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DaveP68

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Joined: 25/11/2014
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 292

Posted: 10:02pm 15 Sep 2017

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Hi Fred

Awesome that you have now got a 5 kW/h output over a 24 hour period. There are more kW/hrs of production to be made and not just from higher winds over same period, as some further tweaks will increase it's efficiency.

All that hard work has really payed off and also happy that I was able to assist along the way with some of the F&P stator and electrical setup.

Just thought I'd post a photo of my crude but very effective F&P stator test rig.

That 5 kW/h performance that you've got, has been partly proven on this very same test rig. Most of parts acquired for free (multimeters already had) and the largest expense was for the $99 Ozito 1200 W drill.

Just goes to show what can be achieved with the most basic of test setups and hundreds of hours spent proving it will work correctly. This was to try out various configurations to chooser which would work in the real world on a wind turbine.

Have learnt so much in the last 2 years and it's great that I've been able to help out on your wind turbine, as I still haven't got one of my own.

Thanks again Fred for allowing me to be involved, as started off with very little knowledge as of only 2 years ago.

David

There are realities if you do not accept, will lead to frustration because you will be spending time on wrong assumptions and the results cannot follow! The Dunning Kruger Effect :)

flc1
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Joined: 20/11/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 242

Posted: 12:01am 16 Sep 2017

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22kmh winds= approx 850watts

kitestrings
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Joined: 23/04/2014
Location: United States
Posts: 102

Posted: 04:28pm 16 Sep 2017

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Good stuff flc1, Dave, and what a great find at the neighbors. Is there any chance that you can get recorded data from the site? It may serve your needs quite well, and save you some money as well. ~ks

flc1
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Joined: 20/11/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 242

Posted: 07:18pm 16 Sep 2017

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Thanks KS.
its data is recorded on the website ,so yep can get access to it at any time,and like you say no need to buy a anemometer at this stage.

I think it is updated every hour.
Edited by flc1 2017-09-22

flc1
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Joined: 20/11/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 242

Posted: 03:56pm 22 Sep 2017

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furling actuator

furling switch- with manual and auto settings ,connected to 2x 12 volt 7 ah batterys,
they are charged by connecting there charge controller to a 100w gridtie solar setup that is mounted on the windturbine inverter box. just waiting for Dave to send back the auto furl switch so I can reconnect it and tidy up some of that wireing .
The actuator works well, it can push the tail up to full furl without to much struggle, its rated to 150kg,

I covered all the joints of the actuator with silicon and then painted it to keep the rain out,
the end of the actuator that extends out sits inside a sliding sleeve that is connected to the tail and the other end of the actuator which has the drive motor is connected to the frame on the turbine body.so the actuator is not connected to the tail,but the sleeve is,
so it can still furl on its own in high winds.Edited by flc1 2017-09-24

kitestrings
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Joined: 23/04/2014
Location: United States
Posts: 102

Posted: 02:05am 25 Sep 2017

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Sounds like it should work well for you. I don't recall how long your wire run is up the turbine. We had a little trouble with the voltage drop - actually it was current losses affecting the actuator controller - but we resolved it by moving the power source a bit closer and adding a constant voltage pump driver. The one we used takes a variable input and outputs a constant, user selected voltage. Hopefully this is not an issue for you, but should it be you might find this source helpful:
[URL=http://www.solarconverters.com/]
These folks make all sorts of DC converters, controllers and battery equalizer/balancers. Their website looks to be under construction, but they're available thru a number of sales outfits, and good quality.

Hopefully these actuators hold up thru winter (for us) conditions. They always seem to be designed for lessor conditions.

Best, ~ks

flc1
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Joined: 20/11/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 242

Posted: 02:03pm 25 Sep 2017

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Hi KS,
The tower height is about 10.5 meters,cable length is about 13meters,

I used the same cable that is used for motion sensors etc, its 7 wires , each about 1mm core,
I ran two lots of it up the poll and then for the last half meter its just two of the 1mm cables, it works well,all my turbine cables have to fit through a 12mm hole which is drilled through the center of a car stub axle that I mount the turbine on so it can yaw,
there is 2 dc cables, 3 ac cables , 5x1mm cables for rpm sensor and the 2 cables for the actuator,its a tight fit.
there was a voltage/current drop up the pole ,so I ran double cables up , solved the problem.
I think the output of my turbine at 6 mps would be about 400wEdited by flc1 2017-09-27

kitestrings
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Joined: 23/04/2014
Location: United States
Posts: 102

Posted: 01:49am 26 Sep 2017

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Looks good, and I like that the furling can operate independent of the actuator - this is a good feature. The only other thing I might suggest would be to add a fuse on the pos+ wire if you don't have one, just in case one of those wires gets pinched or the actuator should lock up for any reason. 400W at 6 mps sounds like a respectable output. That'll pay the rent, so to speak. ~ks

flc1
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Joined: 20/11/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 242

Posted: 12:54pm 26 Sep 2017

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yep that power reading for windspeed is just approx , cant be 100% accurate when the anemometer is not next to the turbine , But its daily average so far is about 600wh, which is alot better than my old dual stator,. give it a few months to see what its really doing per day.

DaveP68

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Joined: 25/11/2014
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 292

Posted: 08:23pm 28 Sep 2017

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Hi ks, well spotted re no fuse on 12 VDC system, which I thought Fred was going to add in at the battery end. I'm about to send the switch back to him as it needed a modification to add opto isolation that wasn't required for the original specification. Have also a added a 4 A slow blow fuse, but this will only protect the electronics, as it can be manually bypassed.

There are realities if you do not accept, will lead to frustration because you will be spending time on wrong assumptions and the results cannot follow! The Dunning Kruger Effect :)

flc1
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Joined: 20/11/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 242

Posted: 11:54pm 28 Sep 2017

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thanks for that opto isolator Dave, Got to make it safe aye
Don't want high voltage coming through that system.Edited by flc1 2017-09-30

DaveP68

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Joined: 25/11/2014
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 292

Posted: 12:02am 05 Oct 2017

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The safety aspect only became an issue when the auto furling actuator switch was changed to get it's input from the high voltage system. On the origonal set up it was lower voltage and fully isolated so didn't pose a problem.

Anyway the opto isolator that has now been added sorts that problem out and keeps things safe on the 12 VDC side in case it needs to be disconnected for any reason.

For those interested here is a close up photo of completed board showing opto isolator installed at bottom center.

Edited by DaveP68 2017-10-06

There are realities if you do not accept, will lead to frustration because you will be spending time on wrong assumptions and the results cannot follow! The Dunning Kruger Effect :)

flc1
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Joined: 20/11/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 242

Posted: 01:56pm 10 Oct 2017

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I installed a small dc-dc converter to set the high voltage inverter at 52 volts input standby,
Because with the 100vdc startup it would somtimes not get to the 100v to start in light winds, but would get to 80 or 90v alot of the time ,
once it reaches 100v dc it then starts operating from about 50-500vdc untill the wind drops off again to let the voltage go below about 40, then it has to start again at 100v, but with the dc converter installed it does not drop to 40 ,it stays at 52v, so no restart at 100v is needed,
its making power from about 53v-500 all the time now.
Its powered by a ac 230v isolated transformer(same size as a cell phone adapter)which puts out 12vdc and 0.3 amp.
I added a diode to the positive outlet of the converter, because I don't think it will like getting 400vdc back into it lol.

Edited by flc1 2017-10-12

flc1
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Joined: 20/11/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 242

Posted: 05:07pm 13 Oct 2017

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Could not get the auto furl switch to operate correctly so will be sticking with the standered furling in high winds and the manual furl switch, which works well.

flc1
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Joined: 20/11/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 242

Posted: 04:54pm 14 Oct 2017

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here

video of manual furling operationEdited by flc1 2017-10-16

kitestrings
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Joined: 23/04/2014
Location: United States
Posts: 102

Posted: 06:04am 16 Oct 2017

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Sorry to hear the auto didn't work.

It does sound like it labors a bit toward reaching the upper position. Is it well within the range of the actuator? I did find with ours that the DC motor driver helped quite a bit. It just makes sure the voltage to the motor is held constant, and a bit higher.

flc1
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Joined: 20/11/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 242

Posted: 05:32pm 16 Oct 2017

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Gday Ks,
I think its probably low voltage because Im only useing 2x7 ah batterys at 13 volts, if I operate the furling at mid morning or lunchtime while the solar panels are getting good sun ,the actuator works faster ,sounds better because higher voltage from charging,I could put a bigger battery in and/or get another dc-dc converter and run it at about 18 volts,actuator is rated for 12 or 24v

flc1
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Joined: 20/11/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 242

Posted: 06:18pm 16 Oct 2017

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it could be near the max rating of the actuator,which is 150 kg,
I never measured what force was reguired to furl it, just did it by guess work.
maybe a combination of both weight and voltage,
Im not too worried about it at this stage as it does the job and is not used much.
I think I will add a dc converter though, they are cheap to buy,
Im just at a stage now where I don't want to spend much more time or money on this turbine,the build is finnished,just want to watch it pump out the watts .

Edited by flc1 2017-10-19

flc1
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Joined: 20/11/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 242

Posted: 01:56pm 19 Oct 2017

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Now that we are finnaly out of winter and into warmer weather we are getting stronger and more regular anabatic winds here during the day. just took some ac meter readings for the 10 days since I installed the dc-dc converter,
and the turbine has been putting out 1kwh per day,
with an average wind speed 4.5 kmh and max average of 14.3 kmh, max gust of 36.8 kmh,
My old dual stator turbines daily output was 380wh per day,
Good Blades Phill.Edited by flc1 2017-10-21

flc1
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Joined: 20/11/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 242

Posted: 07:01pm 28 Oct 2017

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Fitted a 5 amp fuse and this 150w dc-dc boost converter to the power output to the furling actuator,
and set the output voltage to 18v,
Now the actuator works alot better than before,faster and does not sound like its laboring so much at the end of its stroke.
This converter cost $10nzd including postage.

Edited by flc1 2017-10-30

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