400 volt servo motor for a 24 volt wind turbine

[97fishmt]

Here is a 400 volt servo motor working very well for 24 volt charging.

And with it mounted on my universal mount with an 8' prop.

Going up with the grip hoist and the boat winch for easing it to the vertical position.

The wind on the ground with a meter.  I'm sure it is more at 70' up.

Here it is furling and staying into the wind and making constant power.

This is the amp meter on the second scale up at 30 volts.  About 38 amps.   A little over 1000 watts.
A nice unit for another neighbor.

I'm trying to get a tower going with a neighbor now before the big snows of winter and am getting
a lot of intrust from the community for my wind turbines.

[SparWeb]

You have a lot of happy neighbours.   

[birdhouse]

mike-
nice work!  those are some pretty impressive numbers out of an 8' prop! 

keep up the good work?

any more jobs down here in pdx coming up?

adam

[charlie_ruizpr]

What blades are you using?

[Jerry]

Where is this machine located? All most looks like the east slope of the Oregon Cascades? And yes what blades are you using?

Jerry

[birdhouse]

jerry-  i'm not 97fishmt, but i have met him.  his offgrid place is in northern wa right near the canuckie border.  so your guesstimate isn't too far off.  i'm pretty sure he carves his own blades by the dan/hugh method. 

mike: i'm guessing you don't mind me disclosing this information.  and hey, you want to sell me one of your ebay scowered motors for a second mill @24v???  i've got the itch again!  it's either that, or check into the asylum! 

adam

[97fishmt]

Hi, yea I just wing the carving method these days.
I got it down pretty good for anything under 12'.

I'm still looking at options for the 16'er I'm planning
for the big motor I have up now.  I have the wood
and haven't committed to any cutting yet.

I set up a new 24 volt system that is separate from the
old 12 volt system.  So now I can test turbines for both
voltages.  I've had quite a few of these motors for a few
years and am just getting around to testing them up in
the air.  It was all about getting that awesome tower up!

I'll keep you in mind adam,  I don't have that many neighbors.

Thanks for the replies.

[birdhouse]

mike-
for your 16 footer, the chainsaw method is stellar!  i know you've got a saw, and can weld, and can build a jig, and have the wood.    it takes the ambition out of carving blades! 

adam

[97fishmt]

The carving of the blades is the fun for me.  I love to whittle on cedar.
8' blades won't take much longer than 6'ers.  My conflict in ideas is in width
and depth and using the wood wisely.  Gluing up blanks and getting started
cutting is just something I jump at on a weekend.  I'll get serious soon.
My 10'er just isn't doing it for the big kahuna.  It's furling around 35 amps
with the 10'er on it, so it's time to add more weight to the tail again.

At least I have a universal system going on my set up.  I can change the offset
easily  and change the weight of the tail by adding re-bar into the tail boom for
getting the furling to balance out and work like I want it to for the different motors
I throw on there. 

Still having fun and learning too.

[ghurd]

How big is this motor?
Inches.  Watts.  HP.  Etc.

BTW- If you say you got it on ebay for $2 with free S&H, I will hunt you down and beat you with a sock full of electrons!
G-

[TomW]

I will hunt you down and beat you with a sock full of electrons!
G-

G;

I will have you know ALL socks are "full of electrons"

But its your threat 

Tom

[bj]

    But a grand master of Electrickery might  have "special" electrons in those socks.  And we are all aware
that he doesn't like to put HIS feet in those socks.  Might not be an empty threat Tom.

[12AX7]

Several D cell batteries would have plenty of electrons...

[97fishmt]

6.5 kw

8" x 8" x10"

$40 ebay
$50 shipping

At my door 5/12/10

a good deal from my point of view.
It was this one

[ghurd]

Yes, a good deal!
I thought maybe this was a recently aquired motor.
G-

[kitestrings]

Nice work, and it looks like a good site to boot.  Thanks for sharing.

~kitestrings

[fabricator]

That looks like a lot of overhung load, there is a lot of leverage on the shaft between the hub and the face of the motor, which puts a huge load on the shaft bearings.

[bcalmed]

That looks like a lot of overhung load, there is a lot of leverage on the shaft between the hub and the face of the motor, which puts a huge load on the shaft bearings.

I think if you look at the first pic, you'll not see that long shaft.

I imagine that "scary" one was a test setup.

Thank God the load was not so HUGE!

[ghurd]

"Here it is furling and staying into the wind and making constant power.
This is the amp meter on the second scale up at 30 volts.  About 38 amps.   A little over 1000 watts."

Are you happy with 1,000W while roughly furling?
Too much?
Not enough?
I am curious what you consider to be what the motor should be limited to.

Forgot to say it earleir...  I like your universal mount.
G-

[97fishmt]

Actually ghurd, I didn't put the 10' prop on this motor because I didn't think I could stop it with the brake switch, the motor turned to freely with the 10'er on it.  I put the 8'er on it and sent it up in the air and it took off right away up to 35, 40 amps.  Woo-Hoo! 

I had the hand wind meter out there then and the wind was around 18mph on the ground ( I didn't get that picture, 11.5mph went for a few hours so I took a picture of the meter just to get one of it.)

So really yes, I'm happy with the 1k watts.  The motors name plate says 16.5 amps.  Running it as an alternator at 2.5 times over that, works for me.  It starts right up, puts out a lot of power, and I can shut it down with the stop switch.  I estimate that the wind was about 23-25mph at top of the tower when furling, just where it should be turning out of the wind, so just about perfect for blade to alternator match.

I'll get an anemometer up there soon so I can give more accurate data.
Thanks for showing some intrust in my set-up.
I'm interested in one or two of your controllers.

(and no I didn't have the shaft extension on it up in the air, I just found that older picture of the motor.)

[ghurd]

Did you post pics or details of your universal mount?  I couldn't find anything.

It looks like something I could actually build with some tweaks to fit my lack of tools.
G-

[97fishmt]

   
   
motor mount

Here is a couple pictures of the motor mount I just made.

It is 18" of 3 1/2" pipe to go over the 3" pipe on top of

the tower.  18" of 12" channel with 2" angle for bracing,

and 3" angle to mount the motor to.

[ghurd]

I was more thinking of the whole thing, with the furling.
Interesting furling section.  Inspired me.  I have an idea how I might manage it, and it looks like it might work on my tiny stuff.
I'd like to see how you did it, before I screw up more materials.
G

[97fishmt]

I'll have to get up to the cabin and take a few pictures.
But it really was just walking through a salvage yard and
picking up bits and designing as I found other bits to make
it work.

I came up with a 1" store front door pin and a actuator arm
from something, that slipped over the pin.  The pin has a "c"
clip on top so it can't fly off.  I found some wedge shaped
washers that I put under one side of the mounts for the pin.
It works out to be about 1/2" higher on one side.

Then added stops for upward and downward positions.

Slipped a aluminum pipe over the arm and added a vane and
there it was. It was my original design and I haven't changed
it except for changing the upward stop to limit the tail a little
less for it to stay into the wind more.

So the tail has to travel up hill to furl out of the wind.
Gravity brings it back down when the pressure on the blades
decreases.

I like the new machines I'm making now though.
They use the pipe over pipe and a slot cut out and I
bolt a washer on top so it can't come off.

[97fishmt]

I just found some old pictures thanks to wooferhound on Jerry's
last post.

The blades I carved years ago out of pine.
2' of 1"x8" and 3' of 1"x6" and 4' of 1"x4".
All laminated together and then tapered.
The end result is an 8' prop that has a width
of 7 1/4" to 3 1/2" with a twist from 20 degrees
to 2 degrees.




and here it is on top of the 10'er after painting it last summer