Light Wind Heavy Weight Turbine Project - as I build it.

[Bruce S]

Now that I have the reply up there let me try to explain why.
See, the source is the power that you're trying to measure incoming.
Those pics you have are to measure how much juice is being used, be devices such as RC airplanes and such.
For those you would want to know how efficient the electric motor is working and how your batteries are holding up, the pics you have are for doing just that.
We YOU want to know how much juice is coming into the batteries from the mill, so the source needs to be the mill. I use mine for incoming from solar panels.
The nice little thing hooked up my way is that it will tell you the voltage of your battery as well, even at night with a quick look you can tell what your battery voltage is.

Most this helps.
Bruce S
PS>> Just in case you happen to want to ask, the answer is YES you can hook one up to the battery, using the battery as the source with the end going to say an inverter and it will tell you the battery voltage as well as how much juice is or was used.  , Which is what we did for our e-trike.

[fabricator]

I tired to tell him that about ten pages ago, but didn't have a good picture, the doc gets all it's info from the negative wire from the rectifier, the neg wire goes directly from the rectifier to the black wire source side of the doc.
The neg load side goes to your negative battery post or buss bar,
The red source wire goes to your positive battery terminal or buss bar, it is only providing power to run the doc, it measures nothing, you can switch this wire to zero the doc out, the load side red wire is capped and goes nowhere.

[Steadfast]

I tested the load dump by turning the tiny aces inside 4 turns counter clockwise until both lights lit up... then I ouch tested each row of porcelin things by touch. They heated up but not enough to burn me. I then tightened  the tiny screw 4 turns clockwise. Only the green light remained on.

[Steadfast]

I hooked up my car charger to the dc side of the rectifier. And shot a video of the watts as they instantly poured in... my wife has the phone charger that also acts as my upload cable so you may not see that video until tomarrow night.  I am hoping that my shotty conections to the Doc  before the storm explains why no info was on the doc yet the battery was full.

[fabricator]

Shoddy.

[fabricator]

And be very, very careful with those pots turn to the end stops very, very lightly, or you wont have a screw slot anymore.
also one suggestion, take that standoff mess off your building (before it gets ripped off) and tension the guys so the tower is off your building a little.

[birdhouse]

glad you got it working!  now for another (smaller) storm, so we can see how she does! 

just a small note to others using a doc wattson...  both red wires are soldered together inside the case, so it really doesn't matter which one you use for the three wire connection.  just a small simplifying note. 

one thing you could do for a bit of safety with your dump load, is to mount it with longer screws and a few short chunks of pipe.  this will create an air gap behind the dump, and make it less prone to disaster (fire). 

it's normal for your dump to be barely warm with just a running car hooked to it.  i've only felt mine get fairly hot when there's close to a Kw running through it, and it's sized for about 1400w.  mine sits on the floor with standoff bolts to give it a 2" gap between it and the floor.  it also has three muffin fans, because it makes me feel better about the whole thing, though i doubt they're needed. 

adam

[fabricator]

I still think dumping on the DC side is a waste, dump through an inverter and use the power for something useful.

[ghurd]

Hope others may comment on this..um..I'd be worried about having all the FET tabs (the drains) connected together via the aluminum frame? May be a non issue but that frame will be electrically 'hot' giving us one giant dump load instead of the four seperate dump load sections we planned on..so heads up there.

Dave is correct.

The fet tabs are internally connected to the Drain.

It results in one giant dump load, which can result in fets cascade failing.

I have some TO-220 themal pads that conduct heat but not electricity, bushings and screws, which would probably be the best option the way it is assembled.
Shoot me an email if you need some.

G-
PS- I hear a few people are getting emails to me bounced back.
Not sure why that is.

[birdhouse]

I still think dumping on the DC side is a waste, dump through an inverter and use the power for something useful.

that is totally true for a large system with multiple big turbines, BUT for for me, and many others, the cost alone for a dedicated dump inverter, plus a relay driver to control it all is a total waste of money. 

i'd rather buy another 200-400W of solar with that same money.  it would provide more usable power more of the time for less cost. 

thanks for chiming in G on the dump connections of the mosphets??  that's beyond me...   

adam

[Steadfast]

Hope others may comment on this..um..I'd be worried about having all the FET tabs (the drains) connected together via the aluminum frame? May be a non issue but that frame will be electrically 'hot' giving us one giant dump load instead of the four seperate dump load sections we planned on..so heads up there.

Dave is correct.

The fet tabs are internally connected to the Drain.

It results in one giant dump load, which can result in fets cascade failing.

I have some TO-220 themal pads that conduct heat but not electricity, bushings and screws, which would probably be the best option the way it is assembled.
Shoot me an email if you need some

Yes... send them...
and let me know how much to send via paypal too.

[Steadfast]

also one suggestion, take that standoff mess off your building (before it gets ripped off) and tension the guys so the tower is off your building a little.

That old thang is not in use anymore. 
It just hangs off the side of my shed like an old lady's carbuncle.
just a waiten to be cut off.

Which is its destiny.
When I get the time...

[Bruce S]

SF;
Now that you're got things hooked up and reading, you should be getting some kind of readings. Let us know what you're seeing or better yet take a pic of the front of the doc watson and post it.
Cheers
Bruce S

[Steadfast]

will do... 

Now to petition God for some actual wind... 

[Bruce S]

Wait for it, while driving up in Iowa, and North east Missouri the wind was a constant 15mph, SOooo while I was stopped for fuel... I asked it make it over to NC, just for you 
Sorry about the rain though 
Cheers

[Steadfast]

Wait for it, while driving up in Iowa, and North east Missouri the wind was a constant 15mph, SOooo while I was stopped for fuel... I asked it make it over to NC, just for you 
Sorry about the rain though 
Cheers

yes...good...do that again...
everyone join in!   
.
.

[lakesidepark]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

derachooooooooooooooooooo

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I have meditated you a good wind storm. Hope that wind turbine will run the AC......

[just-doug]

eletricty follows the path of lest resitance.all the power needs to flow threw the doc wattson and not be allowed to follow alternet pathways to the battery.that second path that you showed to the battery needs to be eliminated.

[Truckman]

will do... 

Now to petition God for some actual wind... 

Anything flowing through the Doc yet?

[Mastiffman]

will do... 

Now to petition God for some actual wind... 

Anything flowing through the Doc yet?

 Well being a Class 1 wind area... I don't know how frequent or powerful enough, regualrly, the winds will be for SF.

[Steadfast]

So far.... nothing.... 

At ChrisO's request I eliminated the larger path and let everything flow through the Doc...  nada....
Yeasterday a quick heat storm came marching through the area and side swiped us sending decent winds briefly thru the turbine.  Nothing on the Doc.

With the turbine moving around 60-120 RPM, I busted out my multimeter and checked each phase to see if something was even coming down the line at all... All 3 phases are working...

I then un-hooked all my lines coming out of my rectifier and the multi meter showed there was 6-9 v comming out of it.

As it spun, then un-hooked the positive red wire heading out of the doc to my batteries, so the only energy flowing to it came from only the turbine...
The Doc posted some weird error code which faded in and out as the blades spead up and slowed. Then as the blades wound down the error faded away to a blank screen...
I then hooked up the red wire again and it came back on.

So far I have yet to see the turbine hit over 200 RPM to reach cut in... (except for the freak 60MPh storm that I MISSED)

 wondering why that is... perhaps summer winds just suck in general??..
Perhaps the bird is too heavy? Clueless here...

BTW: I installed two more matching batteries... I am now up to 6 six volts in my 12 volt array...

[fabricator]

The problem is simple, you don't have it wired right, it NEEDS the red wire to power itself, if you don't wire it right it will never work, you have been told several times how to do it right, there are thousands of these things all over the planet working perfectly every day.
If it's wired right if that turbine makes one watt it will measure it.

[Steadfast]

don't be such a weiner Fabs:

Both Wires from rectifier into "source" both wires out to battery from "output".
no other wires from redtifier to battery.... How hard is THAT?

If you think there is a better way, dont post a link to a diagram,
draw a picture, take a photo of it, and post it.

[Steadfast]

So far I have yet to see the turbine hit over 200 RPM to reach cut in... (except for the freak 60MPh storm that I MISSED)

 wondering why that is... perhaps summer winds just suck in general??..
Perhaps the bird is too heavy? Clueless here...

[Steadfast]

Another interesting picture of that 60MPH Storm.
The same  storm that knocked down the trees,
also made the blades spin so fast it peeled the back off the back of the turbine blades

[just-doug]

first it seems you finally got the doc wired in correctly.most likely your big problem is the lack of wind.while your waiting for the wind you could double check your diode block.verify that there is no shorts to the heat sink.there is a few other tricks you could play just to see flow through the meter.your solar is probably pushing up the system volt by at lest two volts.turn off  the solar and run down the battery bank a bit,lowering the voltage.this should lower the cut in voltage.an other experiment would be to create a temperary ,isolated,experamentl battery bank of just one six volt battery and then attemp to charge that battery with just the turbine,none of the 12 volt system would be connected to the six volt system.if you dont understand this last experement completely you should not do it.

[Bruce S]

SF;
Just-doug has a good idea, but instead of going the battery route, how do you have your solar stuff (Non-broken) hooked up?
I can take a pic of my little test unit and show it to you.
Solar always has stuff going in, you could hook up doc to that just to make sure stuff is working :-)
After work of course 

[sean_ork]

don't be such a weiner Fabs:

Both Wires from rectifier into "source" both wires out to battery from "output".
no other wires from redtifier to battery.... How hard is THAT?

but something isnt quite right

you mentioned a fading error msg on the watts up that came and went - that sounds like the meter is waking up only when it is seeing the mill output (which will mostly be zero)

you should see the display showing battery volts all of the time (assuming it is connected correctly to the battery)

perhaps disconnect the mill and see if the display is constant when just connected to the battery

in that state it will show no current flow

however, when the mill output exceeds the battery voltage, current will flow into the mill

the point of which currents starts flowing into the battery is called cut in

[fabricator]

don't be such a weiner Fabs:

Both Wires from rectifier into "source" both wires out to battery from "output".
no other wires from redtifier to battery.... How hard is THAT?

If you think there is a better way, dont post a link to a diagram,
draw a picture, take a photo of it, and post it.

NO, no, no, no, no, no wrong, wrong, wrong, the negative wire from the rectifier to the black wire on the source side, the red wire on the source side goes to your positive battery terminal simply to power the unit.
The doc gets it's info from the negative side of the rectifier, you do NOT run both wires from the rectifier to the source side then to the battery bank.
You have it wired wrong.
Int the top diagram here substitute the battery for your rectifier, and the DC inverter for your battery bank.
http://www.rc-electronics-usa.com/ammeters/3-wire-meter-connection.html

[Bruce S]

FAB;

Probably means wires from rectifier to source load wires go to battery. Which is the way I requested he set it up.
Here like this

NOTE: Mine is Solar though

The errors he gets with fading is the unit not having enough juice to keep display live.
Sub out battery (which is what the mill acts like) for juice coming out of rectifier.

[Bruce S]

Here would be a better way to go until everything is worked out.

SF if you have a cheapo 9V battery, you can use a old CDROM connector, it should fit right into your doc-watson. I know this says Wattsup but they're pretty much the same, unless you don't have the little aux pins on the side.
Bruce S

[sean_ork]

as long as the destination battery (or load) isnt dead flat the watts up really doesn't need a secondary battery (unless you want to keep the cumulative Ah/Wh figures) when the load is removed

[Bruce S]

For his setup until we really see what's going on, it'll be better for know.