Volvo type mill Coil connection question

[goatswind]

 

   Volvo type mill was up for about 3 years, during a very strong wind one of the blades flew off. The two remaining blades on the upswing pulled the whole thing right off the pipe. So now I am building a bigger better one using 16, 1 1/2 in  neo's. Being the eccentric person I am, I thought to turn over every other coil, instead of crossing the leads. At first test, there was no voltage to speak of. I unsoldered everything and then crossed the leads for the upsidedown coils. I get plenty of juice now but when I shorted it out it was only dragging slightly and I thought shorting should make it harder to crank. Makes me wonder. I was getting about 30 volts AC. When hooking to the bridge rectifier, im seeing 200 volts DC! I thought your supposed to lose voltage. Is my meter busted? Or have I stumbled on to a way to multiply voltage by outafazing? Any help would be appreciated. I have been away from disscusion board for years. Thanks.

[hiker]

sounds like a single phase setup--whats the number of turns per coil?

if its single phase with a lot of turns per coil -you would see high volts...

[dinges]

You do know that to be eccentric, there are 2 requirements:

1. you are nuts
   
2. you are very wealthy.
   
   

Can't look into your wallet, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt :-)

Firstly, what kind of multimeter are you using; does it give RMS readings? Usually only the case with the more expensive ones. If not, when you have an AC wave that is not a sine (square, triangular, intermediate) you will get different readings from true RMS reading.

But I think the real problem here is, that you have wired all your coils in series, thus your high voltage. However, this means that internal resistance of each coil is also in series, thus giving a high total resistance of your stator. Now, when you externally short the wires, this high internal resistance of your coils prevents you from generating much current, thus few watts, thus little loading (you don't feel much resistance when coils are shorted.

Being excentric doesn't exempt you from the laws of physics...

BTW, you can simulate this if you have a 'normal', good working stator/genny: put a resistance between your shortcut, and turn the genny; the larger your resistance is (more ohms), the less effect the short will have on the load you feel when turning the genny. An extreme case would be an infinite resistance; that would be open load to your genny, so it turns very easily.

It's just a quick simulation of what a bad stator would feel like.

Apparently, you've had good results with your old genny; if it's just quick power that you want, I'd copy either your old design or another proven design (Dans, Hugh P., etc.)

Good luck,

Peter,

The Netherlands.

(who just realizes he invented something new: a short circuit with infite resistance...'.

[goatswind]

thanks for the help. I used pretty heavy wire, and as I can remember there was 20 something turns on each coil, when I checked a single coil it put out about 1 1/2 volts and the total resistance was only about 7 ohms i've got other meters and i'll have to do more testing. I would like to wire two halves in series for more amps but I need end up with 24 volts. the old genny put out plenty of power, in a high wind I checked amps and it blew the leads off my meter which only went to 40 amps. I read somewhere the volvo prototype went over a hundred amps! when I think it through a coil upside down in relation to the next one should'nt make any difference, but I am thinking useing a frequency meter should tell me if things make sense.                                                                                  I think I'll go ahead and put this one up and start building the next.I like the new designs.It would be nice to have a furling tail.I have a brake drum type,but is't so dog gone heavy,I cant see puting it high up on a pole.