Got 3 - 24v Air 403's free but my system is 12v, can it work?

[Rover]

I'm actually very glad to see it work for you.

[Rover]

Yep time to revisit this post, ok Scott and I swapped head unis (I sent him my 12, and he sent me one his recovered 24's)

The following is going into a 12 V bank

When I bench tested the 24V , (not a true bench test, I didn't hook it up to my 2hp dc motor and run curves, I just wanted to see what it would do with my run of the mill cordless drill, rated 800 rpm).

In reality figure somewhere around 600 rpm when hooked up an driving the head unit. In its native wiring, through rectifiers and what I'm guessing at still as a star point (left attached), best it could muster is about 10 V.

Being familiar with these units, and knowing the very high rpm required, I still went forth this wekend and mounted it on my little 20'  test tower (incredibly bad location, etc)

I broke apart the star point and ran all 3 pahses down on 6 wires (I had them there for testing ECMs)... in the shed the pole is attached to,  the wiring is to rectifiers, but also a switch to recreate the star point)

I know that the mill needs to get to "Screaming Mimi" stage , and that hasn't happened. It hasn't broken 12 V yet (even in gusts), and I've left the star switched closed. (you can see a 1:2  diff open vs closed)

Its only been 24 hrs... so this may be an early posting... my winds have been gusting to a max of 10mph (turbulent), which is nothing.   

Its' still fun... I'll keep it up for a while til I can't stand it, and then throw my ECM back up.
 
The voltage rise is so slow , I figure , without changes, you could probably get some 12V charging out of the 24V units

[Scott]

Interesting Rover, hopefully you'll get some good breeze to really test it out. 

Just ordered a TLG Quadraflex AL 4 blade rotor for one of my 99v Ametek mills.  As soon as it gets here that Air unit is coming down and the homebrew is going back up.  Big disappointment but they were free and now I know. 

[Rover]

No worries, been to early to really say anything defintive.

I do apreciate the swap, gave me somthing to play with on the 4th of July that didn't involve gunpowder.

It did spin up for a sec today during a squall, and manged to produce a few amps.

really still to early... I'm running the 29"  version of the blades (3). what I saw tonight is that it might have a chance... ( I have some different locations, not on my property that I can try.

[luv2weld]

I'm sorry I missed the original posting until now. I have something set wrong, so when I click on " Show unread posts since last visit",
it says there are no new posts.
Anyway, here are some things that you need to read. You can't just change the stator. You have to either jumper or cut the jumper depending
on which way you go (from 12 to 24 or 24 to 12).

 0169_AIR_403_Ind_Voltage_Conversion_Instructions.pdf (133.68 kB - downloaded 280 times.)

Ralph

PS Forgot to mention that you can tell the voltage of the stator by the color of the sleeves on the wires.
White = 12v
Purple = 24v

[luv2weld]

Here is some more info on 403's.

 0075_AIR_403_L_Circuit_Replacement_instructions.pdf (127.34 kB - downloaded 170 times.)

I've got a master price list from April of '07 but it's too large to post. It lists the stator as $113. So if it has jumped to $300,
somebody is making a lot of profit!!!!

I think I would call back and talk to someone else. You might get a different price.

Ralph

[Scott]

luv2weld thanks for the pdf's.  The Air units I have don't have internal regulators, only rectifiers.  The circuit board is there but it's bare for the most part. 

When I called southwest I spoke to a lady in tech and she quoted $300 to change from 24v to 12v.  I only wanted the stator and told her that, but in thinking back I believe she quoted me a kit that includes a stator and new controller.  Didn't matter I wouldn't spend $100 on a stator for one of these and I wouldn't even be testing one if they hadn't been given to me. 

Working on my new tower today, going to be a 60' lattice tilt up with guys.  I'm going to use a huge white pine nearby for a stationary gin pole.  Putting a heavy boat winch on it's base with a pulley up the tree.  New blades should be in tomorrow for my 99v Ametek.  I will be so happy to have that unit back in the air!  TLG says 17 amps in 22 mph with the quad blade.  The Air unit hit 15 amps but that was in 40+ mph winds and only briefly at that, 99.5% of the time it does nothing.

[Rover]

Ok, so Scott and I swapped my 12v Air-x for his 24v 403, head units only

My goal was to play with the the 403 on my controllerless Air-x body, going to 12V.

So far, best scenario is just running the 24V unit into 12V , Star point intact. as delivered . I'm running 6 wires down the tower , and can flip the star on or off with a switch. Running IRP  (Individually Rectified Phases) , as I think Ghurd asked, on a 24v to 12V battery bank, is pretty much pointless. Running IRP, all I do is annoy the neighborhood as it screams, I have yet to see it cut in under IRP.

Running OEM wiring with Star, gets me some amps. Sure its going to stall, but the voltage rise ivs rpm is so small, It may make it into a usable sub 100W mill

Just my thoughts.

[Scott]

New tower going up at my camp this weekend.  Got the foundation in yesterday.  New TLG blades for the 99v ametek should net more power than I've gotten in the past, and my tower position is better as well.

That big white pine is my gin pole.