She Flew!!

[adaml]

Hi All,

Just a quick update and thank you to everyone who gave such valuable input.  Took my first mill out to Croatia, set up and all worked very nicely, charged up 2 x 12v car batteries in no time and gave us enough light through the night.

Need to find out about better light bulbs so any suggestions would be brilliant.

Hope I have managed to get the picture to insert in the correct place this time!

Your photos violate the file size rule for including in a post. They are over
Here.

If anyone wants to click through them. Looks nice.

[zeebag]

Nice, congratulation on your first achievement. Out of curiosity, how much time it took you?

[adaml]

Must have taken a couple of months in total to build, only had evenings to work on it, research and that included probably a bit longer.

Must thank all for their input, Ghurd especially.

[ghurd]

"worked very nicely" is good!  :-)

DC CFLs are great for a whole room full of light, but anything past 11W is hard to get in a good product.

LEDs are great for a tiny bit of light.

An efficient inverter and an AC CFL seem to be gaining popularity for price, and the reliablity is going up.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2008/9/8/21318/85347

You're welcome.  It is a lot more fun when it works.

Nice job following through on the entire project.  I know it was not easy.

G-

[projectpower]

exerlent nice job

[dnix71]

Nice work on the mill.

This type of light from HarborFreight might be handy. It has an internal rechargeable battery that can be recharged from one of the car batteries you are using or run from the battery or run from an inverter.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95181

[mixerman]

I just got HF ad today , ther 20 bucks until OCT 27!

mixerman

[TheCasualTraveler]

      There just ain't nuthin like a success story. Good job, whats next?

[scottsAI]

ghurd,

In your linked post at the end, HFT has a motion sensing LED light on sale for $5.99 sometimes less! (best 3.99) I have one, same batteries now 9 months couple AA, works great!

Have fun,

Scott.

[adaml]

Next........ I have an Ametek 30v DC motor that I acquired was going to use this for another mill (comments on suitability very welcome please!) but might use a different motor, still undecided at this stage, also want to have a go at solar.  The wind on the island was good in my opinion, 6-7 m/s average and came up at night but did go through some very still periods so wanted solar as an addition.  The islanders are very keen on R E and there are no mains supplies anyway!!