How about this modification,,,

[(unknown)]

After some careful consideration of the events of the Air-x adventure and subsequent information gathered from this group, I was thinking of doing this.

I was considering removing the control board from the Air-x and just using the alternator portion. My thought was to rig up a 3 brush holder assembly to match the yaw slip rings and mount it in the body and connect the three phases to the brush unit. I could then create a three phase bridge rectifier inside at the battery location and further connect a charge controller if needed. Does this sound like a viable option? Would it help with the line-loss as well? It seems to me that A/C would be easier to transmit down the tower than D.C., particularly 14 volts.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Flux]

In the low winds that you are interested in you may find it works quite well without the control board. There is supposed to be some form of mppt but it may not be in the board. I think that is mainly concerned with noise reduction by braking above a certain speed.

I have never had one of those expensive toys to play with so I am not sure how easy ( or more likely difficult) it would be to incorporate 3 slip rings. Probably it is not worth the trouble. For the same volt drop, you will need 3 wires of a given size to carry the ac that could be carried with 2 at dc. My suggestion would be to keep the rectifier on the mill, keep 2 rings and transmit dc.

No doubt someone who has played with an AirX can advise you if they continued with the strange winding of the 403, I suspect they did and most of the claimed mppt bit comes from this odd winding. You may be advised to use the original rectifier or copy it I suspect it is a bit odd.

If you do get any high winds you are still left with the issue of control in high winds and the likely noise that comes with it.

Whatever you do it will still remain a poor machine for low wind areas.

Flux

[(unknown)]

Thanks Flux. This area is primarily what I would call a "medium wind" area. If you keep the unit low (20 feet) then it would be more of a low wind. Yes, there is an MPPT unit on the board. I took a look at the alternator stator and it looks pretty much like any other 3 phase unit. The control board uses a trio diode pack embedded in heatsinks. The brush holder for the DC portion is built into the control assembly, so relacing the works with a 3 brush unit is not a huge deal. There are lots of bits on ebay that could be bashed together for this. Meantime, I guess I'll keep experimenting with it and see what else comes up on the board.

Ken

[(unknown)]

Just as a side-bar to the original posting, I emailed the company that makes this unit (twice), at both the parts help address and the tech support address, and have had no reply from either. That is why I had to turn to this board in the first place, as the company seems disinterested in assisting me.

Thanks again for your insightful replies. I will keep you posted if anything new comes up. I may try to modify this, or just cut my losses and put it back on ebay. I will unlikely purchase another SWWP product, just in case you you wondering. Ken.

[(unknown)]

Hi Folks!

I modified the Air-X 400. I took out the control board and added bridge rectifiers to the unit. I also replaced the 12 volt stator with a 48 volt unit and put the larger carbon fibre (59 inch circle) back on. I run it unregulated straight into the battery bank and everything seems to be working much better now. No powerhouse by any means but at least it charges even in breezes. When the wind picks up, this will put out over 5 amps continuously. Technically that is less than 100 watts, but it is at least contibuting to the cause now. Before this, it would only make power in very high winds and very intermittently. Once I get this critter up a lot higher, it will be a decent unit. I am actually impressed with the construction of this machine, particularly after having it apart so often. Very rugged and easy to work on and a real treat to take up and down, as it only weighs about 14 pounds. Thanks again for all of your suggestions!

Ken.