Recently---
Reconfigured my tower hieght (turbine now at 103 feet versus 80 feet-original) Added 3rd (top) section of my original tower with stub for turbine mount. My tilt up base hinge arrangement works as well with 103 foot tower as with 80 foot. Tilt up is a breeze with my 4wd compact tractor & 34 foot gin pole. Gin pole guyed, but tower guy cables disconnected during raise/lowering.
Reconfigured tower drop wiring to 10 gauge-transitioning to 6 gauge lead in to building at tower disconnect. Orig had 6 ga drop, but couldn't support cable wieght sufficeintly to prevent deflection of stator and rotor rubbing. The 10 gauge drop cable is supported in a tapered roller bearing beneath tower stub-this adeqauately supports the lower 90' of cable and allows free rotation.
Installed hand carved wood (doug Fir) blade assembly vesus original china fiberglass blades.
Wood blade assembly (with balancing wieghts and metal hub plates) wieghs 10.5 lbs less than fiberlass blade assembly. Wood assembly wieghs 15.5 lbs complete.
Have not had enough wind to check output or furling. I Have a La Cross WS-611 Weather Station on the tower with the wind sensor mounted at about 90'. Since erection the wind has been 0 mph to about 6-7 mph. Startup speed is about 3 mph, but no appreciable power indicated on my current meter.
Speaking of metering--I don't have a lot of confidence in the shunts and digital readout meters that I have in various places in my entire RE system. Voltmeters are fine but current erattic. Anyone have a source for decent priced (new or used) analog current meters. Preferably with built in shunts. I've managed to salvage one 0-15 amp anolog meter and the needle deflection is very satisfying compared to erratic jumping around (probably due to sample times and rate of the digital meters). I'd like a -20, 0, +20 meter (plus & minus from centerline) for my overall battery charge-discharge indicator.
Thank you, and any suggestions from users can be to xpag@nemr.net (I can email reply, but can't post to board)
Curt Bork
