Author Topic: 500 watt eBay wind turbine! (Read 4383 times)

makenzie71 · « **Reply #33 on:** December 12, 2019, 04:47:44 PM »

hooked it up to TWO car batteries! Voltage is not sitting at 27~28vdc and .5 amps. Might grab a couple more batteries try it with 48v...

makenzie71 · « **Reply #34 on:** December 13, 2019, 01:11:35 PM »

Today in 20mph wind it's making 35vdc and 3~4 amps on the 24v bank...which is a little steep. Going to pick up a couple more batteries today and see how it does on 48v.

kitestrings · « **Reply #35 on:** December 13, 2019, 01:47:29 PM »

Was there anything in the way of a manual with the thing? Looking at the site you linked, it would appear that the default is 48V, but is there anything that describes other configs? Is there a perhaps a terminal strip where you can configure the windings for alternate voltage banks?

makenzie71 · « **Reply #36 on:** December 13, 2019, 02:05:33 PM »

Quote from: kitestrings on December 13, 2019, 01:47:29 PM

Was there anything in the way of a manual with the thing?

There sure was! It's real interesting to try and read it, too. I'm pretty sure they used google translate to go straight from mandarin to english. It is not very helpful.
N
The ad does say 48v and maybe they were serious...they have the same ones saying they have 12v/3000w, too, though, so i kind of took it ith a grain of salt...i got the one i could get for the least money. If it turns out the thing really does just need a 48v battery bank I'll feel a little guilty for hassling them into a refund...but at the same time it's still got that wonky blade and i bet it still doesn't do 500w.

Problem then is i don't know what I'll doe with 48v. My inverter will only take up to 45v...new hurdles yay!

I didn't see a terminal strip when i had it apart. It i can't find a way to put the 48v i'll pull it back down and open it back up.

makenzie71 · « **Reply #37 on:** December 13, 2019, 06:54:39 PM »

Found the wonky blade!!

Hooked it up to a 48v battery bank and...

...about 15mph wind and it was free-wheeling. Very little output.

At first I figured my controller was doing it...and it was. It was capping out at 24v and trying like mad to dump everything but I didn't have a load on it at the time.

So I switched it over a bridge rectifier and went straight through to the batteries and...still free-wheeling around 51vdc. If this thing was wired to be charging around 48v I think it should be pushing at least a little amps at this voltage.

SparWeb · « **Reply #38 on:** December 14, 2019, 01:43:24 AM »

Mackenzie, I must have missed where you said you put on the 5-blade configuration.

In your last photo looking at the controller, it's telling me the battery is fully charged - that may be the case because 51.4V is like a resting voltage.
What are the chances that the "0.1A" is just a measurement error and it's actually zero? Otherwise the thing just isn't spinning up to cut-in speed.

Did your kit comes with a spare blade?

makenzie71 · « **Reply #39 on:** December 14, 2019, 07:38:28 AM »

Yeah the controller is fixed at 24 volts so it thinks it's at capacity and is trying to dump everything else. Which is why I tried running it through a bridge rectifier to see if I could get the turbine to do any work and it was still free wheeling...still 50~ish volts and no amps. I think it just works best at 24 volts.

No extra blades, I just took it down to three. I think three is better than six, anyway.

SparWeb · « **Reply #40 on:** December 14, 2019, 08:03:45 PM »

Oh well them maybe that's more like open-circuit voltage and running with no load at all. Eeesh that's inviting overspeed conditions for shedding another blade so careful with that.

makenzie71 · « **Reply #41 on:** December 14, 2019, 08:19:35 PM »

Yep even with just three blades in 5-10mph breeze this morning it was starting up and SINGING. I just put the brakes on this morning.

I'm taking a little break from this one for now to get the post and wiring up for the next one...the next one is a bit bigger. Also trying to get a control panel put together in the shop to wire everything to so i'm not testing outside. And then I've got another one that's suppose to be arriving monday and one from china is suppose to hit friday. This one is probably going to come down while i play with the others...really excited about the one from China...i haven't seen one like it before.

makenzie71 · « **Reply #42 on:** December 23, 2019, 09:00:27 AM »

Little update...

after the blade broke I trimmed it back down to three blades and have not seen anything like the wattage I saw with six on the 24v bank.

I hooked it up to a 48v bank and it just free-wheeled and didn't produce anything...it was spinning fast enough that I could feel the buzz of the blades from 20ft away.

I am strongly considering trying to find three more blades see if I can get the same results as I did before. If I could manage 100w out of this thing on a breezy day it would justify leaving it in place and setting up a new pole for the next test...otherwise it's days are numbered. I have the next turbine sitting on the bench in the shop just waiting for a place to sit...

Adriaan Kragten · « **Reply #43 on:** December 30, 2019, 01:30:57 PM »

Quote from: makenzie71 on December 11, 2019, 08:45:46 PM

Been up for a while with no real change...it's a little too cold out and the pole is a little too wobbly for me to climbing up there to get it :p

I did try a different rectifier today...I got my nifty Chinese hybrid controller in today (I'll make a new thread about this thing) and hooked it up in place of the CBR954RR rectifier/regulator. I thought since maybe the CBR engine engine is suppose to be running at may more speed and maybe since there's going to be more loss because it's also trying to regulate voltage...that maybe it wasn't very well suited to the task. Throw the eBay controller on it and...it's at least a little better. But not much.

18~24mph wind, fyi.

The battery was only at 8volts when I connected it, though, and I'm reading that this might contribute to the crazy low output reading though I can't fathom how. Still learning that stuff. It is up to a whopping 11.8vdc now, though.

Even if a 12 V battery is almost empty, it should have an open voltage of about 12 V. If the open voltage is 8 V, it means that the charging rate is very low and it might be that the battery is gone because of sulphation of the lead. So you shouldn't do tests with a bad battery.

makenzie71 · « **Reply #44 on:** December 30, 2019, 01:54:28 PM »

It was a good battery, just been drained pretty hard. It's in the mix now and holding up pretty good. This turbine just didn't like 12v. Does much better at 36 or 48....nowhere near where it's suppose to be.

makenzie71 · « **Reply #45 on:** January 06, 2020, 05:20:55 PM »

Little update. This is about how much power it was making on the 48v bank last week. The 36v bank does choke it a bit, but still at least producing something usable.

SparWeb · « **Reply #46 on:** January 07, 2020, 12:57:48 AM »

Similar to the "700W" unit, then.

Have you a way to measure the RPM of the blades?
Laser tach?

makenzie71 · « **Reply #47 on:** January 07, 2020, 07:47:45 AM »

I posted pictures on the 700w unit, too...the same wind was driving it in excess of 800w. I think this one could have done better if it were still on a 48v bank. I'm going to try the resistor trick thing with it to see if I can get that extra rpm out of it.

makenzie71 · « **Reply #48 on:** January 10, 2020, 09:11:48 PM »

She ain't having any of it tonight it seems.

https://youtu.be/r2tXvuqsEpk

Tried putting the brakes on and didn't slow it down in the slightest. This wind is suppose to keep up another 3 hours...I'm going to be surprised if it's still got it's rotor in the morning

makenzie71 · « **Reply #49 on:** January 28, 2020, 04:46:22 PM »

Continues to be a disappointment, flutters in high wind. The blades are so unstable when they start to go that you can feel it in the dirt near the tower.

https://youtu.be/QnZ8lCp4LhY

Adriaan Kragten · « **Reply #50 on:** January 29, 2020, 05:04:44 AM »

Flutter is a big problem for blades made out of synthetic material which for which the torsion stiffness is simply too low if the blade isn't made extremely thick. Once we have tested a 6-bladed water pumping windmill with synthetic blades and also these blades were fluttering at high wind speeds. After some time, all blades were cracked at the blade tips which looked very ugly. But for some materials, the blade can be destroyed completely and flowing away of certain blade parts is very dangerous. Unbelievable that this kind of wind turbines are sold.

makenzie71 · « **Reply #51 on:** January 29, 2020, 08:12:38 AM »

These blades are certainly very thin and the tips are quite bendy. The 400 watt turbine, though, the blades are only marginally thicker at the tips, but are significantly more stiff. It responded to the high winds with relative ease. It's hard to saw what the 700 was doing...it sounded the same as it always does and it's blades are made like this 500's are...just bigger.

Just to note...I use to work for American West Windmill and dealt mostly with Fiasa windmills...I saw a lot of poly windmill blades. Some were garbage...made of PVC...but I only saw a few fail, really, and they were on the 10ft and bigger setups that are pushing way more torque. You could almost run a 6ft or 8ft with cardboard.

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Author Topic: 500 watt eBay wind turbine! (Read 4383 times)