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Motor cooked?
By northrun, Section Wind Posted on Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 06:35:23 AM MST
Tarry stuff

We recently had some high (105 km/hr max gust) winds, and I think my windmill motor is toast.... I wasn't around for the storm, but it was working fine the day before. Here is a post on the system, from this spring:
http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2008/5/31/54134/8788
I took it down, and the motor was quite hard to turn. It smelled burnt, and there was a bit of brown tarry stuff coming from the vents. When I took it apart, the inside was quite gummed up with tar.

I am assuming that this is the end for the motor, but would be happy and surprised if someone could tell me it just needed to be cleaned and it would be fine.
The mill is made to furl, and I have seen it furling in lower winds. The dump load and electronics were fine. Not sure what happened, but it seems like it must have revved too high. Or is there something else that would contribute to a failure like this?
On the bright side, the tower and blades (TLG Trinado MM) survived unscathed.

Motor cooked? | 5 comments (5 topical)

Re: Motor cooked? (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by Flux on Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 01:39:41 AM MST

You haven't shown the armature and that is the bit that's toasted, the mess on the field magnets is from the disintegrated armature insulation.

"The mill is made to furl, and I have seen it furling in lower winds. "

The truth is that you haven't got it to furl at a safe wind speed and most likely it hasn't furled at all. The problem with a lot of low wind sites is that most of the time it doesn't produce enough to hurt itself but when a real big wind comes you find it has never been protected by the furling.

If you are up to the challenge you could rewind the armature, otherwise you are looking for another motor.

Flux

Re: Motor cooked? (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by ghurd on Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 09:00:59 AM MST

Wow. That's toast!

Still using the Oatley? I wonder if the problem wasn't partly or mostly the Oatly controller.

Dumping a windmill directly to a dump load seems very hard (impossible?) to get balanced, maybe resulting in a shorted machine or a runaway machine or even both.

That type of blades won't really get very 'stopped' anyway. Maybe meaning the thing just kept running to burn itself up.

(it's what I was afraid would happen when I said "the windmill windings as the dump load")
G-

Re: Motor cooked? (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by northrun on Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 09:30:26 AM MST

Here is a picture of the armature for the morbidly curious:

Yes, I still had the Oatley controller. I am thinking that it was dumping but not furling, and in a BIG wind like that the motor oversped anyway. This is a seasonal setup, so I will come back next year with a new motor and a Ghurd controller, and play with the furling.

[ Parent ]

Re: Motor cooked? (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by Flux on Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 12:21:20 PM MST

That is one of the best fry ups I have seen for a while. That motor must have continued running long after it failed. In many cases it will bring the blades to a stop when it initially fails.

I also have serious about the Oatley controller, it seems the sort of thing that works for solar but seems totally crazy for wind. I doubt that you could set the furling to be safe into that thing even if it was safe into the battery.

I would never try to brake any dc motor, alternators are not so bothered but it is too demanding for a commutator and brushes.That commutator looks to have taken a hammering.

Flux

[ Parent ]

Re: Motor cooked? (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by Airstream on Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 12:57:51 PM MST

Silver soldered & crimped connections off the commutator bars... good example 'cause twern't no 60/40 solder holding up to temps that crystallized the copper to gun-metal gray!

Motor cooked? | 5 comments (5 topical)

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