6 foot hugh piggott windmill

[mbk]

i was wondering if instead of useing a blank disk on one side if you could use ceramic magnets on one disk and neos on the main magnet disk.

[Flux]

Why do you want to do that?. I have no doubt that it would work but these machines are designed to correctly load the chosen blade size and if you mess about with the alternator you will have to play about with turns , wire size and blade size to keep things correctly matched.

Why do you want to make extra work and cost to degrade the performance or have to do a lot of experimenting?

Flux

[scoraigwind]

Yes, or even use ferrite magnets on both sides maybe.  But make sure they are plenty thick (3/4).

I actually find the six footer a bit of a struggle at times.  It's because the coil legs tend to bulge, and there is not much clearance between the coils and the rotating parts. So the coil positions tend to get pushed outward a bit, and this impacts on the performance because the magnets don't track over the coil centres.  Or I end up making the stator too thick.

I think that using ferrites is interesting.  It would make for a more durable (and cheaper) machine, although heavier.  I am not sure what you gain but using a mix of magnets types.  I suspect that you would throw away much of the benefit of the neo magnets.

You might want to run a test coil to check the flux density before settling on a choice of winding for the stator.  I am always available to help with stuff like that although I don't always have time to keep up with this forum.  You can send me emails direct if you want to be sure of an answer.

[Flux]

It was mainly the mixing of neo and ceramic that I didn't like.  I agree that ferrite alone has some advantages if he lives in a hostile climate.

As long as he realises that these changes will mean changes to the windings then fine. I realise that some people have enough knowledge to make these changes but others seem to change things without realising the consequences on other things. Changing flux density means that the original winding is not really suitable.

Flux

[mbk]

Hi flux

   your right about not messin with something that works well the way it is but i started out wrong i guess all i had was 14 awg and i wound 80 turns and the stator was about half inch or a hair under. i got the rotors made and frame but i still like to make the blades. i guess i was askingto see if it would help any with that stator i made if not ill order thr 16 awg and recast the stator thanks for the reply and thanks hugh for your reply.

[Flux]

If you are short of volts then yes your idea may save the day but it would be something of an experiment to know how thick the ceramic magnets would need to be to get the result. Probably something like 3/8" thick may be enough and if they are cheap it may save you money on wire.

If you get the volts up and get the specified cut in speed it will probably be near enough, I suspect the thicker wire will drive it nearer to stall but I don't think that design is biassed to stall anyway. At the worst you could add a bit of line resistance if you did find it stalling hard. You could even go for even thicker ceramics and open the gap if cut in is too low.Much depends on what is available, the ceramics should be the same length and width as the neos or at least similar.

Flux