amazingrolo
Member
I'm trying to get a project going that involves a Teensy 3.2 running a simple game, displaying on a 2.2" TFT display (this one). The catch - I'd like to make it fully hydro powered (and self contained, i.e., not connected to mains water supply).
After trying to make my own water mill system I've been experimenting with simple water turbines from amazon like this. They work really well when hooked up to a garden hose, and I've managed to get the teensy up and running the sketch that way. There's plenty of water pressure and I get the voltage/current required. It's pretty hilarious.
I've since tried to make the water system self contained, using water bottles and piping. I've learned that in order to get the right water pressure I need some pretty serious height, which is also pretty fun.
Anyway, with that height the turbine is running nice and fast and giving me a reading of around 9v, though it is pretty shaky of course. When I hook up the Teensy/screen to the turbine using this system the sketch doesn't launch properly. The screen turns on and the LED on the Teensy flickers, but the sketch just doesn't get going. I would guess it's stuck loading the firmware or something.
My suspicion is that the power supply needs to be cleaned up somehow before sending it to the Teensy. I tried putting in a 7805 voltage regulator but it didn't work (the Teensy didn't turn on at all).
My questions are: does that suspicion seem correct? Does anyone have tips to do that? I'm imagining that I should put a capacitor across the turbine, probably with a diode? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? It does work when hooked up to the main water supply, so do I just need to generate more pressure?
After trying to make my own water mill system I've been experimenting with simple water turbines from amazon like this. They work really well when hooked up to a garden hose, and I've managed to get the teensy up and running the sketch that way. There's plenty of water pressure and I get the voltage/current required. It's pretty hilarious.
I've since tried to make the water system self contained, using water bottles and piping. I've learned that in order to get the right water pressure I need some pretty serious height, which is also pretty fun.
Anyway, with that height the turbine is running nice and fast and giving me a reading of around 9v, though it is pretty shaky of course. When I hook up the Teensy/screen to the turbine using this system the sketch doesn't launch properly. The screen turns on and the LED on the Teensy flickers, but the sketch just doesn't get going. I would guess it's stuck loading the firmware or something.
My suspicion is that the power supply needs to be cleaned up somehow before sending it to the Teensy. I tried putting in a 7805 voltage regulator but it didn't work (the Teensy didn't turn on at all).
My questions are: does that suspicion seem correct? Does anyone have tips to do that? I'm imagining that I should put a capacitor across the turbine, probably with a diode? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? It does work when hooked up to the main water supply, so do I just need to generate more pressure?