The ‘Wiggler’ - This Lego Gadget Shouldn't Exist
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- Опубликовано: 22 май 2024
- Patreon: www.patreon.com/user?u=122597865
See my latest experiments and behind-the-scenes footage!
Does this Lego gadget even deserve to exist? You be the judge.
I've made a lot of weird and wacky generators in my time. Some are big and produce a lot of power, while others are more of a toy, barely creating enough energy to light up some small flashing lights. And some of them exist purely because they’re fun and satisfying to play with.
In this video, we’ll explore one of my experiments in building a very compact generator. There’s an almost ASMR quality to both the sound and the feel of it. The way it bounces around, clicking and clacking while it generates power has me fidgeting with it many days during my meetings. It’s been a permanent fixture on my desk since I first made it.
If you want to build your own, it’s a simple construction using Lego, some wire, and a few magnets, which you can easily find on Amazon or AliExpress. So why not DIY your own mini hand-held generator?
#lego #technic #moc
0:00 Intro
0:35 The Build
2:20 What Does it Do? 
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It could be a vibration warning device... When it vibrates enough to charge the capacitor and turn the led on, you know your machinery or engine or whatever is at it's limit for vibration.
Damn that's a great idea, thanks! Gonna have to play with this one
@@JamiesBrickJams Thanks! Can't wait to see the video when you figure it out!
I'm rusty with physics, but my intuition tells me that this thing is going to respond significantly more to vibration at its resonant frequency. That's actually kinda neat and you could use that on purpose for... idk, something.
Otherwise, I think you could remove the rubber bands entirely and have the thing move back and forth on rails. That should remove the bandpass filter effect (I think)
Yeah, like for an unbalanced washing machine.
It's a seismograph. I live in Chile so I should know
That would actually make a half-decent earthquake detector, as earthquakes should wiggle it enough to generate a voltage, and the more it wiggles, the stronger the voltage gets! So you’ve essentially created a tiny seismograph here!
Very true! A few folks have suggested it measuring earthquakes.. I suspect by the time an earthquake is wiggling it enough for it to register a visible output, you'll be very aware of that earthquake though 😄
@@JamiesBrickJams I wonder if it could be made to detect smaller vibrations, so that it WOULD be an early warning system?
Earthquake sensors works exactly like this contraption! The only difference is that the magnets are attached to a small pendulum. Even a tiny movement can induce a very little current in the coil, that will be amplified by the electronic control circuit! Others sensors uses moving ferrite core inside the coil, but the overall principle it's the same: wiggling!
@@mbcommandnerdthose exist, they're called seismometers, and they have been around for centuries.
@@jaloswaggons2182 Well, the mechanical ones have at least
You have a linear motion transducer. You’ve essentially made a speaker.
Try hooking the wires to an AC source at 3-5v nominal and you should get cool motion and depending on the frequency of the AC maybe even some sound!
Ha yeah, pretty much 😄 I might actually try making a large woofer using a similar method that you suggest here
i think the magnets are too big and heavy for those coils, he should use either smaller magnets or much larger coils to make it able to vibrate at a few KHz
Conversely, you might be able to use it as a microphone.
It serves a purpose that purpose is entertaining people and making views
@@dylsdrumz7081There truly is no higher purpose for a human being than to amuse me, specifically. That is why I dedicate so much of my own time to this noble cause. 😁
You can buy similar mechanisms (of course much smaller) as warning lights for runners. You put it on your shirt and never worry about battery life 😎
Another idea is to pair it with a circuit including capacitator which would build up the charge and then relase it as a single signal - that would be just perfect to detect certain amount of vibrations (like steps, dents in the road etc)
That's actually an interesting concept, thanks - I like the idea of accumulating the charge, and then discharging or indicating something when a threshold is reached
You could use the vibrations from driving to power it when it's on it's side. How much power you'd get would depend on the road conditions and the shoch absorbers, but it's still possible.
Hey that's a novel idea. Someone else mentioned using it as a dampener, but I like the idea of using it on larger things like roads where you could built it into the infrastructure.
I’ve seen something similar being used as a simple wind powered light. Hook the core to something that can shake it in the wind. Or, put it in the middle between two ribbons pulled tight and the wind will bounce it around nicely
Totally! Those old school ribbon generators are fun. I've built one and it sort of works ... Great for low wind, but terrible efficiency when wind speed goes up. Might make a video if I can get it working better
It reminds me of those emergency shake flashlights, that use a similar concept of a shaking electromagnet to charge batteries for the flashlight. More compact than a crank flashlight, and fun to use.
True, I guess they're probably the most compact form of generator compared to a crank style
I had one of those. I always left it in the car, oriented such that it ought to get a free charge from my accelerating and braking... but it never had anything in the capacitor when I needed it. That flashlight was made in China, though: cheap and nasty. With better magnets, a wiggler *might* scavenge some energy. It’s not "free" though, since you’re hauling the weight around in the car.
Production quality is so high for such a small channel you deserve way more subscribers
Ha thanks! I'm new to this, but glad folks get a kick out of these weird contraptions
I can't believe you only have 160 subs. With videos like this, you deserve thousands of subscribers. Keep up the good work, Jamie!
Fr this is crazy how do they not have a shit ton of popularity.
Big thanks, I really appreciate it! ❤️ Got loads of ideas in the pipeline ;)
Thanks man! Maybe that'll come with time :D
You are an amazing content creator Jamie, better than I could ever be. I hope you go on to get thousands of subs!
@@togtpwt cheers man, it's a fun start anyway!
I suppose if you had a preexisting structure like a bridge which was built in a way that it developed sympathetic vibrations, and you had a big enough wiggler, you could capture (and thereby dampen) the vibrations and turn them into power instead. The Tacoma-Narrows bridge fell due to being shaken apart because of this issue. I think nowadays architects are aware of it and try to avoid it, but there might be some old buildings or something which could be in danger of falling like this I suppose.
Thats actually a really cool idea. Also, the Tacoma narrows bridge was a great engineering lesson from history.
Very true, and others have said, it'd be interesting to test a use case for it as a vibration dampener of sorts
If you change the direction of wiggle (going across the coil instead of towards the coil), you could get a longer travel distance which I think would result in higher power output and less noise.
That's actually a really good point.. I'm gonna have to test another variant like that. But in theory you could be right
This format is actually amazing to show what electric components do. Combining it with Lego makes it strangely inviting and familiar
Thanks, glad it gives folks some ideas 😁
Finally a way to get electricity generated from a bumpy ride on the road. If you mount this to a bicycle, the worse the road gets, the more light you will get just when you need it!
Your video quality is top notch, I have no idea how your subscriber count is so low. This showed up in my recommended, I barely ever touch my Lego anymore other than when prototyping something but I subscribed anyways lol.
Much appreciated - I'm new to this, but just hope I can show folks how they can use their lego for useful (and useless) things!
YT recommendations have been on a roll this week, found some super small but super underrated channels and I have fallen in love with yours! I can't believe you don't have tens of thousands of subs yet, because the quality is just perfect!
That means a lot to me, thanks for the kind words! Hopefully the quality will keep improving with time
Yeah same. So much high quality low subscriber channels lately.
Mount it on your bike and you have a device that generated electricity for simple tasks, like bike lamp, indicators or if a battery is added, then a phone charger on the go.
Well the only idea that came to me is, use it as an alternative to the regular dynamo bike light!
I think you're still onto something - it's much less efficient than a regular dynamo, but may still have a place when something has 'bumpy' movement
@@JamiesBrickJams A single one of this model, is decently less efficient. But well-designed etc. it could be something that can work!
And if we think a bit further, maybe in a better design deepening on the amp this can create, it could be usefull for our sporty ppl out there as a "self charging powerbank"!
So yeah the design so far is maybe the problem but the idea is great!
@@nachtelfirokese88 for sure, the design could be made much better and more efficient!
with the right sized capacitor you could use it to indicate how long to shake a spray can before it is ready to paint. The PaintWiggler. For bonus points, I reckon you could build a version of a gravity wave detector called LEGO :)
That's certainly a unique use case! Measuring waves or 'things that wave' also sounds pretty interesting
Many engines vibrate heavily, especially the diesels in my military vehicles, these could be a good way to harvest and/or dampen unwanted vibrations. Shock absorbers in vehicles could be made more efficient/productive with a system like this.
I've also worked in areas like 100 foot high observation towers that vibrate constantly with even low levels of wind.
Looks like the concept of integrating with suspension is popular. Although it's way less efficient than an alternator, I like the idea of a dual purpose acting also as a dampener. Funny you mention the vibrating towers - I've been playing with a ribbon generator that works at very low wind levels ;)
@@JamiesBrickJams yeah nobody wants to replace an alternator. The suggestion is supplementary. Situations with high demand and dual piwer systems like an ambulance could conceivably benefit
I would love to see all of your other contraptions you have built. I major in Automation and Electrical Technologies. The stuff you build is fascinating.
There's some real 'out there' stuff coming in a bit - probably nothing you haven't seen, but hope they're at least entertaining 😉
Id love to see the rest of your generators they look so cool!
Great, I'll cover some of the more weird and powerful ones soon!
@@JamiesBrickJams sounds great im glad i found you, the weirder the better!
All fidget toys are useful, and the fact that it gives light as a pay off is very satisfying
I agree, satisfaction is reason enough
well these sort of generators , i've seen in compact flashlights that didn't require a battery, thou they had magnets slide inbetween a coil, you would shake the flashlight for a bit, and it would charge a capacitor, and run for a bit
Yeah those were cool, I remember playing with one years ago. I suppose I could attach the rectifier and capacitors to this and make it a nicer shape - like a shake-weight. Pretty much a flashlight then!
How am I only now seeing your channel? Great videography and interesting Lego designs, love it.
Aw really appreciate it, thanks man!
Have it (or a bunch of them)wiggle charge a bunch of capacitors while you're driving down the road.Then use those capacitors however you like.A giant zap gun?
Make quite few of them, stick on the top laundry machine, wire them together and charge your phone while doing laundry 😊
You could power an IOT device to monitor basically anything that has some kind of motor inside while dampening it's vibrations (kinetic dampener), a bigger version could get quite some energy out of a washing machine for example
Your vids are awesome man. Keep up the good work 👍
Big thanks man 😄
Man you make some awesome videos for real extremely entertaining keep it up
I'm glad you're liking them, big thanks!
A design like this would be perfect to generate some electricity from walking. With each step you could get a bit of power and by the end of your walk you could probably have a couple capacitors full of power.
Some time ago I had a flashlight that was recharged with a generator based on this principle. You had to shake it to charge it. However it was a little different. The magnet had all the length of the flashlight to move (except a bit that was for the battery) and the coil was in the middle.
Probably makes sense to allow the magnets to travel all the way through - might give that a try sometime 👌
A few years back Shakeable flashlights became popular on AS SEEN ON TV stuff. This is just a cooler version of that.
Those were so cool back in the day
Just found your channel. Love the way you describe it. Makes me want to get magnets and coils lol.
Haha thanks, appreciate it! I'd totally recommend getting some if you get the chance - there's an astonishing range of things you can do with just some magnets and wire
Having a handful of these on some heavy machinery or something similar could be a way to passively accumulate/restore power, even if its not extremely efficient something that vibrates alot could have uses with this.
Haha like a washing machine generator - consumes 2 kilowatts, but you can also power an LED at the same time! I actually liked another commenters idea of using it as a dampener for heavy machinery - then it can do 2 jobs at once
You could hook the magnets up to a longer band that generates wiggle in winds. That way you get a useful but weak wind generator.
Ah yes like a ribbon generator - they work well in low winds. But inefficient in faster winds. They look cool though!
Oh man i really want to see more about those other generators you built!
I gotchoo - my apartment is filled with them, so will cover the more powerful ones soon 😁
This thing can be really useful if use it like additional source of electricity that uses vibration and moving (like in your pocket)
Yeah they're not very efficient, but you're right - if you're having anyway, you may as well harness some of that energy!
This is the kind of tinkering with technic I like to see! Subscribed
Aw thanks for joining!
That's a good device to tell you when there's earthquake, you just check the device and if the light is flashing, there's an earthquake and you need to evacuate.
Attach it to the leg of a nervous knee bouncer and get free energy
Yo, I just discovered your channel. Very promising channel! I can't wait to watch future videos! 👍👍
Hey thanks, really appreciate it! 🙏
Had a flashlight you could charge by shaking it - it was made with that see through plastic so you could see the magnet inside. I forget how good it actually was... and also where it went
Those were cool!
Maybe if you put the magnets inside of a flashlight to power it up when it runs out of juice
Attach to a backpack to recharge batteries as you hike. Small, lightweight, and works in bad lighting conditions that would limit solar rechargers. Perfect for through hikers and expedition hikers.
you could use it for anything thats always in motion like an wristwatch or a bike for example
True that, I like the idea of it being integrated into bike shocks!
This is a more complicated version of the shake charging mechanism in an emergency flashlight.
Well compared to that banana it seems quite big to me, idk why you said its tiny
Nah it's just a reeeeally small banana. I should have used another banana to show how small that one was
@@JamiesBrickJams well the banana seems at least average to me hahaha
There was a flashlight I had a long time ago that used the shake function to charge a battery for a flashlight. It was quite nifty.
Those were really cool! With all the comments, I reckon I've gotta try make one now!
prefect for those with Parkinson's "jimmy i told you to stop using grandma as a way to charge your phone she cant help that she shakes so much"
😂
Attach it to people with parkinsons for a free electricity.
😂
useful applications include earthquake detection system, or hook up to the bed to be a love-meter of sorts when you have the gf over. Optical sensors can view the LED and can be fed into a data logger, to calculate things like frequency and stamina (um I mean duration)
Love o meter 😂 Nothing says a romantic evening like logging that stamina data
Have you got some IC around LED and capacitor? Is it something like in solar lamps that allow charging the battery? Or is it a rectifier?
Yup, it's just a simple rectifier so I can store the energy in some capacitors!
a bigger, slower one could probably generate power from waves in water. A smaller but chonkier one could simultaneously dampen engine vibration and get a bit of energy back from it?
Huh now that's a new idea I haven't heard yet... I quite like the idea of passively collecting and storing energy from things like water. Might have to give that a try
I thought you would hook up an alternating current between the two coils and make the magnet in the middle wiggle between the 2 coils, hence the wiggler 😂, maybe try it in another video.
Haha that's a pretty fun idea.. So it's kind of like a solenoid? I do have a couple ideas for a kinetic sculpture that uses a similar concept!
@Jamie's Lego Jams a solenoid is definitely one way to do it, looking forward to seeing that sculpture 👍
Dryvit instead of trying to use it as a generator. Then what you have is a resonance tuning device. You can do resonance matching, or active damping
That'd be really cool if you knew the resonance frequency of something... Not a bad idea, I'd love to test that out if I can find something that outputs a constant frequency signal
@@JamiesBrickJams you could put it on a swing and then pump the swing at its resonant frequency. Or you can make a resonant Mach drive with a bowl of water where you periodically allow a little bit of the water to spill out of one side of the bowl and refill in the center. The result is a thrust output with no jet of water.
Huh both really cool ideas!
Reminds me of those old flashlights that you would charge by shaking them.
Yeah those were really cool! Makes me appreciate how well built they must have been
I've wondered why this kind of power generation isn't employed in vehicle suspension. Imagine a truck without a wiring connector to its trailers, just a generator, a battery and a signal receiver to actuate lights.
That's an interesting idea ... I'd be curious to see how compact something this this could be (built into suspension) vs putting an alternator into the trailer
@@JamiesBrickJams shock absorber was my thought. You could have up to 4 of them per trailer.
@@MrJtrot90 that's true, I guess you could chain a whole bunch of them together
Could you attach them to vehicles to have the vibrations charge someThing while driving?
If you had two then could it be possible to have the led be solid if the wigglers wiggled in opposite directions
you would need a full bridge recifier too
I suppose some diodes to rectify the signal in one direction could do that! For now, I'm finding capacitors the easiest way to smooth out the signal for a solid light
@@JamiesBrickJams I didn't even think about that.
Congrats, you made the internal mechanism of a shake weight and flashlight.
Sure did! Guess I should try make a real shake flashlight now
You know, you could generate power with your washing machine!
There's some really funny about spending like 2 kilowatts and extracting back like 0.01 watts 😂 But I like it
Could you make the distance it has to wiggle smaller? would that change how it works? also does spinning it do anything? Can you make it smaller? Does the coil size make a difference? does the coil orientation make a difference?
All excellent questions sir! Reducing distance tends to reduce the amount of change in magnetic exposure to the coils, reducing output. Ideally the magnets would actually travel through the wires for maximal 'change'. Can definitely make it a bit smaller, but output depends on strength of the magnets and size of the coil. In general, more wire loops increases voltage, but also resistance, thereby dropping current. So you have to balance how thick the wire is vs how many loops you need. As an example, if you know what voltage you need (e.g. l, 5v), you should use the thickest wire and the fewest loops you can to reach that voltage. That'll allow you to have the least resistance (greatest current). And yes, orientation is important - magnetic field must be perpendicular to the direction of the wire loops
Really going to town, shaking the thing under his desk,
(making sure no one is getting uncomfortable.)
Whatever does he mean???
I'm dyin'!😂
Just makin energy man 🤷♂️
I would strap this to the washing mashine, it should be able to recover a small amount of energy out of the vibrations
Put it on a bicycle or other vehicles that can benefit from vibration having a visual visual read out to help people notice it before it becomes a hazard
Together with the cap and a linear voltage regulator you could bring it with you on the car and convert some of the vibration into energy to charge your phone. If you combine this concept with a thermoelectrical cooler attached to the hot metal of the engines, you could potentially be recovering some of the lost energy thus becoming more efficient...
Hmmm I haven't messed around with thermoelectric coolers before - could be some fun experiments there
Maybe this device could be made usefull in a precision device that can not have any vibrations. If any micro vibrations are detectd the wiggler returns data on how bad the vibrations are. Your divice will need some refining to acheive that
I like the idea of it being a sensor rather than a generator - seems a lot more useful!
@@JamiesBrickJams yeah! I want to try to prototype and make a program for reading the voltage from the sensor. If i decide to do this, do i have permission to do so? It is your invention after all
@@Player-9 haha of course, and this isn't really my invention - there are probably hundreds of similar things out there. It's all just moving magnets near copper!
It could withness the energy of vibration is some creations, but I'm not sure that this is a real game-changing idea.
I guess (as others have noted), similar to the idea of a seismograph
What if you amplified the impulses from each coil and fed it back into the other coil? I think if you tuned it just right, it would oscillate.
That'd be a fun experiment - not sure how I'd do it, but will have a think
I think something like this could be useful in environments where you have vibrations that are unwanted. Let’s say you cover some big machines in a network of wigglers. They could dampen the vibrations while creating electricity. Of course it would be better to improve the machines so they don’t vibrate as much but I like the idea of it. Like breaking in an electric car but on a smaller scale. Also I now want one for my desk :D
Vibration dampener gives it a dual purpose, I quite like the idea!
you could use it on a car with the engines vibrations to power the headlights
Maybe connected to a needlessly overcomplicated LEGO clockwork escapement?
'Needlessly overcomplicated' is my middle name - that's a fantastic idea to draw it out. I've built an escapement before, so will give it a try. Cheers for the idea!
its like a basic accelerometer, with a little warming light
True!
You can make a bass shaker out of it by playing music through the coils
Hmm I guess similar to a regular speaker concept ... I like the idea of making a dedicated subwoofer though!
This one is a fun fidget toy, but something similar could be used in watches, for example, to keep them powered. And I have an emergency flashlight that uses a similar generator to charge a capacitor and light up!
Very true, I think many watches still use kinetic chargers. I quite like the idea of making a flashlight version of this with some capacitors built in to hold the charge a while!
@@JamiesBrickJams Yeah, it's generally useful in low-power applications that tend to move around a lot. Especially in wearable tech it's a passive but practically infinite energy source!
If you could fit one near the truck on a skateboard, you could have the vibration of that board tell people where it is in space at night
Skateboard trucks is a cool new idea!
if you ever make a lego pinball, this thing could possibly be the tilt sensor
That's a cool idea!
How to make it useful?
Put it on a bike, or make it wearable. you have a motion-powered safety light while biking or jogging/walking.
A nice small safety light is a good idea 👌
neat stuff you got here sir!
Thank you sir 🙏
Add a transistor and a battery and then place in a package with "fragile" sticker and you have an indicator if it was "abused" during transit
That's a genuinely unique idea I haven't heard yet - love it!
Use the coils to drive the magnets backwards and forwards hi speed and you've got to variable vibration motor
Haha cool idea, and what would you be using that for I wonder?
If I mounted that to my hyperactive child he could easily power a small city.
😂
I think if you can make a second one and kinda make it like a boxer engine. With a fly wheel and a electric motor and a few capacitors you could maybe make something that can keep going with momentum. Just a random thought I had.
I actually love that idea! It seems totally pointless having a solenoid driving an engine that then turns that linear motion into rotation, when you really should have just created rotation motion from the start. But needlessly overengineering things is a passion of mine 😁 I'm totally going to have to try this! Cheers for the suggestion 🙏
I bet all your other generators have at least some vibration, there for maybe you could use this device like this to capture some of that energy that's being lost to increase the efficiency of your generators.
You get an alternating voltage from the generator. To increase efficiency, a diode bridge would be installed.
Yup, alternating works well for small lights. But I ended up using a rectifier to feed the capacitors
if you get enough of them you could use them during November as a way to power an electric stove
My immediate thought is that any machine that shakes a bed to put a bunch of pieces into a hole, like say those machines the make dozens of medicine capsules at once, this on a small scale could save energy, potentially even power a portion of the process
Maybe another chance for them to also act as dampeners for the machinery ...
what if you somehow put the wiggler onto an engine and went on a drive to power/charge something
Yeah buddy. I wanna see breakdowns of all of those! Especially the tall boi.
Haha I got you covered - posted a short of the tall boi yesterday. And will cover the powerful ones soon!
Mount it on a mountain bike so it will charge something (phone, cycle light, power bank)
It could work on top of a washing machine, those things vibrate like crazy!
True dat - would be interesting to see how much energy you can bank in some capacitors after a 40 minute cycle!
Emergency charger for a phone, powers out or keep it in a hiking bag
you can make a battery charger that you can put on cars or something that vibrates a lot
Other people on the call: Ayo, what’s bro doing under the table?
👀
I have seen ?such? a Power plant with 3meter long, 2 cm wide foils horizontal in the Wind. The foil Starts to swing...like a plastic bag swinging in your Hand can make Sound (Vibrations)
Ah yes, ribbon generators. I've actually built and tested a few. They work great in very low wind, but regular turbine generators are just way more efficient at higher wind speeds. Might do a video on one anyway though
Mount them in a car and the vibrations of the road will do all the work for you
Very nice project, I like it, but I think the rotative generators can be more effective.
You're absolutely right - these are wildly inefficient compared to rotary (that's why it almost 'doesn't deserve to exist'!)
Does it entertain you/ give you dopamine hits? Then it is useful.
And also, passive energy extraction. Get enough of them together and slap them on things that vibrate or move as a means of secondary energy capture.
That's my feeling too - if it makes you happy, that's good enough reason!
You can use it as an earthquake generator.
I installed a new sensor in my car. If this light is blinking, it means we're on a rocky road.
The 'suspension is buggered' light
Mount it on mountain bikes to generate electricity from bumps to power a small bike light
That seems to be a popular idea - maybe built into the suspension