in the desired direction.
Size: 151x50x40 mm.
Weight: 152 g.
Charging time: from 1 min.
Material: plastic
Can buy .
Solar Lantern
LED flashlight powered by light energy. The solar battery built into the flashlight body is the main, but not the only source of energy for this flashlight. In addition to the solar battery, on the back of the flashlight there is a handle, by rotating which you can activate the dynamo built into the flashlight body, which will recharge the flashlight battery, i.e. The lantern can be powered either by light energy or by a dynamo. There is no light - we use a dynamo, there is light - we use it. The flashlight is completely waterproof and can be used underwater at a depth of up to 5 meters. The lifespan of three LEDs is 50,000 hours. The continuous glow time of 3 LEDs is up to 90 minutes.
Size: 147x 61x 45 mm.
Weight: 176 g.
Duration of work: from 90 min.
Charging time: from 1 min.
Material: plastic
Can buy .
Eternal flashlight with radio and siren
A multifunctional device of modern design, combining powerful LED flashlight, a radio receiver with an antenna and an alarm system with a siren function, which will be useful for summer residents, car enthusiasts and tourists. The “Eternal Flashlight” is independent of power sources. It is equipped with a manual mechanical drive that allows you to charge the flashlight in the absence of power. You can listen to the radio through the built-in speaker or through the headphones included in the kit. Just 1 minute of manual charging is enough for 10 minutes of continuous flashlight operation.
Doesn't like water.
Duration of work: from 10 min.
Charging time: from 1 min.
Material: plastic
Can buy .
“Eternal Lantern” - self-light
Your flashlight doesn't need batteries: rotate the handle for 1 minute and it's
will allow 5 LEDs to burn for up to 20 minutes. With 3 switches you can
select the light intensity: 1,2,3,4 or 5 LEDs. Maximum output current 400mA. Maximum output power 2W. Maximum brightness 3000mcd.
"Eternal" flashlight - keychain
The MINI LED DYNAMO FLASHLIGHT LED flashlight is currently the smallest representative of the entire family of self-charging LED flashlights. Its length is only 69 mm. Despite its size, the “Mini” is not inferior to the same “Stalker” in terms of illumination characteristics.
To charge the flashlight, rotate the charging handle in one direction at a frequency of 2.5 - 3 revolutions per second. Three LEDs turn on in a cycle: 1 – 3 – 3 blinking – off.
Size: 70 x 41.5 x 41.5 mm.
Weight: 73 g.
Duration of work: from 40 minutes.
Charging time: from 1 min.
Material: plastic
Can buy .
Powerful Dynamo Flashlight
The dynamo flashlight has 15 powerful (the brightness of one LED is 12000mcd), almost eternal (up to 50,000 hours of operation), LEDs.
- Main parameters and functions: Autonomous operation on a single charge up to 7 hours.
- The flashlight can be charged either manually, using the built-in dynamo, or from the car’s cigarette lighter (12V).
- Two operating modes: intensive (15 LEDs) and economical (9 LEDs).
- Built-in alarm siren.
- Possibility of recharging cell phones (4.8V). The kit includes an adapter for Samsung phones (ask for adapters for other phones at communication stores).
Folded size: 110 x 107 x 155 mm.
Dimensions in working position: 110 x 107 x 225 mm.
Material: plastic
Can buy .
Dynamo headlamp SORBO SB 1058
A unique multifunctional flashlight with a special mount for wearing on the head, has a built-in highly efficient energy converter (dynamo) of the latest generation. The peculiarity of this device is that it can be used not only to be worn on the head, but also as a regular flashlight. That is, a special lock allows you to remove the flashlight from the head mount strap in a matter of seconds. There is also an emergency flash function. The case is made of shockproof ABS plastic.
Size: 3.5 x 11 mm.
Duration of work: from 40 minutes.
Charging time: from 1 min.
Material: plastic
Can buy .
Dynamo flashlight SORBO SB 3070 “All in one”
Portable multifunctional LED flashlight with built-in energy converter, Swiss army knife, compass, charging Nokia, Motorola phones, charging any device with a mini USB port. The kit includes a handle for wearing on the wrist, with the ability to attach it in any place convenient for you. The case is made of shockproof ABS plastic.
Size: 14 x 5 mm.
Charging time: from 1 min.
Material: plastic
Can buy .
Dynamo light SORBO SB 3080 “A cyclist’s dream”
Portable multifunctional LED flashlight with a built-in energy converter (Dynamo), does not use batteries or charge from the mains, a mount that can be placed on the handlebars of a bicycle, a compass, charging Nokia phones (2mm and 3mm), charging any device with a mini USB port. The kit includes a handle for wearing on the wrist, with the ability to attach it in any place convenient for you. The case is made of shockproof ABS plastic.
Size: 14 x 5 mm.
Duration of work: from 30 minutes.
Charging time: from 1 min.
Material: plastic
Can buy .
And also much, much, much more. The lanterns are pitch black. Share, post interesting ones, we’ll add them to this publication.
Candles, matches and a flashlight are three things that people remember in the evening when there is a power outage. It’s good when you have what you need in the house, but what to do if, as luck would have it, instead of candles there are cinders, and the batteries in the flashlight have long since run out? In such a situation, there are very few options: almost none, one might say. All that remains is to wander in the dark and wait for the electricity to turn on. In order not to get into trouble and not get into trouble in your own home, I want to tell you how you can refuse to use batteries in low-power electronic devices. This is what the manual for assembling a “handheld flashlight that works without batteries” is dedicated to.
I accidentally came across an article on the Internet in which one craftsman made a wind generator from an electric motor. For me, this idea seemed complicated and expensive, especially since the neodymium magnets used in the conversion were difficult to buy in my city. I started studying similar articles and found out that a stepper motor can also be used as a generator of electrical energy. Thoughts began to come to mind about how to combine a windmill and Charger for an autonomous power supply, but such a tandem would not be successful if I used a stepper motor. I had to temporarily put this idea aside and switch to simpler and more necessary things, such as creating a dynamo for a bicycle or a flashlight. After some thought, I settled on the idea of creating a hand-held flashlight powered by a stepper motor. Without going into terminology and explaining in simple language, then the motor can not only spin when voltage is applied to the winding, but also generate voltage itself when the motor shaft rotates. This property of a stepper motor, after all, is, by the way, suitable for powering a homemade flashlight.
Finding a stepper motor will not be a problem for you. They are used in copying equipment. Good motors were installed in the early 2000s in printers and other devices where it was necessary to programmatically control the rotation of various electronic mechanisms. Now this kind of equipment is widely written off at enterprises and sent to a landfill or warehouses awaiting disposal. Contact employees who are involved in modernizing equipment or go to the radio market, you will probably find a stepper motor at a disassembly site for a symbolic price. Don’t be scared by the fact that your motor has clocked up dozens of kilometers before falling into your hands. Old stepper motors are very durable and long lasting.
Old copying equipment is widely written off and disassembled for recycling. Contact production technicians who are involved in upgrading and replacing office equipment - they will be happy to get rid of the piles of junk that are taking up space. As a rule, such copying equipment is no longer of any value.
We already have one of the main components, now let’s move on to what we will probably have to buy or ask for as in the previous case.
For the lantern we need:
— Old printer (stepper motor and gears);
— Powerful LED brand ARPL-Star-1W;
— Two diode bridges KTs 407A or 8 Schottky diodes;
— Large capacitor.
— Connecting wires.
All this can be found at radio markets or from a familiar radio amateur (such Plyushkins always have everything in abundance). Once we have all the necessary elements for the lantern, we begin manufacturing.
We disassemble the old printer and put everything aside except the metal side wall with the stepper motor and gears attached to it. Remove all gears except the one that rotates the stepper motor gear. In most cases, the gear has many teeth and is larger than all the other gears. Why do we need a gear with a large number of teeth? The bigger the gear, the better! The gear must be large so that when rotating it transmits the greatest number of revolutions to the stepper motor gearbox (gear ratio).
Now you need to attach a rotation handle to the gear that will rotate our stepper. To do this, we will find a metal round cover, for example from the housing of an audio (isolating) transformer. We attach two hexagonal stands to the lid and screw the handle. All that remains is to place the cover on the gear and secure it with epoxy glue and screws for reliability. The rotating unit is ready. Now you need to select the flashlight body. I decided not to invent anything and cut it out of the metal chassis on which the entire mechanism was attached. Using a marker, we will draw outlines along which we will cut the metal. Cut out the body along the contour hacksaw for metalbypassing all the parts of the mechanism we need. We process burrs and sharp corners with a file. We also need to protect the rotating gear from unwanted dirt and debris. We cut out the protection from the tin lid and screw it to the cut out body.
Now let's start making the electronic part of the flashlight. It consists of a stepper motor, rectifier, capacitor and LED. We solder the rectifier according to the diagram below. If you have Schottky diodes, connect them into a diode bridge. It’s much easier with two ready-made diode bridges. We wrap the straightener with insulating tape to the base of the handle.
Circuit using diodes:
Circuit using a KTs407a diode bridge:
Solder the leads of the stepper motor to the rectifier. The output of the rectifier is soldered to a high power capacitor. I have two of them: brand K50-24 10000uF. I connected them in parallel to each other (when capacitors are connected in parallel, the capacitance is added up) and the result was a capacitance of 20,000 μF. I connected the capacitors with a plastic tie in two places and glued them to the body of the flashlight with epoxy resin. The main thing is not to confuse the polarity in the assembled circuit. We got the source DC voltage. When the handle is rotated in a circle, voltage is generated and accumulates at the terminals of the capacitors. With a quiet rotation of the handle, this device can generate a voltage equal to two AA batteries. The manual mini-generator for low-power devices is ready. Now you can ensure the operation of a pocket receiver, and if you complicate the circuit, apply a little more effort by turning the handle, then also recharge your mobile phone. If you are not strong in radio electronics, then you probably have a friend who understands this. Ask him to help you assemble a circuit for the lantern. Don't have such a friend? Then write about your questions in the comments and we will try to figure everything out.
We solder a powerful LED with a reflector to our voltage generator according to the polarity and attach it to the body of an old Soviet flashlight. The Soviet lantern was originally equipped with an ordinary round glass; instead, we install a convex magnifying glass. The magnifying lens will collect the light flux into one point, which will allow us to achieve the effect inherent in the flashlights that are in the arsenal of detectives. Thanks to powerful LED, a reflector and a magnifying glass are illuminated by a flashlight like a spotlight. In the final version of the homemade flashlight, the wires were pulled into a cambric glued to the body. After choosing the optimal length of the handle, all excess was cut off. In the future it is planned to make a flashlight with a sealed housing.
For the amount of money that you will spend on creating your flashlight, you are unlikely to buy one with similar characteristics. Now you are ready for the onset of the electrical apocalypse (you can always scare, protect yourself and illuminate with such a thing). You can see the results of the work done by watching the video “Powerful LED flashlight that works without batteries.” It's a pity that the camera lens is not as sensitive to light as the human eye. In the video, the flashlight is much dimmer than in reality. Good luck to everyone in creating your own light source!
About the author:
Greetings, dear readers! My name is Max. I am convinced that almost everything can be done at home with your own hands, I am sure that everyone can do it! In my free time I like to tinker and create something new for myself and my loved ones. You will learn about this and much more in my articles!
