type of disconnect switch

[windpower4me]

I 'm building on of Hugh Piggot's axial flux mills and in his book he mentions some type of switch used to short the two wires comming down the tower,which will sort of put the mill in brake mode.What type of switch would be appropriate and where would one be able to get one.

Tks. Rob

[stephent]

http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/itemdisplay/displayItem.do?itemid=92688&CategoryName=&Su
bCategoryName=

[mitcamp]

Rob, you need a knife switch similar to this one, only smaller. When the handle is in the upright position it sends power to battery, when its in the down position, it shorts the two wires going to generator.



You can build a similar switch out of pieces of flat brass or copper or get some 1/2 copper pipe and flatten it with a hammer. Mitcamp

[cdog]

A marine battery switch, guest or perko type paerhaps. Get one that has "1" "2" "off" or "both" this is what I plan on using,

  Cdog.

[coldspot]

This type would require at least two or three.

One. For Pos, switched to un-hook/hook-up from ongoing to bateery bank, charge controller ect,...

Two. For the brake. Conecting Pos and Neg together.

This would require the switch #1 to be turned first and that this switch be before the # 1 in line. Diodes also in the Neg. side of things for propper current flow.

Three. optional for the Neg. side of things.

But this can also be done using only one but that requires Diodes and propper wiring methods. (simular to the "pull to stop" switch I used in mine).

The better and more right way is shown below!

[mitcamp]

Here is a smaller switch made with 1/2 copper pipe. Left side connection is 2 wires negative from batterys and negative from generator. Center connection is positive from generator. Right side is positive from your battery. I am assuming yor rectifiers are at the generator for this setup. Mitcamp

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

I presume you're bringing AC down from the mill and rectifying it on the ground.  Then you have the AC lines available to short.

A three-phase will have three lines and need a two-pole switch to short them.  A single-phase will have two lines and only need one pole.

I'd get a "disconnect" of the sort used on the outside of a house to turn off power to an air-conitioning compressor.  It looks like a dual-handle circuit breaker but without an amp label on the handles (since it doesn't break the circuit by itself on overcurrent.  It's just a switch.)

You can get these, weatherproof housing and all, pretty cheap, in 100 or so ampere ratings.

You turn it ON to short the genny so label it "stop switch".

[Countryboy]

Most people have a plug on the end of the wire at the base of the tower.  That way, they can unplug the wire and untwist it occasionally.

If you make a dummy plug with all the prongs wired together, you can plug that into the wire coming from your mill to short it out for braking.