“I am currently in the final year of electrical engineering and was working on my final year project model. As a part of the project, I had modified a ceiling fan to work as a generator. I had replaced the original thin gauge winding with a thicker one to suit the power requirement. But due to lockdown, I was forced to scrap the model and continue just with the theory part. A lot of enameled copper wire was going to be wasted and so I decided to reuse it.
As I always do, I started going through projects on the internet. I came across the ‘Mechanical 7 Segment Display’ which used servo motors to move the segments. Those are fun to watch but I didn’t like the sound they made. So, I decided to choose another way to move the segments.
In this Instructable, I will be showing you how I made a mechanical 7 segment display using electromagnets to move the segments. Before starting, I want to let you know that this is not an efficient design. I have used whatever I had already laying around. I will try to improve it in the future maybe but for now, I am having fun!
Let’s get started!
Supplies:
1x Arduino Nano
7x IRF540N N-Channel MOSFET
7x 1N5408 Diode
7x Magnets
7x 10k Resistor
7x 100-ohm Resistor
Perfboard
Enameled copper wire”