14-11 update.

[Jerry]

Here are a few pictures of the stator.

This one is the stator form with holes cut for the coils.

This is the other test stator. The 11 holes are the size and shap of the magnets.

This is the cogging checking stator.

This one shows the magnet discs behind the test stator.

Next step is to poure the iron mix into the iron test stator.

                         JK TAS Jerry

[tecker]

I don't know about the ferrous material in the middle Jerry  . I do know that when you put ferrous material between two magnets that material leaves a reluctance that's opposite that of the pole that is removed and will repel the approaching

magnet until that mag reverses that orientation . That's what makes a squirrel cage motor work. I think your going to test it any how so give a look.

[hiker]

i used steel bbs once! in the middle of my coils --cogged  really bad..no real big gain in output..not sure what" using iron powder will do...

[Jerry]

tecker, hiker thanks for the heads up.  I glude the magnets to the discs last night.

Today for storage purpases I placed a 1/2" piece of plexi between the 2 rotors.

I faced the magnets face to face with 1/2" plexi between. As you can imagine these 2 plates came together with great force.

No damage but its amazing how much pulling power these littel cheap ceramics have in this configuration.

I've been trying to figure out the diode situation. Right now I leaning towards building a fullwave bridge for each coil out of single 6 amp diodes. I'll physicaly mount the diodes to the stator. They will be positioned near the edge of the stator just inside the speaker basket.

I'm not planing any heat sinking for these diodes.

In my first Lowes genny wind testing at 30 mph only produced 246 watts.

I don't think this unit could do 100 watts more. At 346 watts there would be 31.45 watts per coil or a littel over 2 amps per bridge or .5 amps per diode.

What I'm hopeing for in this unit is low wind speed cutin.

The first Lowes 12-9 genny did fiarly well at low wind speed for its size.

If the diodes were pushed to there limit at 6 amps each X 4 X 11 = about 264 amps worth. It will never go there.

OK back to the lab.

                          JK TAS Jerry

[Jerry]

Had some thoughts on the 24 ga. wire I'm winding the coils with.

I checked the wire ga. chart. It says 24 ga. is 404 circular mills.

Basicaly the coils after the bridges will have the effect of being wired in perelel.

There are 11 coils this is then = to 4444 circular mills.

14 ga. wire is 4,107 circular mills. 13 ga. is 5,178 circular mills.

This makes the 11 coils slightly larger in equal to 14 ga. and a pinch smaller the 13 ga.

                           JK TAS Jerry

[tecker]

I feel sure you'll be able to let it wind right up and not worry about overspeed at all  with the ceramics . If you can get good power with the ceramics that would be a fine step forward knocking $100 right off athe build price . Put that with the stator frame that would be a good  build indeed.

[Jerry]

Hi tecker.

I'm looking for preformance between 5 to 20 mph. This encumpasses the bulk of the usable wind I get here.

I've built the Hugh Piggot 4 ft wind generator, all but the blades. The blades are in the wood carving mod.

acording to published wind speed and power preformance figure on Hughs 4ft machine and the truck mounted test of my first Lowes ceramic machine they track very close up to 20 mph.

I will test Hughs 4 ft unit and the 14-11 unit in my soon to be (hope) wind tunnel for a direct side by side wind test.

I spent $80 for magnets on the Hugh 4ft. I've spent $18.06 on the ceramics for the 14-11.

Harbor Freight now sells the Lowes ceramic at $2.19 per pair.

We'll see?

                             JK TAS Jerry

[Jerry]

WHOOPS! correction HF sells the magnets at $1.29 per pair.

The $2.29 is the Lowes price. I think the Depot is $2.19.

                           JK TAS Jerry

[hiker]

cheap mags here as well...

      http://www.magnet4less.com/product_info.php?products_id=423

[Jerry]

Hi hiker.

Well I didn't want to take any wind out of our hosts sails here.

The cheap ceramics will never come close to NEOs in terms of preformance.

I know there are some folks  here on realy tight budjets. I just wanted to show a low powered unit that could be built from scratch + some cheap parts.

Also a good cheap way to learn befor building a real powerhouse without the risk of expencive parts being distroyed.

Only made a littel progress today.

I started working the bearing end plates.

Scrounged parts I'm using.

Old speaker baskets for the main support, scraps of Choice deck for bearing retainers/end caps, speaker pole pices for bearing retainers, stator made of scrap fiberglass shower sheeting,ECT.

New stuff, 44 each 6 amp diodes, 24 ga. wire, fibergass reson, bearings, 3/4" steel shaft, shaft to hub adaptor, 12" steel plates, 3/4" shaft colers, ECT.

I'll do a prime driver test on this and Hughs unit when done. Then I'd better get the wind tunnel going.

Just not enough HRs in the day.

                           JK TAS Jerry

[hiker]

likewise--i  just dig around the  shop..surprizing what you can come up with --with

just a bunch of odds and ends........

[tecker]

I think you can build in structural reliability with the frame IE build it ,mount the frame and make that solid  and load the coils as  devices and repair when necessary .This is a good plan to me. A person could use more of what ya  could dig up . The whole unit can be a collection of parts . I like it .I messed around with making hard board from old insulation .I'm ripping up and old Airstream trailer for the under carriage and sheet aluminum .I got a press in mind . Different sized coil coil blanks and  tubes for wireway . I guess your giong to do the coils like the 8 ' you made ?

[esc]

In looking at Harbor Freight I found the 1.29 magnets and another set for 1.99 which CLAIMS to be 66% stronger (5 lbs pull instead of 3 lbs pull).  They are the same dimensions.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=97504

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=98406

My question is how much more effective would the $1.99 ones be and how would any of these stack up to "neo" magnets of similar dimensions?  Are we talking about 1/4 the power, 3/4 the power of "neo"s or what (assuming everything else is the same)?

Thanks,

Eric C.

[esc]

OK a little research and I can answer my own question:

The magnets4 less link above has 2x1x.5" "neo"'s for sale and says they have 72 lbs of pull.  So they are 15 to 20 times as powerful as the cheapo magnets.

But that makes me wonder if, at 4x the price for 15x the power you might be able to make an alternator that is more powerful, for less money by simply using fewer of the good magnets?

Any thoughts?

[Jerry]

Well this is why I'm playing with the iron in the center.

I'm also compairing Hughs 9" single rotor to this 12" dual rotor as well as star to "Jerry Rigged" + 4 ft carved blades to my 49" tip to tip plastic blades.

So there is a bunch of expirimenting going on here.

Is anyone else doing any expirimenting?

My head doesn't fit inside the box. So I think outside the box.

                      JK TAS Jerry

[esc]

Just an FYI:

Harbor freight has a sale from 11-29-08 though 12-07-08 during which they are selling the $1.99 magnets for $1.00 per pair.  Half price!

At that price I might just spend $10.00 on 20 of them just to play with them.

[Jerry]

Hey esc thanks for the heads up.

                        JK TAS Jerry