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

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

winch pad.jpg

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

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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.

wind genny.jpg

Cheers Bryan

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" The only way to avoid human error is to avoid the use of humans"

 

The angle of the guy wires looks a little steep or are there some I can't see in the picture:
http://www.electro-tech-online.com/a...wind-genny.jpg
Too shallow of an angle will put undue stress on the tower and the guy wires in high winds.

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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.

dump2.jpg

Cheers Bryan

__________________
" The only way to avoid human error is to avoid the use of humans"

 

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.

dumpload board.jpg

Cheers Bryan

__________________
" The only way to avoid human error is to avoid the use of humans"

 

Looking good. It's good you chose a decent heatsink for it. How are you limiting the current though the dump FETs?

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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

__________________
" The only way to avoid human error is to avoid the use of humans"

 

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

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Didn't you read that article in 'Silicon Chip' about greenhouse... Haha...
Ref: Silicon Chip, July '07, August '07, September '07.

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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
wind genny 1.jpg

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" The only way to avoid human error is to avoid the use of humans"

 

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

 

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

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" The only way to avoid human error is to avoid the use of humans"

 

hi Bryan1,

Neat.

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

Trying to get upto speed on RE.!!!

Regards

__________________
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"Good enough is Perfect"

PIC tutorials:
Gramo's: www.digital-diy.net/
Bill's: www.blueroomelectronics.com/

 

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