Hand Wound Coil Makes Paper Butterfly Wings Flap
Channel: bornach
Date: 10/07/2023

In this project inspired by Carl Bugeja's flapping butterfly project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsEWjJJqkcI

I try to wind a coil of magnet wire that is sufficiently light and small that it will move when suspended between a pair of N42 magnets and a current is passed through. And I test whether there is sufficient kinetic energy to animate a few paper shapes. A PC817 optocoupler is used in the gate driver for the N-Channel MOSFET so that 3.3 microcontrollers such as a Micro:bit can safely switch the high current pulse flowing through the coil.

The build is documented at Instructables:
https://www.instructables.com/Electronic-Flapping-Butterfly/