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Treadmill Motor / Generator in Air ( PART 2 ) | 16 comments (16 topical, 0 editorial)

Re: Treadmill Motor / Generator in Air ( PART 2 ) (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by CmeBREW (smke833f@hotmail.com) on Fri Mar 9th, 2007 at 08:46:32 AM MST
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Thanks DANB:
Greatly appreciate you and friends tremedous amount of work with this website and experiments. The mag cog reducer idea just popped into my brain and does definitely work but I cannot give an exact percentage yet. One important thing to remember though is if you place the screws in relation to the mags incorrectly, you will make the cogging TWICE as bad as it was in the first place! I Marked the maximum cog lines first, put mags inbetween these lines, and then have the screws just to one side of the mags-it depends which direction the rotor will turn (in my case,counterclockwise,so the screws were on right side to the mags) Also you can adjust the wood screws until you get it just right and then super-glue them in. (mine was about 1/4" gap from the mags)
It has been an extremely exciting project. -Thanks Dan and Otherpower!

[ Parent ]

Re: Treadmill Motor / Generator in Air ( PART 2 ) (3.00 / 0) (#14)
by HenryVG (headpig(at)men-are-pigs dot com) on Fri Mar 23rd, 2007 at 10:26:12 AM MST
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Wow is this an exciting project. Perfect for a mast-mounted sailboat genny that can be stowed and put up at anchor! Could you post the specs on the blades? Length, stations, etc. I'll have one of these flying this summer.

And does this also mean that one could cast a set of the mini-magnets in a conventional axial-flux stator and harvest a small current on the blade-side rotor? I can just see a few LEDs peeking through wooden blades all over the world, making those utilitarian wind generators into kaleidoscopes of colored lights...
At least then the "But windmills kill birds becasue they can't see them at night" folks will have to come up with something else. Maybe "Spinning lights cause epilepsy in bats"...

[ Parent ]

Re: Treadmill Motor / Generator in Air ( PART 2 ) (3.00 / 0) (#15)
by CmeBREW (smke833f@hotmail.com) on Fri Mar 23rd, 2007 at 04:49:46 PM MST
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Thanks HenryVG,
Neat Idea about the boat.(Wish i had a boat!) I don't know boating but if you do make one I personally would make it an UPwind generator (with tail control) so that it would furl out of the 30MPH+ winds and stay QUIET and safe. (since it would be right above your head and possibly disturb the people sleeping in their boats??) Also, one thing I forgot to mention in the main post is that you cannot shut down the windmill I made by simply 'shorting' together the two wires and wait out a thunderstorm. Even with it shorted it spins pretty much out of control with anything above 30mph. (and of course it would fry the brushes pretty quick doing this- I finally realized)
Most of the blade dimensions are in the photos pretty much--simple 2x4 blades---3 and a half inches wide (1 in.thick)on hub side---down to 2" wide (about half an inch thick) at the tip.(10 or 12 degree slope angle at the root(hub) side--gradually down to about 8-10 degree slope angle at the tip) I just followed the basic principles of DANB's 'Blade Page' on this website--and they really spin great. Yesterday was very windy and I got just over 500 watt hours over a 12 hour period. (Not going to lower my electric bill but plenty of TV watching ,lights and an efficiency fan) I would still make 4 blades instead of 3 though, to capture low 10mph winds.(They can really add up to 2 or 3 hours of efficiency lighting on all those many,MANY low wind days)
That LED idea would be cool to try--but I don't know much about LED's and keeping them from blowing out from the higher voltages they would encounter. I can't imagine a voltage regulator spinning 1500rpm on the rotor??? But it would be really cool to see that if the LED's could keep from burning out. -Have fun on your boat!

[ Parent ]

Re: Treadmill Motor / Generator in Air ( PART 2 ) (3.00 / 0) (#16)
by CmeBREW (smke833f@hotmail.com) on Mon Apr 2nd, 2007 at 08:23:58 PM MST
(User Info)

Thought I could mention one more thing about controlling this small windmill in very high winds before this post goes away. We have had several VERY windy days so far this spring. (40-50mph+) What I do now is, I hook one of those little 12vdc car heaters (200watts) directly (NOT thru the batts) to this windmill in these high winds and it controls it very well-- after the batteries are full. You have to run a separate wire to the little fan in it though, or the voltage drop (down to around 6-7 volts) at the heater will blow out the transistor in the brushless fan. (which I unfortunetly did) I had to temporarily rig another little 12vdc fan (2watt) on the top.

Later, I will make a better set-up with more heating elements. I'm going to do many 'on-off' switching type experiments, to try and get more heat. Its pretty cool - I actually get some decent little heat coming out of that little $15 200watt heater in high winds. I just got my xantrex C-60 controller - so this little heater will be the dump load for it now. I can't wait to hook it up, since its been a pain in the neck always watching the battery volts and turning on my TV in the middle of a windy night! When the 12vdc heater is hooked to the generator directly the blades turn only about 120rpm in about a 20mph wind. (under 20mph they stop) They turn only about 300rpm in a 30mph wind. But at about 35mph-40 they really take off and spin up fast to about 800-1000rpm (guessing) and then heat comes out of the heater until the high gust goes back down below 30mph. But it is still noticably controlled. It don't spin too much out of control like before. Thought I would just mention these recent facts. I can finally sleep at night.
Also, one more thing about this Down-wind type generator I made. It has a very difficult time making a complete 180 degree turn in the lower winds. This has happened several times now- where I had to go on my roof and turn it 180 degrees around. Sometimes, the wind blows all day from the main direction, but at night there is NO wind, and the next day the wind starts up in exactly the opposite direction. My Yaw axis (pole inside the bigger pole) is not as easy to turn as I would like. 4 blades would certainly help it in the low wind turns, Or a 6 foot rotor would have alot more leverage with a bigger, better generator. Of course, after the rotor is turning it easily stays with the direction of the wind. Also, it seems to me that furling a downwind generator is extremely difficult other than the more difficult variable pitch blades.
You can make it furl up or sideways - but it would take a spring and damping air cylinder which I'm not going to even mess with.(sounds like a headache to me) Rather, I'm going for the variable pitch blades on my next bigger alternator.(6')
Later friends!

[ Parent ]

Treadmill Motor / Generator in Air ( PART 2 ) | 16 comments (16 topical, 0 editorial)

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