Wind Generator with Hard Drive Magnets

[finnsawyer]

Yeah, you can combine dc voltages in series at will if they are floating (neither one is connected to system ground - well one can be).  Parallel, no, as you can get nasty circulating currents if there is a slight imbalance in their values.  But one can work around that by adding resistors to the circuit.  Anyway ,here's the schematic:

The capacitors are necessary for proper operation. Without them you will have the three phases adding, which gives zero voltage at all times.  System ground would normally be at the bottom.  The resistor represents the load.  Without the capacitors the mid connections go nowhere.  I feel it's important for people to understand that the dc voltage has to appear across something in order for it to be stacked with another, so I dug up the schematic.  Sorry about the size.  I'm beginning to think that this stuff should be put in a FAQ for easy reference.

[ghurd]

Yes. Each phase full wave rectified. Then paralleled to the battery.

Just sounds to me like, was it 7.2V(?), at low speed by hand, combined with 4 ohms per phase, that if it was wired in star it might be a better at higher voltages than 12V.  I could be way off, it's all based on reverse enginering of my failures.

G-

[mrkooo]

Just a question about something I never read anything about. Maybe because is to easy.

What happends with the cables that goes down from the tower when the direction of the windmill change looking for the wind? They get twisted and twisted until they cut.

How to avoid the turns of the mill in the cables?

Francisco

[ghurd]

In clean air they do not turn all the way around very often.

I had one that did not turn around once in a month.

Moved it to another area with strange winds, between houses and trees, and it turned around maybe 20 times in a few hours. Part of the problem could have been because the tower was not level.

[electrondady1]

picked up three more harddrives to day on the way home from work. mr koo , did you have any trouble with the magnets making sparks when you cut them?

[ghurd]

How is this working for you?

G-

[mrkooo]

I just finished the shunt regulator, I did some test and work fine with the genny. It´s making 120W, 450 rpm max. I´m thinking on making a shorter blades (0.7m) to get more rpm. I think the blades are too big for this little genny.

When I have all set up I will post more photos

Francisco

[ghurd]

Making 120w is good!

I also believe the blades need more rpm.

The blades look not twisted in the photo.

Twisted blades work better and faster.

(The worksmanship is very good for the existing blades.)

There are good photos here of Zubbly's twisted blades.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2005/5/17/16437/9630

Notice how the change at the root is rapid.

The change at the tip is very slow.

Windstuffnow Ed's blade program may be a good investment for US$5.  

It works with blades under 1 meter. Many blade design programs not good for blades under 1 meter.

G-

[duden]

Further to your idea about using complete magnets, what about using the magnets in pairs. If you connect N-S, N-S in that order you will get a larger magnet. If you then double the diameter of the rotor, you should get a lower revving generator for a given output voltage. The coils can also be better matched to the size of the magnets.

It will be necessary to double or treble the number of magets thickness wise so you obviously need a lot of drives.

[dastardlydan]

Mialo  saw your posting about , using HD magnets ,

have you finished it and how dose it run.

what is your cut in speed,what size wire how many turns.

I have done lots of drawing and not sure?

My name is Dan ,I live in western Florida

Dastardly Dan Mckinney

[duden]

It's nearly a year since anyone posted about using disk-drive magnets so here goes.

First you can cut them with diamond tipped water cooled tile cutting machines available incredibly cheaply thanks to the Chinese!

Secondly, why not cut each magnet in two or even three equal parts and use them across the rotor (stacked with three or four others of course).

However often you cut each bar magnet you will still get a collection of N-S magnets which is not ideal.

Please come back with reports on progress with various experiments!

[ghurd]

You have a misunderstanding about disk drive magnets.

[GreenTeam]

have you done a test on a single coil yet?

How do you do a test with a single coil?

[electrondady1]

hello green team, i build vertical axis mills that don't rotate too fast. i like to get a charging voltage at 60 rpm . 
  have a single magnet rotor set up on a shaft and  bearing so you can rotate it at a controlled speed . i use a metronome that gives me a specific beat per minute and rotate the mag rotor in sync so that it makes a rotation with each beat. other guys have other methods .
 if you have a coil wound up in the proper shape you can tape or glue it to a piece of card board or card stock. best if that card board is the same thickness as the intended clearance between the coil and rotor. say 1/16th of an inch or a couple of millimeters. you can hook your meter to that single coil . place the cardboard mounted coil on the surface of the magnet rotor and spin away. now your getting  the output of a single coil. alternatively you can put a larger piece of card board over the entire mag rotor and simply hold the coil while the surface rotates. the whole idea is to test without  your fingers  or the coil getting caught  up on the mags and flung across the room. so if your building single phase or 3 phase you can add up the results and make a decision on the number of turns you need in your coil to get a charging voltage in your complete stator.   

[GreenTeam]

Aaah makes sense! Thank you!