I am a model airplane enthusiast. Radio Control airplanes. They are glow fuel or gasoline powered, depending on the size and style of aircraft.
I am using a small 285ah lawn and garden tractor battery to charge my niCd and niMH batteries in the airplanes. I am disabled, and would like to design a way to keep this lawn tractor battery charged all the time. I don't want to have to lift the battery out of my truck bed and place it on an A/C battery charger. I'm looking for a self contained system that can be used to charge this small 12V battery with minimal maintenance.
The battery is in the back of my covered pick up truck bed. I can't charge it froom the vehicle alternator, because it's not the same capacity as the vehicle battery. It would continually boil over and cook the battery in short order.
I only need a 2amp <I>(absolute max 4amp)</I> charging system to maintain the battery after using it to charge my smaller 6V niCD and niMH batteries for a couple days.
Is it possible to build a very small wind generator that will produce this kind of power?
I can come up with a tape drive motor, or I have a small DC motor (1/2HP) in my garage if this can be converted to a generator.
I'd like to mount this wind generator on a small pole/bracket and slip the pole into a mount on my truck bumper or even mount a stand on top of the camper shell. Pull a pin and disconnect the wires for traveling purposes. Toss it in the truck and drive away.
Thanks very much for any help or advise you can provide.
