Hi all! wind genny charging question.

[Joey]

I am looking for someone who can help me to understand the logic behind a charge controller circuit for my first attempt at a wind generator.  I have spent weeks researching the whole topic and have seen Mike's circuit, Hugh's site, some of the stuff explained here, and many more schems and drawings and such.  My problem is that I am no electronics wizard.  I think if someone could "draw" out the circuitry in a straight line, I may get the concept a little better.  As if building it free form with no circuit board, I guess.  Oh, and whole I'm here, do you think you can use only the parts from within an old VCR to create such a circuit?  ;P

[Joey]

Just so you don't have to sigh and say what kind of genny you got:  90v DC ouputs nearly 35 volts when run from my cordless 14.4v drill that is rated between 200 1200 rpm-sorry don't know the rpm it was turning for sure.  My meter only has AC amps, so I am not sure about that.

[ghurd]

A windmill charge controller controls the BATTERY.

When the battery is just about TOO full, the controller sends some power to a dump load.

That keeps the Battery under control.

It is not a straight line circuit.

My circuit is probably the most "Straight Line".

I doubt there are any parts worth the bother of harvesting from a VCR for this purpose.

G-

[Joey]

Appreciate that G!  I have been to your site a few times as well-great stuff!  I understand that it is not a straight line, and I have read up on most, if not all of the components used at free learning sites, I just can't get a handle on the way it all goes together and intermingles.

[Joey]

I visited your profile, ghurd.  I see what you were saying about your circuit being simple.  I must have seen your pics before, but not the schematic.  That does make it easier to understand!  I still have some lurn'n to do, but that pic (CtrlSch.gif) is as close to simple as I have seen yet!  

[ghurd]

For the "ghurd controller", nearly everything is either On or Off.

The only thing with something else is the center pin of the pot.

If the pot's center pin is greater than 4.6V then everything is "ON".

If the pot's center pin is less than 4.6V then everything is "OFF".

That's about all there is to it.  

G-

[Flux]

I am not really sure which issue is bothering you. You don't seem to mention a battery in that description.

The battery is everything in the control of a battery charging wind turbine. Without a battery the volts are just a function of the wind speed.

As soon as you connect it to a battery the battery takes control of the voltage. If the turbine volts are above battery volts it will charge and the faster the turbine turns the higher the charging current.

Until the battery is fully charged the battery clamps the voltage and if you don't over charge the battery there is no real need for a charge controller. If you adjust your load to keep the battery from over charging it all works ok and in the old days that is what we did.

Once you have your turbine working and you know that it can produce more power than you need then a charge controller is a convenient way to look after the battery and it saves you having to constantly monitor the load. If you have sealed batteries then it is virtually essential but you can use flooded cells without such luxuries if you are prepared to match your load to the wind conditions.

For wind schemes the turbine must always be connected to the battery so charge controllers that work on the charging source such as many of the common solar ones can't be used.

For wind you need a diversion controller and the mill is connected direct to the battery. Unless fully charged the battery does your controlling but when it reaches full charge the battery can no longer take all the turbine produces and hold the volts down. The diversion controller just applies a load that balances the charge from the turbine and maintains the battery volts constant at a fixed value that keeps you at full charge.

When fully charged the battery will take effectively nothing and the controller will divert a current more or less equal to the output of the turbine. Just below full charge the controller will divert enough current to hold terminal volts constant. the difference between input and diverted current is the small charge current that a near full battery can still take.

If you understand this basic requirement and are puzzled by the circuitry to do this then it is a different issue. Normally you let the manufacturer worry about how it does this. If you want to build your own you can copy various designs without really understanding how it works. Failing that you will have to get to understand the various forms that can be used, linear or pwm in various forms.

This is a long way down the line from getting a wind turbine working charging a battery and you can forget all about the open circuit volts of your generator, it gets converted to a charging current by the battery and the battery regulates the volts under normal working conditions.

Flux

[wooferhound]

Here is a very elementary diagram of how to hook everything up

http://www.fieldlines.com/images/scimages/231/HookUp.GIF

[Joey]

Thanks, Flux!  I am sure glad I asked for input on this subject!  You and ghurd have closed some of the holes in my understanding of the concept and given me a basis of knowledge with which to truly begin my work.  I plan on using a 12v lead acid battery from my lawn mower to start with as to not incur too much expense from damage if my initial project completion fails(I have watched several of the videos across the web that show what failure can achieve!).  

I am hoping that I will be able to achieve at least 110 watts from this initial genny.  I will be using sheet aluminum bolted to flat steel ribbon to make a 36" set of blades.  I am attempting to use only the parts I have available to me from my "junkpile"!(Except for the inverter-that part will hopefully be a Christmas gift)  This will include the components for the charge controller!  I hope to take pics and vids of the whole thing so as to show that any reasonably skilled packrat can achieve some level of free energy.  I have a long way to go yet, but I am sure once I get motivated, I will be able to get somewhere with this project!  Thanks again to the members who give or have given their time and input to give this tinkerer a little direction.

[Joey]

A believer in PM?!  I don't know how many times I have watched the vid of the dude who uses a Philly cream cheese lid, a tiny dc motor, 13 magnets, and a light bulb to show a form of that.  It puzzles me as to whether or not this is the real deal, for I have yet to gather twelve identical magnets to glue to the lid. Any how thanks for all your input guys!

[ghurd]

(raining on your parade)

I doubt you will regularly get 110W unless the 90V motor is at least or over 3/4HP,

or it is as windy as today.

I would like to talk you out of "using sheet aluminum bolted to flat steel ribbon to make a 36" set of blades".  

The forces on the blades are astounding.  

Not sure I trust aluminum unless it is a suitable grade and 0.100".

Instead, start scrounging some 6" and 8" PVC? (good luck with that)

I figure you saw this original ghurd controller post, and the description of the operation.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2007/8/24/172521/889

G-

[Joey]

Once again I must thank you, ghurd!  I am sure you get that all the time, but still-THANKS!  I did not see that original post.  Some how I missed it, glad you threw that one out there for me.  I have done so much searching with some result, but just to join here and ask of this group for help has brought me so much closer to realizing the dream of "free" electricity.  I can't wait!

It's good to hear from people even the negatives without judgment of shortcomings and oversights.  Keep it up!  I hope to soon be able to post my own success/failure story!(Even failures can make for a spectacular story and teach valuable lessons;D )

  Just for giggles I will leave a tid bit for laughs and lessons...My DC motor was originally attached to a gear reduction case...thinking it was a sealed separate unit, I popped the screws out of it and prepared it for disassembly.  Once I got the "two" units about a half inch apart, I realized they were incorporated as about a quart of gear oil came spilling out and down the front of me, all over the dining room chair I was sitting on, and across the floor!  YUCK and DUH.  Of course, then it got slippery and sticky all at the same time...I jumped up, and got my self over a rug to save from any more mess.  My wife scrambled to get a towel and jumped right in cleaning up as I tried to put the unit back together.  Well, the casing of the reduction box slipped out of my hands and hit the floor with a thud heavy enough to put a 1/4 inch deep gouge in the laminate.  (if it had been my toe it probably would have smashed/cut it right off!  Then, juggling the remaining pieces became my task as the gears began to slide out of the bearings.  The largest gear slid out, I almost caught it, instead bumped it with my hand and it hit my wife in the shoulder as she bent over towel in hand-mind you this all happened quickly.  The metal gear left her with a sore shoulder for nearly a week.  With no serious injuries, We can laugh about my attack of dumbness, however I still look back to that day not long ago and think of how something so simple as that could have ended up with such drastic results had I lost my toes or she would have been hit someplace like the eye or nose with that sharp, heavy gear.  Man, I need a workshop LOL.    

[hvirtane]

So I think that you should be very careful with the wind turbine blades.

When a 2 m diameter blade is running 240 rpm, please calculate how fast the blade tip is traveling. Imagine what could happen if the blade breaks and a piece of it flew out, to hit your wife on the head.

So in my opinion, never make wind turbine blades of aluminum only. It is not durable in the longer run.

- hv