Prop Comparison on Ametek 40v

[Peppyy]

Finally some wind! Gusty as it may be.


I had a chance to test the ZubWoofers. So far I am rather impressed.


Here are a few shots of the state of the art test equipment in action.





3 MPH wind and 5.5 volts. That is a lucky shot. It is


usually only around 3 volts.





Another lucky shot, usually around 12 volts.





This one really made me smile!


Here is a comparison chart I made for my current tests.


All readings were with approximately a 10 watt load.


Since I still haven't hit 15 MPH with the double zub that is just a

guess.

As you can see they out perform my original 21" prop.

My next step is to build a real set of wooden blades and


see how they work. I am sure a decent height mast would


help the power output also.

[hiker]

what about a picture of the zub?

what are zub blades?--homemade blades...

[zubbly]

Hey Peppyy!

nice to see some one doing some serious testing of those zubwoofer blades.  :-)

please keep us all posted with your tests and findings.

have fun,   zubbly

[Peppyy]

Here is the design I used to make mine.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2003/11/11/172721/53

I made a wooden hub that fit between 2 blades, (No photos yet cause

I was in a hurry). I will get some when it's light out.

Here is the prop I call Sputnic.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2004/11/24/17554/089

The other was just a plastic 14" 3 blade fan.

[wooferhound]

Hey Peppyy

Of course I have to get in on this thread too.

I would like to see some pics of your ZubWoofer blades too, and some details like.

Blade length

Pipe diameter

I have a ZubWoofer bolted to a TV mast and tied to my fence outside. I love to watch it spinning. It's a 42 inch blade made from a 4 inch pipe. A 40° hub angle and a 7° tip angle. It's not hooked up to anything, it's just proving a concept.

I have obtained a syrup barrel from the Coca-Cola bottler next to where I work. It's about 20 inches in diameter and 4 feet tall, plenty thick and hard. This will be my next Blade Project and will probably end up driving my wind genny which is now about 95% complete. Well it's really finished but I have to fix a little mistake causing my airgap to be to small, about a 3 hour fix.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2004/4/4/164552/3003

Good luck and keep us posted to your progress . . .

[wooferhound]

I had ment to include this picture with my last comment...

[Peppyy]

Well it's some sort of testing alright. I don't know how serious it is.

I have noticed at higher wind speeds, above 10MPH there is a balance problem.

My tower is only 16 feet so the wind shifts rather quickly

but it is at the height of my anemometer. If I get any steady

wind the blades seem to respond with a rapid steady rise in speed.

I basically took the drawing and the photos and made one that

looked about the same as that. Traced that one to make the second

one and then designed a hub to go between them. Since I didn't have

the hub I ran a single blade for a week. It started around 5 to 6 MPH

and then spun up fairly quickly but it made the yaw really jerky.

As you can see, the double setup starts rotating at around 3MPH.

at about 8MPH my 12v fl trouble light is full bright so these blades

have the best low wind performance of any I have tested so far.

I don't know yet how they will be with a decent load because the

nature of the wind in this location being so sparatic. Today it is

running from almost nothing to gusts around 15MPH from the N and E amd NW

and such. I guess if I cut a couple trees and put up a tower I could get

some useable power out of it.

[Peppyy]

Depending on what you have for wind in your area it sounds

like your genny should work really well. The blades on the Ametek

are 48" out of 4" green pvc pipe. Just threw my kill switch

and shorted the genny and went out to watch it. The blades start

turning slowly around 6 MPH and even though I wasn't out there long

they got up to around 120 to 150 rpm in a gust. Can't load it any

more than that.

I would say that is a fair amount of torque. I know that when I

put the blades on the motor was really hard to turn with it shorted.

If I get a chance today I will hook up a 50w 12v halogen and see if

it will light that. Haven't got a lot of test equipment around, (Yet)

so I make due with what I have

[Peppyy]

Here are a couple shots of the Double Zubwoofer.


The blocks in between are 2 by stock keyed together at


90 degree angles. there is a 3/8" x 5" lag bolt holding them on.


The bolt has a couple spacers because I should have had


a 4- 1/2" lag bolt.





The motor shaft has a 1/2"x3" pipe nipple over it, origionally to


mount the Sputhic prop with a 7/8" center hole. Inside the prop end


of the nipple is a "Led anchor" which aren't made of led anymore.





The wind let up just long enough to get a fairly sharp photo. From

this


angle you can't see the other block which supports the outer blade

lengthwise.





This was about a 10MPH wind. In my digital viewfinder it looked


like it had 12 blades. It has been snowing and blowing until just a


little while ago, hense the snow in the center.

[ghurd]

The Sputnic is what impresses me.

And the 14" fan comes into its own at higher wind.

Good work!

G-

[rotornuts]

I agree Considering sputnic is less than half the diameter of the zubwoofers. I'd love to see a bigger sputnic. Real wind data of the zubwoofers in higher winds might change that though.

[wooferhound]

Double Cool !

              Thanks for posting the photos and info.

    Your connecting block between the blades gives me even more ideas.

[Peppyy]

Every time I look at my mini 9" with 8 blades

and see how fast that one is turning it makes me

want to build another one with 8 blades.

 Maybe a little bigger too.

Just have to find the material.

[ghurd]

Don't know if you will see this.

Maybe the ZubWoofers are a tad too long to get enough RPMs for the Amatek?

It would be interesting to see a 24" or 30" set of Zubs for comparison.

G-

[Peppyy]

Now that the setup is geared 2 to 1 it seems to be about the right power ratio. Might be able to improve it if I could get the startup speed a little lower.

Yup, I saw it