" Oh and Flux, we discussed jerry rigged and 24 volt charging as opposed to 12 volt in a previous post and after trying it, it appears my machine is somewhere in the middle. Too slow for 24, too fast for 12."
Yes I have been looking back at that and it was true before you added the second disc. Now I think you have made it too slow for 12v.
Can't find details of the prop but 100 rpm is too slow for a 6ft wooden prop with the usual tsr.
You are learning fast. You need cut in slow enough just to get it cut in at about 7mph, there is no power in lighter winds to justify going lower. Even then you should aim to get tsr above the prop's ideal at cut in. You will then have a band where tsr is falling rapidly with wind speed but you are well up on the prop characteristic.
Now the bit about stall is not so easy to deal with. If you decide to use stall limiting as a protection you will hit the performance in modest winds very hard indeed.
You seem to be in this state at present ( but I think it is only because your cut in is too slow).
Stall is only likely to take place on the low slope of the prop's power curve between 12 and 20 mph. If you alter the air gap or add resistance to get out of stall in this region you will come up on the steep bit of the prop curve and it will never hit stall again.
I think you have to accept that you stall early and have simple control or you get out of stall mode and loose this tame nature in higher winds. You then need to rely on furling as a protection.
With Dan's big 20 ft machines there is lots of energy available at say 10 mph and if you stall at 15mph then you can live with it and have a nice tame machine with easy control.
For a 6ft machine you only have about 40W to play with in the low winds ( 10 mph) If you go for stall at 12 mph then you will probably never see above about 60W.
Your best option is not to attempt to cut in below 7mph ( 8mph may be better), never quite stall and furl when you reach the alternator limit. That will mean an alternator falling to about 50 % efficiency at somewhere over 20 mph.
This may all be wrong if you are using pvc blades but the general idea still applies although the performance may be well down.
At present with your low cut in and thin wire I suspect you are reaching 50% efficiency well below 20 mph. Increasing air gap will certainly bring you out of stall but the low efficiency will remain because of the winding resistance. You will gain considerable output with a wider gap as you get the prop up onto its power curve but a great deal of the power you gain will go into cooking the windings.
I still suggest you try at 24v with the extra disc and you may hit a far better compromise.
Flux
