My Latest Projects

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Hiya Guy's,
Well after my last tower failure I'm onto a new one


Now thats a 12 metre comms tower I got from the scrap yard for only $200.

Today I made a winch pad and concreted it in



Now I need to make the new genny mount which will be re-born from my old one and i need to workout the size of the gin pole I'll need to raise the tower. The idea behind all this is I'm going to be a test bunny on the F&P wind genny's with different blades and stator configurations.

More to come in weeks ahead.

Cheers Bryan
 
Hiya Guy's,
Well after a hard weekends work I finally got the new wind genny up and flying. Rather than use the comms tower with both sections I decided to just use the inner section for the shed genny as going the full height would mean the guy wires would obstruct any acess to the shed. The 80 series F&P motor I re-wired was tested on my mates test bench and at 300 rpm it was pulling 18 amps(over 400 watts). It been pretty windy here today and the best I saw was around 6 amps but as the batteries are on 27 volts the genny really needs to be going like the clappers to get to charging voltage. Rather than shorten the blades from 3 metres to 2.4 metres diameter I'm going to make a new genny mount with a 1:2 ratio so it will get to charging voltage in low to meduim winds. The extra grunt needed won't be a problem as i'm using 4 blades and the torque will be there. Anyway time I got going on the pic project to monitor the genny but as always time is never there for my fun projects.



Cheers Bryan
 
I think it an optical illusion, the genny is much further up the hill than the lines, therefore the lines must be lower and closer. The guys look adaquate, the angle looks fine.
 
Hiya Guys,
Well I finally decided to make my own PV charge controller by just using a LM3914 LED driver chip. I calibrated it to start at 24 volts then light each led in 1/2 volt increments to where it hits 27.5 volt it starts a dumpload. When it hit 28 and 28.5 volts more dumploads come on. For switching the dumploads I put a pnp transistor on the led trace and that signal goes out to a TC4469 fet driver to turn on the IRFZ44N fets. I'm still working on the fet board and I'm putting a fan on the heatsink with a simple temp circuit to start the fan only when needed. With this circuit being total analogue it should last for years and is a simple yet effective way to keep my shed batteries properly charged.



Cheers Bryan
 
Well I got the fet board finished and tested today, The heatsink is off an old motherboard with a 12 volt fan, as I had a spare input on the 4469 I decided to use that for the fan switching. Basically as the first fet fires so does the fan and the fan will remain on untill the batteries fall below 27 volts. The heavy wires on the board are for the fets as I'll be using the fets for dumploads 2 amps and above I thought it safer to ensure the current can pass as I dont think veroboard will handle 8 amps.



Cheers Bryan
 
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Looking good. It's good you chose a decent heatsink for it. How are you limiting the current though the dump FETs?
 
kchriste said:
Looking good. It's good you chose a decent heatsink for it. How are you limiting the current though the dump FETs?
Click to expand...

The dumploads are modiefied water heating element and ohm's law will dictate the current draw.

Example:- say my first dumpload starts at 27.5 volts and the resistance of my dumpload is 13 ohms I will get a current draw of 2.115 amps.

Simple

Cheers Bryan
 
Looking good Bryan!!! I have no hope in converting our house to AE, since use soo much power here in Cairns. Aircons on all over the place here, youd need to cover the whole street in panels for it to work
 
ljcox said:
We use natural gas for heating also. I intend to install a solar hot water system when our gas fired one dies. We thought about solar power, but the cost is large.
Click to expand...

Didn't you read that article in 'Silicon Chip' about greenhouse... Haha...
Ref: Silicon Chip, July '07, August '07, September '07.
 
Hiya Guy's,
Well I finally got around to carving myself some decent wooden blades and made a complete new generator head for it. I reused the existing 80sp f&p genny I used before. Hopefully this on will lat abit longer now it's got decent blades rather than cheap plywood blades.

Cheer Bryan
 
just another question how much did it cost (and where are the cost factors ) of erecting the tower
i am thinking of building one my self but i still don't have the good vegitation free spot

How high is your tower??

Robert-Jan
 
rjvh said:
just another question how much did it cost (and where are the cost factors ) of erecting the tower
i am thinking of building one my self but i still don't have the good vegitation free spot

How high is your tower??

Robert-Jan
Click to expand...

Hiya Robert-Jan,
As far as cost goes, the blades cost me $8 each as oregon blanks from the scrap yard. The f&p washing motor was free, the tower I also picked up from the scrap yard for $100 and I'm only using 1/2 of it. The genny mount was fabricated from the scrap steel I had here and at work. The guy wires I had from the original tower. Well as you can see this wind genny didnt cost much but as you say about your site you will need to get above the vegetation so this makes theing a heap different.

For clean air for a wind genny you really need 30' above any obstruction, now as I see your in Cambodia the dual axial flux wind genny sounds like your best option so go checkout Welcome to OTHERPOWER.COM and some of the other links I put in the sticky.

If you have more questions mate feel free to ask as I consider RE to be my main goal in life and I don't mind sharing my knowledge.

Cheers Bryan
 
hi Bryan1,

Neat.

Have been doing some homework on the logger, hardware/software..

Trying to get upto speed on RE.!!!

Regards
 
Hi Brain thanks for the offer i will defenetly ask some more questions in the future about the wind genny

the alternative energy things i do is making solar colectors and control equipment so if you're intrested i make the same offer as you do

Robert-Jan
 
Well guys finally blowing a gale here when I got home from work. Last weekend I installed a shorting switch so (a) I can shut the mill down in real high winds and (b) I can work on the controls safely. Tonight I put my cheap dmm on the 10 amp range and connected it up. I instantly 2 amps then 3,5,7,9,11,14 then the fuse blew. Well with battery voltage sitting on 26.5 volts that works out to be around 371 watts. Not bad I reckon as the main shed array which is 24 volts @ 700ah was only sitting on 24.5 volts after my weekends work. Today it was cloudy all day so the 350 watts of PV didnt add any input so it looks like this new wind genny is working out good.

Now I really need to get a move on with this data logger/controller so I can monitor the power this genny is making.

Cheers Bryan
 
Well Guy's 6 months since I did an update,
I endup putting a 100S F&P wired up in delta with some caps too boost the power and for over 6 months when the wind blows its been doing a great job of keeping my main shed battery array of 700AH nicely topped up or dumping load into my new dumpload. My latest project is converting a standard 2hp 3 phase motor into a wind genny, today i got the 8off 2x1x1/2" N45 neos magnets and I do have the new rotor roughed out. When I can back to the project I'll take a few pic's and throw them in here.

I did finally get around to twisting the poles on the F&P and now not only is it quiet but also cogging free

Cheers Bryan
 
Last edited:
Hiya Guy's,
Well da missus has let me a have a few days free for shed play so today I finish machined the new stator for my 2hp motor conversion.



Tomorrow I'll mill the slots for the 8 0ff 2x1x1/2" N45 Epoxy coated Neo's I got for this project.As things progress i'll throw afew more pic's in here and i do intend to make a pdf file detailing how to do a motor conversion using the offset method.

Cheers Bryan
 
Hi Bryan,

This is great stuff. I always enjoy reading your posts as you are doing this stuff rather than thinking about it. I'm looking forward to the report on the motor conversion. Those magnets sound like real bruisers.

Mike.
 
Nice machine work. My lathe bits would be screaming for mercy on that material. I guess I need better bits.
 
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