Draaiende molens

Welcome

When the sails of the windmills in the Netherlands spin, it often means that they are accessible to the public. Here is an overview of working mills in the Netherlands.

This website is connected to (currently a few) mills with a sensor. The number of sails passing per minute can be counted in this way. Most windmills have 4 sails, so a number of 60 means that the axis rotates 15 times per minute.

Model mills specially developed for this purpose, can be linked to any participating real windmill and also spin independently.
As long as there is a connection with the server, these model mills work like the real mill, at the same speed (up to a certain limit), and stop when the real mill has stopped.
The model mills are sold out but were available through the shop Molen de Roos in Delft.

In collaboration with smartmolen.com

, data is retrieved every 5 minutes, which is shown on the map.

Stored values

For a better user experience of the website some values are stored per browser, you can delete them here.

Guide to make the model mill spin

This guide is written to be followed on a mobile phonee telefoon. Switch 4G off during this installation.
It is also possible to use a phone. You can find moe information about this on http://www.draaiendemolens.nl.

(The manual that comes with the model mills has been chosen to be only for mobile phones.
If you want to do this process with a computer, you can do that too.
For a computer with Windows, MacOS or a Linux version, you can choose other networks via the WiFi symbol.
Here you choose, just like when using a mobile phone, the network that starts with 'ESP-'.
You can connect to the model mill via http://192.168.4.1 in the address bar of a browser.
Depending on the Operating System and the browser used, you can use also use http://model.local in the address bar of a browser, this also applies to the iphone.
If you use http://model.local you can use the lights to see to which network the model mill is connected.)

A. Connect Model mill and let it spin indepently

Put the plug in the socket, a green and a yellow light will light up. Wait until only the yellow light is on.
Use a mobile phone with WiFi and go to Settings → Connections → Wi-Fi.
Select the Wi-Fi network of the windmill, which starts with 'ESP-'.
Enter the password (see manual that comes with the model mill) and wait until you are connected.
You can change this password under the heading Connect → Access Point (see Figure 3).

Open a browser on your phone and enter in the address bar: http://192.168.4.1.
Wait for connection. If you cannot connect, try again after approx. 1 minute.
You can ignore the message from your browser that you are not connected to the internet.

Under the heading 'Mill', choose the option 'Independent' and enter the desired speed.

Click on 'Save' and the mill will start turning.

Figure 1.

B. Connecting the model mill to a real windmill via the internet

Put the plug in the socket, a green and a yellow light will light up. Wait until only the yellow light is on.
Use a mobile phone with WiFi and go to Settings → Connections → Wi-Fi.
Select the Wi-Fi network of the model mill, which starts with 'ESP-'.
Enter the password (see manual that comes with the model mill) and wait until you are connected.
You can change this password under the heading Connect → Access Point (see Figure 3).

Open a browser on your phone and enter in the address bar: http://192.168.4.1.
Wait for connection. If you cannot connect, try again after approx. 1 minute.
You can ignore the message from your browser that you are not connected to the internet.

Important to know:
After going through this manual, you can use the button on the back of the mill to switch between having or not having internet.
A yellow light means there is no internet connection.
A green light means that there is a connection to the internet.

B.1. Connecting the model mill to the internet

Figure 3.

Choose the heading 'Connect'.

Choose 'Network Station' and wait until a list of WiFi networks appears.
Choose your WiFi network from this list, enter the password and click 'Save'.
Wait for confirmation and reset the model mill by unplugging and plugging it back in.

Click on the button at the back of the model mill to connect to the internet.

You know that there is a connection to the internet if after approx. 30 seconds only the green light is still on.
Your mobile will now automatically reconnect to your own WiFi network.
As soon as the real Molen de Roos starts turning and you are connected to the internet (green light is on) your model mill will start rotating at the same speed up to a maximum of 15 revolutions per minute.

With the button on the back of the model mill you can always switch between internet or not, so that if there is no real mill running you can still make your mill run independently.
On the website http://www.draaiendemolens.nl you can see on the map which real windmills are connected and whether they are running.

Connect models to mills

There are two ways to connect a model.
The easiest method is 'via your WiFi' which uses the mDNS protocol to search for models, but that does not work on every system.
What always works, but takes a bit more effort (at start) is 'via a Code'.

Search models in your WiFi network

Note: Works only if your system can handle mDNS
Extra action for Chrome: Open a new tab/window and set the value for chrome://flags/#block-insecure-private-network-requests to "disabled"

B.2. Connecting a real mill

Figure 2.

Important to know:
After going through the manual, you can use the button on the back of the mill to switch between having or not having internet.
A yellow light means there is no internet connection.
A green light means that there is a connection to the internet.

Put the plug in the socket, a green and a yellow light will light up. Wait until 1 light stays on.
Make sure the yellow light comes on, use the button for this.

Use a mobile phone with WiFi and go to Settings → Connections → Wi-Fi.
Select the Wi-Fi network of the model mill, which starts with 'ESP-'.
Enter the password (see manual that comes with the model mill) and wait until you are connected.

Open a browser on your phone and enter in the address bar: http://192.168.4.1.
Wait for connection. If you cannot connect, try again after approx. 1 minute.
You can ignore the message from your browser that you are not connected to the internet.

Choose the heading 'Mill' and select the option 'Linked to a mill'.

Real windmills that participate have a code. Enter 03503 for Molen de Roos.
(For other codes and explanations, go to http://www.draaiendemolens.nl/codes.)
Click on 'Save' to save the data and wait for confirmation.

© 2025 MAMI

Spinning mills