New Member says HELLO!

[Rob Stephens]

Hi everyone,

I just discovered this forum whilst searching for info on converting a 3-phase induction motor to a PM alternator head. From what I saw and the fact that some of you are practically my neighbors, I figured I'd better join up. :)

I live near the Shelburne (Melancthon/Amaranth) wind farm and knowing that I have a commercial quality wind resource here ever since I moved onto my rural farm property I have had a dream of eventually building a sizeable DIY wind turbine and getting off-grid. That dream is slowly coming to fruition. After gathering bits and pieces for nearly a decade I have spent the past three years cobbling together a very ambitious VAWT out of salvaged materials and a really tiny budget. My turbine is located next to my workshop for the construction phase and once done I plan to drive it under it's own power out to it's final home out in the field where the clear wind is available. Yes drive it! I order to avoid the nonsense of building permits, stupid inspectors, code compliance, increased property taxes and etc., I decided not to dig a hole and pour twenty yards of concrete filled with rebar. Instead I made the machine into a self- propelled piece of mobile farm machinery. :idea: I am sure many of you have been frustrated with a government that says they are all for green energy but in reality they just cannot seem to get out of their own way and ours.

The base is a modified tracked crawler/loader and a generous footprint is obtained for stability by way of crank down jacks on I-beam steel outriggers. The avatar shows me half way up the ladder on the left side. I am now at the point where I need to make my four vertical airfoil blades and will then be able to make power during closely monitored test runs while I develop and build a controller. The long split vertical driveshaft and gearboxes went in last summer (not visible in the avatar photo, but then neither is practically anything else! :weird: ). I have a 24 kW/30 kVA, 480 volt 3-phase STC gen head to install as the first generator head. I wish to eventually make a direct driven slow speed PM alternator for it. My gear box speed up ratio, done in two stages (7.5:1 followed by 4:1) is currently 30:1. The alternator head is 1800 RPM. With present gearing, 60 RPM or TSR 2 will turn the generator at rated speed.

The blades will rotate around a 24 foot diameter circle and their vertical length will be ~ 21 feet. Swept area will be about 46 m^2.

The entire design is such that I have been able to erect the whole thing working totally alone and no crane on-site. This has added a lot of time and work necessary for the construction. I will be able to install or replace the airfoils working entirely alone. There is an electric winch crane on the elevated service platform. I also have an I-beam and chainfall lift system in the lower section to facilitate installation and replacement of the heavy gearbox and generator head components. What I have made however is a good research instrument and I have an alternator invention that I'd like to develop which this will provide a perfect test bed for if I can summon the human energy. This project represents the singly most dificult DIY project I have ever tackled in my entire life. I am not doing it as a hobby interest so much as a means towards my future survival. I was left with chronic disability from a not-my-fault highway head-on some years back and was cheated by the Cooperator's Insurance Company. As such I am unable to work a regular job and can no longer afford to pay Ontario Hydro for their decades of waste and incompetence of management. If my lights and heat are to remain on as things get tougher, it will only be because I am generating the power and heat myself 'for free'.

The day I move the unit to it's final resting place here I want to have TV cameras rolling. It will be reminiscent of NASA moving their Saturn-V rocket from the VAB to the launchpad. :cool:

I could use some assistance with the selection of a suitable lift blade airfoil design. I need something that will operate in the TSR 2 to TSR 3 max range. For this machine TSR 3 would be about 90 RPM. Unless I am able to obtain light enough materials with which to fabricate these blades even operation at 90 RPM will be scary due to high centrifugal force issues. I have material to fabricate lift airfoils in steel but the weight would be too high. Centrifugal forces would be enormous and at the working limits of the materials without safety factor. The stored rotational energy in the spinning turbine would make it difficult to bring to a stop in an emergency. I have a 12 HP shunt wound DC starter motor system installed which can get the turbine up to 60 RPM (TSR 2). This was in anticipation of blades that would not be self starting or that might stall in a gust.

I wish to use raw, wild freq and voltage for electric resistance heating and incandescent lighting (Oh, I just said resistance heating twice haha.) Beyond that I wish to charge a battery bank and run the house from inverters. This will not be a grid tie system. As far as I am concerned, Ontario Hydro can go suck on their spent nuclear reactor fuel rods.

Well that's pretty much my story. Cheers!

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Rob, (great name! isn't it! :) )

Welcome to this corner of the World Wide Web!
That is indeed a very ambitious project. Please post a few larger pictures, to get a better idea. The local blade profile guru is Stew Corman, hopefully he'll chime in.

In general, making your own electricity is usually a heck of a lot more expensive than buying it from the local hydro company (even with their debt recovery fee and so on). So, not sure how you're planning to come out ahead. It's a worthwhile project though!

-RoB-

[Rob Stephens]

Hi Rob, (great name! isn't it! :) )

Welcome to this corner of the World Wide Web!
That is indeed a very ambitious project. Please post a few larger pictures, to get a better idea. The local blade profile guru is Stew Corman, hopefully he'll chime in.

In general, making your own electricity is usually a heck of a lot more expensive than buying it from the local hydro company (even with their debt recovery fee and so on). So, not sure how you're planning to come out ahead. It's a worthwhile project though!

-RoB-

Hi RoB,

Thanx for the warm welcome.

Ontario Hydro Debt Recovery Fee is actually a tiny part of my electricity bills. I usually pay about $80 for Delivery Fee of $20 worth of juice and then the next $20 is Debt Recovery and taxes . So a $120 hydro bill for one very, very, very low usage month for my shop where I actually generate most of the power there with a diesel genset. I should pull that meter and use the $120 to buy fuel. I am typically paying about $350-400 per month averaged out through the year for power from Hydro and that includes two meters, shop and house. That cannot continue as is and within a year it is supposed to go up another 30-50% with two or more rate increases, rising tide somewhere, paint drying somewhere else and the new Government screw us all HST.

I'd very much like to get Stew's input on my blade requirements. I'll shrink some pics so I can post them.

[Steven Fahey]

...a 3-phase induction motor to a PM alternator head. From what I saw and the fact that some of you are practically my neighbors...

Hi Rob,

Welcome to the forum. I'm a little closer to cowboy country than you, but I still like meeting fellow canucks interested in RE. The first line of your introduction caught my attention. If you have questions about motor-conversions I can help you there.\

However, for a VAWT, the power curve of an axial may be better suited, and much more likely to match up with the speed and power requirements of your VAWT.\

Axial-flux alternators have a "stiff" power curve, meaning it rises rapidly with speed and output power, especially when coupled to a battery. The result is that the VAWT will get up to speed in a moderate wind and start charging the system (if properly matched) and not get much faster. The motor conversion, on the other hand, usually requires considerable speed to operate at full power, and its power curve does not hold the rotor at a very constant speed. Instead the blades just turn a lot faster, for little net gain in the battery. This isn't a problem for me - I have a reliable folding-tail furling system on my HAWT, and designed the blades for high speed.

But since you have a VAWT you might want to look at the axial-flux alternator instead. They are not very difficult to build, and it seems you have a lot of fabricating ability to draw upon!

Welcome aboard.

[Rob Stephens]

...a 3-phase induction motor to a PM alternator head. From what I saw and the fact that some of you are practically my neighbors...

Hi Rob,

Welcome to the forum. I'm a little closer to cowboy country than you, but I still like meeting fellow canucks interested in RE. The first line of your introduction caught my attention. If you have questions about motor-conversions I can help you there.

However, for a VAWT, the power curve of an axial may be better suited, and much more likely to match up with the speed and power requirements of your VAWT.

Axial-flux alternators have a "stiff" power curve, meaning it rises rapidly with speed and output power, especially when coupled to a battery. The result is that the VAWT will get up to speed in a moderate wind and start charging the system (if properly matched) and not get much faster. The motor conversion, on the other hand, usually requires considerable speed to operate at full power, and its power curve does not hold the rotor at a very constant speed. Instead the blades just turn a lot faster, for little net gain in the battery. This isn't a problem for me - I have a reliable folding-tail furling system on my HAWT, and designed the blades for high speed.

But since you have a VAWT you might want to look at the axial-flux alternator instead. They are not very difficult to build, and it seems you have a lot of fabricating ability to draw upon!

Welcome aboard.

Hi Steven,

Thanx for the welcome. I spent my late teens and most of my twenties in Edmonton. That was back in the 70's. I liked Alberta then. Probably too busy for me now with a boom and bust oil thing happening there now. I have this picture in my mind of the entire highway 2 from Edmonton to Calgary now lined with strip malls and gas bars, just getting thicker in the middle where Red Deer is.

I like your thinking about the axial flux and how it would better match my turbine. Trouble is I'll need a big'un and since buying a new unit from China for $15,000 is not an option for me I have to do it the same way I get everything else normally expensive to buy. I'll have to make it myself when I have gathered enough useful parts from society's throw aways. I expect to be disappointed with the perfoprmance of my two gearboxes and 1800 RPM gen head as they represent a lot of drag on the system to turn it by hand. A directly driven slow speed axial unit sitting at the bottom of my direct drive shaft would be a load easily spun up by the wind providing it was properly designed to eliminate cogging. That is something I plan to address later. The first thing is to get Version #1.00 up and running.

I have my eyes open for an ancient, open frame pancake motor or generator which I can modify to make a high pole count PM alternator. Trouble is most of those got melted as scrap fifty years ago.

Where I have installed the first stage 7.5:1 step-up pancake style gearbox salvaged from an IHC bailer I have the perfect supports instaled for an pancake axial flux, vertical shaft gen head which could be a retrofit at a later date.

I have made a few model sized lift blades like NACA 0012 to 0018 and tested them on a DC PM motor attached to the roof rack of my car to provide variable windspeed. I can put load resistors on or off and watch generated volts in the car and compute power versus windspeed for crude blade evaluative comparisons. My experience with all the models of this design are that they do not self start. As I mentioned I have an electric starter on the turbine (36 volt 12 HP motor 2000 RPM that drove a hydraulic pump on an e-forklift) that can get whatever I put up there to about 60 RPM from a cold start or give it a boost if it stalls while in action due to gusts, etc.

In my blade experiments I even managed to invent a drag profile blade that looked like it should'a run great. It would not self start, or even spin. I should patent that one and sell the patent! :idea:

I have a lot of tools, power tools, arc welder, drill press, bandsaw, alas no vertical mill, but I have a great old 16 inch x 36 bed Southbend tool room lathe. I'd be dead in the water without that machine! It is older than me but not by much.

What do you think of my starting with an old pancake motor frame in the 24"-30" diameter class? Total OD, not rotor OD. Do you know where I could obtain one?

[Rob Beckers]

... I'll shrink some pics so I can post them ...

Rob, no need to shrink or otherwise change pictures before posting. The forum will take care of that automagically and resize them on-the-fly.

-RoB-

[Steven Fahey]

Hi

I know what kind of machines you're talking about, but maybe you haven't caught on to what I was suggesting:

http://69.175.14.181/catalog/popup_image.php?pID=184&osCsid=ed33e2ed95b5b7c5be5c7d6e8c960b22

This is a photo from www.otherpower.com. They sell kits for build-your-own alternators and wind turbines. As you can see, this is a flat pancake stator for an axial flux alternator. The magnet rotors top and bottom cover this, and when they spen they create the flux you need to drive the current in the coils.

http://www.otherpower.com/images/july2907/jy29%230002.jpg

There's one rotor on the alternator frame. The stator goes next, then a second rotor facing the first. The attractive field between the pairs of magnet passes straight through the coils. Ready to generate power once the rotors turn.

Build it yourself for <<1000 dollars. You seem to want several kW of power. Don't know how big your rotor is going to be but since you started BIG, lets assume you need an alternator a bit bigger than what Otherpower can provide. You'd have to make it yourself (wire, epoxy, steel plate, big magnets) and scaling up the design will work up to a certain point.

Otherpower has a forum (called www.fieldlines.com) I'm a regular there, too. You can poke around a while and you may find some helpful ideas.

IMHO: VAWT + gearbox = bad

[Rob Stephens]

Here is a shot I call "Don't look down". :sick: It is very early in second year of the project,.

The second pic shows the empty crawler engine compartment making room for all the downstairs gear train and gen head, control system box, etc. To provide mobility I have installed a 6-1/2 HP Honda clone industrial gas engine which drives the input to the crawler's transmission through a centrifugal clutch, and a combo of chain drive reduction and a large 10:1 worm gear reduction box. It can put 400 ft/lbs of torque at 90 RPM into the crawler xmission through the Ford truck driveshaft. The drive from where I installed the little engine to where I parked and levelled the crawler for the turbine construction showed that I need to put a larger sprocket on the input to the worm gearbox. During levelling the crawler could not climb up on a metal 2"x4".

[Rob Stephens]

Hi

I know what kind of machines you're talking about, but maybe you haven't caught on to what I was suggesting:

http://69.175.14.181/catalog/popup_image.php?pID=184&osCsid=ed33e2ed95b5b7c5be5c7d6e8c960b22

This is a photo from www.otherpower.com. They sell kits for build-your-own alternators and wind turbines. As you can see, this is a flat pancake stator for an axial flux alternator. The magnet rotors top and bottom cover this, and when they spen they create the flux you need to drive the current in the coils.

http://www.otherpower.com/images/july2907/jy29%230002.jpg

There's one rotor on the alternator frame. The stator goes next, then a second rotor facing the first. The attractive field between the pairs of magnet passes straight through the coils. Ready to generate power once the rotors turn.

Build it yourself for <<1000 dollars. You seem to want several kW of power. Don't know how big your rotor is going to be but since you started BIG, lets assume you need an alternator a bit bigger than what Otherpower can provide. You'd have to make it yourself (wire, epoxy, steel plate, big magnets) and scaling up the design will work up to a certain point.

Otherpower has a forum (called www.fieldlines.com) I'm a regular there, too. You can poke around a while and you may find some helpful ideas.

IMHO: VAWT + gearbox = bad

Steven,

I fully expect to be disappointed with the gearbox system but it seemed to me the only route to build version 1.00 of the machine at the time. I am aware of the air core coil pancake alternators being made as you suggest. I am not interested in going that route. In order to get up to 1800 RPM for the conventional synchronous alternator head I have two gearboxes in series making a total of 1:30 speed increase. The first is a massive 1:7.5 from an IHC bailer. That drives a 90 degree 1:1 gearbox and then it goes into a further 1:4 box. I believe that last box is gonna be the dealbreaker and would be happy to get rid of it first chance. The system is designed so that eliminating it physically will be relatively easy to accomplish. With just the 1:7.5 box I could use a conventional 16 pole alternator (450 RPM for 60 Hz). That is something that is buildable as a DIY project perhaps assisted with a large industrial motor as a core.

I have considered making a large steel frame and sizing it so a big cast iron flywheel or belt shieve who's periphery is loaded up with epoxied-on neo magnets would spin inside a high pole count stator made up of modified microwave oven xfmers.

At any rate the gearbox system is now installed and it will be the first system put into trial service. I am working to complete the tower now and with luck I'll find the money to obtain materials to make my blades in time to do that this summer.

[Rob Stephens]

The 4-1/2" diameter main driveshaft (at turbine speed) which is split with U-joint and steady bearing halfway up the tower drives the big red IHC pancake gearbox. The high speed shaft output (x7.5) goes straight down to a 90 degree gearbox (1:1) and turns forward towards the second gearbox (x4) which makes the ~1800 RPM for the gen head. The output of the IHC pancake box also has a 18" B-belt pulley on it so a small secondary generator or something else can be belt driven at high speed. This is also how the 12 HP starter motor gets into the system. I plan to put a one way sprag clutch on the starter motor as soon as I can locate one without having to spend $500. This is Canada. Darned near impossible to buy hardware here and when we can find something we need we get ripped. :mad:

[Rob Stephens]

Here is the upper assembly and turntable flange that the turbine blade system bolts to at the top of the tower. There is a large dual spherical roller main bearing, a solid 4" short main shaft, a 3" secondary bearing. A highway semi tractor maxi air drum brake will be actuated by either electric jack screw or hydraulic. This package weighs 900 lbs. Was fabricated in the shop, disassembled, the frame lifted into place and welded to the tower top, then the heavy pieces were lifted and installed one at a time up in the air.

[Rob Stephens]

The lower part of the radial arm package that will hold the turbine blades was assembled on the ground and lifted into place as one weldment by the overhead hoist. With no crane the only way to get the upper radial arm package way up there was piece by piece starting with the central spire. Each of the four radials were then lifted with a special jig and welded on one by one. This took a bit of ingenuity.

[Rob Stephens]

Here are pictures showing the upper rotating spire in place. That was just too awkward and heavy to lift by hand although I tried. I had to rig a temporary gin pole to accomplish this placement.

The arm lifting jig I fabricated (in picture two), had a heavy cement filled section of pipe at the bottom so as to lift and hold the radial arm in a horizontal position as it was raised into position. The jig had two bolt plates that represent the spacing and mounting scheme for the blades. The scariest job I have had to do was to walk out along the bottom radial to the end, one at a time as all four were installed to remove the temporary bolts that hold the jig to the upper radial arm once that piece was welded to the central spire. I could easily reach the lower bolt plate from the service platform.

That lifting jig now represents the exact bolt pattern I must duplicate on the mounting plates of each blade as I build them.

[Rob Stephens]

So this is where I was a couple of weeks ago. I am now doing the finishing touches on the tower bracing and have added a safe to the front for more ballast weight. I plan to fill the safe with lead, gold, tungsten scraps or depleted uranium, whichever I can get cheapest.

I'll update as I have more to share.

[Rob Beckers]

Crikey Rob! You don't do things half-way, do you! :blink:
That thing is massive...

What swept area are you planning on, and what is your average annual wind speed over there?

As to finding cheap stuff in Canada: Besides the few highlights such as Princess Auto I hear you. People here really get ripped on a daily basis. What I do quite a bit is buy in the USA (mail order), and ship to a UPS Store just over the border. I then drive down, pick it up, and pay the GST/PST at the border. At least that avoids the brokerage costs, which make it impossible to buy anything that is under a few hundred bucks (or rather, you can buy it and ship across the border, but brokerage will add a very large percentage to the price).

-RoB-

[Rob Stephens]

Crikey Rob! You don't do things half-way, do you! :blink:
That thing is massive...

What swept area are you planning on, and what is your average annual wind speed over there?

As to finding cheap stuff in Canada: Besides the few highlights such as Princess Auto I hear you. People here really get ripped on a daily basis. What I do quite a bit is buy in the USA (mail order), and ship to a UPS Store just over the border. I then drive down, pick it up, and pay the GST/PST at the border. At least that avoids the brokerage costs, which make it impossible to buy anything that is under a few hundred bucks (or rather, you can buy it and ship across the border, but brokerage will add a very large percentage to the price).

-RoB-

I tend to go into overkill mode when I build stuff anyhow but the sheer magnitude of this project is a first for me. It will also be the last big hurrah in my case. I really do need a large machine because I want to make heat as well. I just cannot afford to pay the utility companies any longer and we are about to get clobbered with some healthy price increases across the board. I compromised on the size though. Originally my target was a 40 kW machine, HAWT and 75 foot self supporting tower planted in concrete. Because of chronic health disability from a highway head-on, that just wasn't to be. This one represents a doable compromise. I'm glad I started when I did. No way I could tackle something this physically hard now as my health continues to deteriorate. Even if I was totally well once a fellow passes 55 he probably shouldn't be tackling such physically challenging projects all by his'self anyhow. I saw what I was up against and really pushed myself. I have been climbing around on the tower welding more criss-crosses in place Friday, rested Saturday because of rain and hit 'er again yesterday. Today a perfect day to work outdoors and I cannot move, too much pain.

Swept area rectangle, i.e. height of blades x width of the swept circle = 21ft x 24 ft = 504 ft^2 or 46.7m^2. Average annual windspeed 7 m/sec. There are many days with 10-11 m/sec winds. Winter is the windiest time and that is when I need heat. I am in a good area for wind. The huge Melancthon Grey wind farm, home to about 100, 1.5 MW turbines is immediately west of me. I can see about 13 of them standing in my backyard. From my maintenance platform on the homebrew I can see them all. Magnificent! I look at those $3 Million beauties every day and with mine still not finished and here it is into year four of construction I have to tell you that I have a serious case of wind turbine envy!

I no longer drive to the US. I am afraid to set foot there. Ten years ago I used to attend a very good Hamfest in Rochester, NY, and also the world's largest one in Dayton, OH. I also liked to attend a Antique Wireless Association meet in Rochester and a smaller one held in Buffalo each year. They were the best places to find those odd bits of electronic parts one needs for R&D or out there DIY.

I recently purchased a pair of Chinese made STC 24 kW/30kVA, 12 wire, 3-phase, 480 volt, 1800 RPM gen heads from a vendor in Georgia, USA. Shipping and brokerage added a LOT. Had to do it though. I needed one for my new diesel genset I built to run the shop and house and the other to use in my VAWT. Purchasing two at the same time saved a lot of money on the logistics. For example you pay almost the same if there is 400 lbs on a pallet or 800 lbs.

I have attached a pic of the gen heads I bought. The Changfa single cylinder horizontal water cooled diesel is a big model 1115. Makes 23 HP at 2200 RPM. I bought one new a few years ago when you still could (EPA import restrictions are now in effect) and finally got a gen head to mate to it. I run the engine at 1800 RPM. The plant makes 12 kW and also heats the shop in captured engine and exhaust heat co-gen style. That project is now finished.

[Rob Stephens]

Been toiling away at my personal mega-project and am pleased to announce that the generator head is now installed. This completes the entire drivetrain from end to end except that I still have no airfoils bolted upstairs to the radial arm system.. If I did I could make electricity as soon as I find a box to place the STC voltage regulator and 3-phase exciter rectifier into which had to be remoted for this install. There was not enough room for the original doghouse on the STC head. I wouldn't let this spin up yet though as there is no brake actvation device installed yet and I still have more heavy steel welding to do in the base for strength and more ballast weight to add downstairs. I have gotten quite a bit accomplished already this year. Not yet certain if I will have it doing test runs under wind power this year but I sure am gonna try. I have gotten it pretty darned close. This is year four in the actual contruction. There are so many details and each detail is like a major fabrication project in itself. Much for one working alone to do.

Pics attached. I have two weather covers now fabricated. One covers the genhead and driving gearbox which can be seen in the first picture. The other cover keeps rain out of the upper pancake gearbox. Every time it rained the rain would run down the long vertical driveshaft and get into the upper gearbox. I have drained and changed the 2 gallons of gear oil in that box three times now for want of a cover system. That is now done.

I had the STC head apart and put a generous coating of varathane on the windings inside. I also balanced the badly out of balance armature. The interconnecting leads flying exposed between the four field coils on the armature were tied back with lacing twine and coated with epoxy. Everything got a good bakeout after the work. I am installing 1/4" mesh in the vent holes to hopefully keep critters out. I was pleased to learn that my head uses all copper windings and the sealed bearings. I did not upgrade them as they are OK right now (should be they are brand new!) and I just don't have a spare $100 to do things twice at this stage.

[Rob Stephens]

Here is a picture taken looking straight down inboard from the end of the 4th storey height service platform. One thing visible is how I was able to create a very circular landing pattern for the outboard stabilizers making a generously sized footprint compared to the area otherwise taken merely by the crawler tracks. The system is quite stable setting merely on the tracks and was actually without stabilizers until just prior to the installation of the rotating topgear two years ago

[Rob Beckers]

Keep it coming Rob!
This is a real cliff-hanger to see it get to the point of producing power... :cool:

-RoB-

[Rob Stephens]

Much was accomplished this year but unfortunately the blades, a large effort in themselves, were not completed. They are however partially done at this point. In one month's time this project then continues laboriously into year five.

Major beefing up of the structural strength of the outrigger jack support arms around the base was done and is not quite finished yet. These pipes are filled with cement for an additional 1000 lbs of ballast. Additional bottom ballast weight has also been added in the form of a bank safe filled with lead, steel and concrete in the front of the crawler below the generator head.

The rotating carousel upstairs was polished, primed and repainted white with high quality industrial coatings since the original non-primered white was put on two years ago in freezing coinditions and was deteriorating. That wasn't the easiest job. The guy wires (1/4" steel aircraft cable) have been installed on the radial arms to deal with the static weight of the blades and to prevent arm bending in hard braking. The easy end to access of these 12 cables have been left slack as the cables can only be tensioned once the finished and prepainted blades are installed. Hopefully this will happen next summer.

[Rob Stephens]

The four heavy blade spars are fabricated now with the attachment stub arms and bolt plates shown here in fabrication against the pattern jig representing the ends of the rotating arms. The blades will measure about 5 feet wide (cord) and 21 feet long each. Fifty two angle iron ribs are now fabricated and welded into shape. The thousand or so 1/8" holes in them to accept the pop rivets attaching the 0.020" sheet steel skin will be pre-drilled in the shop where much more convenient on a drillpress before they are welded onto the spars. Unfortunately i must wait for warm spring weather to do further outdoor fabrication of these enormous blades. I could do one at a time indoors if my shop was not so cluttered but you know how that is. :eek:

[Rob Stephens]

I recently obtained a pair of Mitsubishi Alpha-2 (latest version) PLC controllers. The plan is to put one on the turbine to monitor wind conditions, status of the machine and make control decisions based on programmed rules. It will handle auto start, auto normal shutdown, emergency shutdown and alarms. I have zero experience with such controllers so this should be yet another challenge for me.

Initially I was thinking of the most basic relay logic because of my lack of experience in this area but when these controllers became available to me at an affordable price I decided that this really was the best way to go. For example I can implement a driveshaft monitor that can reduce the load if the twisting torque on the shaft exceeds a preset limit, or shutdown the system if it develops rotational (wind up-unwind) oscillation.

Info on this PLC is available here. I have the nifty windoz based programming and emulator sioftware which is much more intuiitive than the tedious on-unit LCD programming display and buttons.

http://www.electrodepot.com/al20mrd.htm

Ain't technology wunnerfull? :love:

[Rob Stephens]

Weather covers which slide away for easy equipment access now cover the gearboxes and generator head. Weatherproof electrical boxes are in place. The top one will contain the generator exciter board and AVR circuit as well as the large 3-phase 100 amp disconnect output breaker. The bottom box will contain the PLC controller and communications stuff. The power output connector, 60 amp/600 volt/4-pole is installed and visible in the photos.

[Ralph Day]

Rob
Does that itty bitty motor run the hydraulics and move the base machine? Sweet! Must be a Honda.

Ralph

[Rob Stephens]

Rob
Does that itty bitty motor run the hydraulics and move the base machine? Sweet! Must be a Honda.

Ralph

It is a new Chinese made 196cc, 6.5 HP OHV Honda clone (similar to a GX-200) sold by Princess Auto. On sale for $125.00. I would have given my left testicle for a new engine like that when I was 13 for my minibike!!!!! :cool:

I see Harbor Freight has a similar clone on sale now for $129.00 US. That is fine if you need one and live in the US.
http://www.harborfreight.com/65-hp-horizontal-shaft-overhead-valve-gas-engine-66014.html

It is mechanically linked through centrifugal clutch, roller chain sprocket reduction and a 10:1 worm gear box to a driveshaft link with the input of the crawler's original transaxle where the clutch and original diesel engine used to sit. I left the original hydraulic cylinders in place on the crawler just because I need all the weight down there that I can get and I didn't need them for anything else.

[Rob Beckers]

Thank you very much for the updates Rob! I greatly enjoy reading them, every time you post. That is one honking machine!

Some nice looking welds in those pictures. I suppose you're getting lots of practice.

Looking over the previous posts; all that's left to do are the blades, and some of the smaller stuff such as PLC programming, sensors for wind etc. Right? Maybe we can persuade you to clean up the shop and work on those blades through the winter, then get this baby running in spring. This is turning into a cliff-hanger...

-RoB-