windspot turbine

[Cor van Houtum]

hello friends
i have build the windspot 3.5 turbine with variable pitch
3 bladed machine

works great

you can look at the display

http://www.draaistroom.net
webcam
login with
gast
gast

you can also put in your browser
http://mail.vhspqs.nl

cor

[Dale Sheler]

Cor the log and password should be "guest". that is a good looking turbine and it's really cranking out the watts right now, the big question is what do they cost?

[Cor van Houtum]

hello Dale,
this turbine is driven with one 6kw aurora inverter
when we run it on the loose the turbine never exeeds 500 volts
this due the variable pitch
this means that the stuff on the ground can be much less then with the turbines that overproduce a couple of hours every year

this overproduction in high winds make the turbines expensive and difficult to run and controll

the WINDSPOT does not have this problem

the 5kw SWG turbine that was on this tower cannot compete with the 3.5 kw windspot
we have allready seen this the first day

also the turbine is lighter nd smaller ( only 4 meters )

keep following my expierence in the future and you get enthousiastic to

cor

[Cor van Houtum]

the big differences in production today
are due the west wind
we have trees and a big buiding in the west
this makes the wind gust a lot

but most of the time the wind here is comming from the south-west
that makes is more stable

cor

[Peter Klaassen]

Hi Cor,
I am considering a windspot here in Ontario. Can you compare the sound level coming from the Windspot with other turbines and other common sounds? I am looking at an off grid battery charging system - 3.5 kW version of this machine. It isn't a cheap turbine but if it is reliable and quiet I am willing to pay the price.
Thanks,
PKlaassen

[Cor van Houtum]

my installed windspot is making less noise then the 5kw swg
but in a higher frequenz because it is smaller and turns faster
do not worry bout the noise
is almost nothing

kind regards

Cor

[Peter Klaassen]

Thanks for the info Cor. I have been watching the Windspot site waiting for the online testing of their turbine. I guess it hasn't been a priority. Seeing one of these turbines in action is important to give confidence that the turbine is as capable as they claim. I appreciate your efforts to demonstrate the viability of small wind turbines.
Regards,
PKlaassen

[Shayne Matta]

o cool, i tried building one similar a couple months back, in fact i just recently built a wind power turbine at my cottage, which was slightly more simple. I found a Do IT yourself guide over at wind power facts (http://www.windpowerfacts.org) website. I would send it to someone on here for free, but since then a friend has borrowed it.

[Marek Klon]

Hi Cor
I am preparing for first installation of Windspot in Poland. It will be on 24 m tower !
But my question relates to turbine output...
I need to pick a proper circut braker for the turbine... I have seen on one drawing 25 A braker but that seems to much - if at 250 rpm generator is giving 400V then 10A makes 4kW. Also circut brakers have different characteristics (Z, B, C, K, S, D (http://www.klocknermoeller.com/faz/faz.characteristics.htm)) which one should I take ?
Thanks
Marek

p.s. are you using manual brakers to stop the turbine (by shorting all 3 phases together )? Did you ever try when turbine was running with no load at high rpm ?

[Cor van Houtum]

The best way i think to stop the turbine is using the dumpload
overrule the controllers dump circuit with a big switch


By the way today we have a new record
32 kwh in one day and still 4 hours to go to midnight
so i think resulting in about 35 kwh when the day has ended
my test turbine is windspot 3.5 on 17 meters tower
highest power today on the aurora inverter is 4200 watts
kind regards

Cor

[Shaun Burgess]

hi cor what have you produced in the last 365 days

[Cor van Houtum]

never forget that location is leading and our turbine is located in land on a industrial airea with high buildings

[Rob Beckers]

Marek, to get back to your original question regarding the breaker/fuse needed: Unless the turbine can run unloaded without going to pieces there should not be any overcurrent protection. The conductors should be sized such that they can handle the maximum current produced (with some safety margin) so the lack of overcurrent protection is not a fire hazard.

If you can allow the turbine to run unloaded, or you have a mechanism upstream (towards the turbine) that takes care of keeping a load on the turbine (dump load and such), and you do want breakers/fuses: Since alternators are good at handling brief overcurrent conditions there's no need for anything particularly fast. What we do for the Scirocco turbine is to use a regular motor breaker; it's meant for devices like motors (and that's what an alternator is), relatively slow but plenty fast enough, it can be reset when tripped, you can set the current yourself (they have a range), and it will disconnect all three phases at the same time so you can't single-phase the alternator. We use a Telemecanique GV2ME21. It has a range of 17A to 23A. The same manufacturer (part of Schneider) makes them in many other current ranges as well.

-RoB-

[Marek Klon]

thanks Rob.
Yes looks like Windspot (same with sirocco ? ) can run unloaded due that nice passive pitch (very similar in both turbines ). I understand that there is no need for overcurrent protection just after turbine but country (Poland) regulations might require this so thanks for answer.

If I use braker on the turbine side (and second after inverter) I need to use something to stop the turbine also (spinning very fast when no load ). As Cor suggested best is to overrule the controllers dump circuit with a big swith.

Last thing on the turbine side what I can think of is anti surge / thunder protection. Is there anything common used for that protection beside grounding the tower ?

[Rob Beckers]

Marek, I wrote a rather lengthy set of articles on lightning and protection from it. Take a look at http://www.solacity.com/Lightning.htm
It's probably a bit more than you were looking for... :confused:

For a cheap solution that still has some effect (though honestly, what this can do is limited) take a look at the wiring diagram we use for the Scirocco, this also shows the motor thermal-breaker we use, http://www.solacity.com/Docs/Scirocco%20Hookup.pdf

The stop-switch is shown in there too. Be careful though: Many turbines have a maximum RPM at which they can be stopped this way. It's pretty hard on the alternator and the rest of the turbine to just suddenly short it. You only need a 2-pole switch by the way.

-RoB-

[Bill Glynn]

Hi,

I installed a 3.5KW Sonkyo as well. The unit seems well made and works as advertized. However, to date I have been unable to get any tech support. The US distributor refers tech support requests to the factory in Spain. The factory never replies.
Also, the manual provided with the MPPT charge controller has almost no technical info.
The unit show great promise but I hope the company doesn't leave us flapping in the wind(so to speak) when it comes to tech support.

[Marek Klon]

Rob thanks for all info ( and thanks to Nicola Tesla :) ).
---
yes sonkyo i leaving that work for distributors - how much is a windspot in states ?

greetings from Ireland
Marek

p.s. Bill are you on or off grid ? you mean inverter or Ginlog rectifier / controller (conneted to dump load ) ?

[Bill Glynn]

Hi,

Been a while since I last posted.

Have a 3.5kw Windspot by sonkyo that has been flying in Alaska for just shy of 4 years. It's mounted on a 100ft tip up pole and has been maintained on a regular basis.

Lately it had been making a thunk noise when turning slowly so I lowered it and found the variable pitch hub was starting to come apart. The inner and outer bearing for each blade shaft were loose. One much looser than the other two. One of the outer bearings had even blown the seal and the grease leaked onto one of the blades. The seal on the front bearing of the alternator has also leaked although those bearings don't feel loose yet.

The North American dealer network seems to have evaporated. The dealer that sold the turbine has not answered my emails since the unit was installed and commissioned. The factory in Spain has never answered an email from me.

Anybody know of a source of quality (or any) parts for these units?

In my original post I expressed concern that tech support seemed weak. Now it seems there is no support.

[Peter Klaassen]

Hi Bill,
I have had similar problems with the blade holder bearings. Last winter the 3.5 kW turbine was making over 5 kW and then two blades broke off. There were a number of issues I think that caused the failure. Worn bearings were one of them, which didn't allow the pitch mechanism to operate correctly. I had it down since about February trying to get some help. Enair in Spain is now the producer - Cor has had contact with them and indicated that they seemed legitimate. There was no help for me here in Canada from my supplier, so I took it to a local machine shop. All the bearings in the pitch hub were bad. Not an easy job to get things back in operation. I will be posting the repairs when I get home from work - (December)
Pete

[Cor van Houtum]

Some photo of new enair 70 PRO install

[Cor van Houtum]

Lately it had been making a thunk noise when turning slowly

I think The main shaft spline has worn out

this is hard to repair , we have once welded the main shaft to the plate
but in time this broke again so also a bad solution

[Bill Glynn]

Hi,

The thunk was the loosest blade flopping over, so to speak, as the blade past zenith while turning slowly. Once the RPM came up then centrifugal force minimized the thunk.

I know a guy that spent years in the bearing business serving the oil patch and others. He works part time out of his house now, mostly for friends, and might be able to help.

I'll keep you posted as things progress.

[Cor van Houtum]

i hope you are right
but also check the main shaft
sometimes the top bold comes loose
and then the spline Will become deformed

[Bill Glynn]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. Good to know I'm not entirely on my own.

Cor, I've double checked the spline and it is still tight to the main shaft. No slop or wobble. However, the blade shaft bearings are very loose. Pieces of bearing are scattered around the inside the hub assembly. Lucky it didn't send a blade flying.

Haven't had time to do much else with the turbine as my water system also developed problems. Had to dig a 10ft deep 60ft long trench to replace the old, leaking, galvanized pipe between the well and the building housing the pressure tank before freeze up hits us.

[Peter Klaassen]

Hi Bill,
The machinist who repaired my hub said the blade shafts didn't have the adjusting nuts installed correctly. There was a pin through the actuator arm that linked to the central yoke which prevented the bearings from being adjusted. He took the pins out when he replaced all the blade bearings and thought the pins were redundant. To remove the bearing races he welded around the inside of the race to make it shrink when it cooled. I thought that was an interesting solution to ease the removal of the pitted races. I heard thunking on my turbine and thought it was the blade bearings but it turned out to be both the blades and the main shaft mounting plate. To fix the keyway on the main shaft he made a new mounting plate and enlarged the keyway on the generator shaft. When I reassembled the hub I bedded the key with JB weld epoxy. We'll see how long things last this winter. I can't attach the pictures yet but I will post the repairs in a new post here when I can.

Pete

[Marek Klon]

Cor what is your feeling of Enair machine it is better done than windspot ? Is generator still by ginlong or it whats the story now... lucky I do not have troubles with my windspots installed in Ireland (but yaw bearing froze last winter on one machine in Poland ) but I have new client now so I have a chance to to try Enair... thanks.

[Bill Glynn]

Hi Pete,

Sorry for the delay answering. I've been under the weather so haven't done anything to the turbine, or anything else. Had planned to work on the unit today but it's raining and blowing hard. A series of storms are rolling across south central Alaska. Too bad the turbine isn't making power.

The welding trick is interesting. I was thinking about using some dry ice to shrink the outer race but welding might be better. May be worth trying both methods to see which one is best.

When the weather improves I will be able to remove the hub, disassemble it, and post the findings.

[Bill Glynn]

Hi,

Well, we had a break in the weather so I removed the hub and brought it inside for inspection. It's worse that originally thought.

The three armed yoke that compresses the main spring is bent. Two of the arms are bent back towards the alt. and one of those is also twisted counter clockwise relative to the other two arms. This caused distortion of the ring that compresses the main spring resulting in binding of the yoke assembly. This binding causes the blades to not feather properly. I can take pictures but don't know how to post them.

I had noticed the turbine charge controller was hitting the diversion load more than normal and the controller was even having to apply the brakes by pulsing shorts across the three phases to slow down the turbine, even in moderate winds.

So, at this point replacing the blade shaft bearings ( original cause of the failures ) seems pointless unless I can obtain the other parts as well.

A disappointing situation.

[John Szegda]

Hello Cor,

I installed my 70 Pro a week ago. Unfortunately my two PVI6000 need repair, but ABB is not set up in the US for repairs . I searched the internet for the Aurora 6000, but could not find a wind inverter. I noticed in one of your photos you installed a Ginlong GCI-5K-W. I think that may be the only option I have, we located three wind Ginlong in stock in US.

Have you had any trouble with Ginlong Inverters.

John

[Paul Camilli]

Hello Cor,

I installed my 70 Pro a week ago. Unfortunately my two PVI6000 need repair, but ABB is not set up in the US for repairs . I searched the internet for the Aurora 6000, but could not find a wind inverter. I noticed in one of your photos you installed a Ginlong GCI-5K-W. I think that may be the only option I have, we located three wind Ginlong in stock in US.

Have you had any trouble with Ginlong Inverters.

John

I dunno about Ginlong wind inverters but I can vouch for their solar ones. I have no connection with the company or any retailer of their products but was asked to do trials on one. I run a Powerspout hydro turbine that is 'AC coupled' into my on 'mini grid'. I have run this 'off grid' set up for several years now with four or five different GTI's and have data for all of them. The Solis Mini 1500 by Ginlong performed better than all the others for half the price of some of them. I was most impressed with it.

Cheers, Paul

[John Szegda]

Hello Paul,

Thanks for your reply. I purchased a Ginlong GCI-5K-2G-W-US, hopefully this unit will solve my Inverter issue.

John

[Rob Beckers]

John, so Ginlong is still selling their wind inverters in North America? Last I heard they stopped bringing them in. I've been sending quite a few people their way lately for wind inverters, in hopes that they would ship directly from China.

Paul, how do you use a solar inverter for a hydro turbine? I would think that the inverter is a total mismatch in load (solar panels are current sources, while a PM alternator is a Voltage source, different way to do MPPT).

-RoB-

[Paul Camilli]

Paul, how do you use a solar inverter for a hydro turbine? I would think that the inverter is a total mismatch in load (solar panels are current sources, while a PM alternator is a Voltage source, different way to do MPPT).

-RoB-

Hi RoB, that's what I and a few other 'hydro turbineers' thought at first. Indeed my first GTI was an SMA wind inverter which worked just fine. However, after playing around with all the different modes, Turbine, Konstant and MPPT I found there wasn't really much between them in terms of output and MPPT seemed to be slightly better. Sure enough it does 'sweep' about a bit more but the daily yield was ever so slightly better. Roll on a few years and I've tried several more inverters and found the same. I also spoke to a couple of installers, one with an 'off grid' system similar to mine and he came to the same conclusion after trying a wind inverter first.

I was asked to trial the Ginlong Solis Mini 1500 because I had much data on previous inverters and settings I'd used. The reason being that a well known hydro turbine manufacturer was wanting to offer them as an option for grid tied applications. Apparently, the reason the Ginlong is better for hydro turbines than other GTI's is that it has a relatively slow sweep.

Now, having said all that I have never actually tried playing about with the power curves of the wind inverters, though a friend has and could not improve on a solar one. It is on my 'to do' list though with my Aurora 3.6, though it's not a priority, the SB3800 I'm using at the moment is almost as good as the Ginlong and I've other projects on the go.

Cheers, Paul

[Bill Glynn]

Hi all,

I've been corresponding with a Mr. Salvatore D'Amato, Channel Manager International Sales at Enair in an attempt to resolve the warranty failure of my Windspot 3.5kw turbine hub assembly.

Mr. D'Amato has informed me that Enair built the Windspot turbine for Sonkyo energy, a former subsidiary of Enair. However, Enair does not feel obligated to honor the warranties on windspot machines. Parts for the winsdpot are not available either. When Enair started having troubles with the Windspot turbunes, the put the subsidiary into bankruptcy. End of problem.

Enair is happy to sell me a new hub assembly that is designed for the Enair 70 pro. The turbine that replaces the Windspot 3.5kw. I have to pay for it and freight too. About USD $3,200.

Enair claims the new hub is "20% better", whatever that means, and offers it with a 5 year warranty. Good Luck! What good is a warranty on the new parts if the manufacturer won't honor the original warranty?

Pretty obvious to me that those folks at Enair are just a bunch of corporate crooks.

Buyer beware.

Rather that waste any more money on wind it's time to move on. I'll put $3,200 into solar and get lots more bang for my buck.

Bill

[Cor van Houtum]

Hallo Bill,

I think I understand a little your frustration , but you are talking nonsense here.

First of all you purchased a turbine in your country
and I asume that you got a sort of warranty from this company.

I seems that you did not get any help from them,
In the mean time the manufacturer Windspot in spain can not be reached by you
and also there is no real help available.

Trough this forum you find out that a similar turbine is produced by the Enair company
and now you are angry at this firm.

I was in the factory from Windspot in Santander spain , and i can tell you that this is surtainly NOT Enair.

The Enair company is by the way on the other site of the country Spain

I can understand that Enair does not grand warranty's on units they have not produced
But they told you that there can be a solution for your problem by replacing the front of
your turbine with a new Enair type head and wings.

So being angry shall not help your problem.

May be I can Help you a little

Upload detailed foto material so we can see what is the problem.
I have some parts here but not all , maybe we can repair your unit with a donor head

In the spring of 17 we will visit the Enair company and then i wil try to find a sollution for you.

But only the wind is for free

Kind regards

Cor

[D'Amato salvatore]

Enair is not Windspot

Beforehand I want to thank all those who are handling renewable issues, not only is it exciting, but also a good cause.
I know that it is not easy, to have turbines and other reliable renewable elements. Coor thank you very much for your comments regarding Enair is not Windspot, in fact, we are not the same company, Enair is the company that has developed the turbine, however the company that was dedicated to the assembly and its distribution, was Sonkyo - Windspot , And that's exactly what I've tried to explain to Bill. All this I do not say to discard responsibilities, we assume our share of responsibility on a daily basis with our customers. Bill, weto offer you the possibility to improve the turbine and to rectify the incidence, you have Enair at your full disposal, and that we offer it to all who may need it.

Greetings and happy Christmas

[Cor van Houtum]

see !!
Problems are there to solve
happy. Christmas
:D

[Cor van Houtum]

Hello guy's

We recently installed a new turbine in Belgium
The Enair 70 Pro , on a 16 meter tubelar tower with hydraulic lift system

This one is also on the internet
The inverter is a 3 phase ginlong

http://www.ginlongmonitoring.com/Terminal/TerminalMain.aspx?pid=17550

And a local newspaper put also some info , but it is in dutch
http://www.ediksmuide.be/nieuws/nieuws/windmolen/

[Peter Klaassen]

Cor and Salvatore,
As a Windspot owner I have to say I would side with Bill about the Windspot guarantee. The sales pitch for these turbines was that they were robustly designed and would last 25 years with the proper maintenance. My experience was that in the 4 years of ownership of the turbine it was in the air about 16 months before two of the blades broke off. I will admit that my lack of experience led to some of the problems, but the manuals were short on details for someone putting a turbine up themselves. There were a number of missteps that contributed to my failed turbine - bad brushes, lack of understanding about noises coming from the turbine, what is considered "normal operation". A wind turbine has to withstand extreme weather conditions and strong winds - there is no power otherwise. For Windspot to sell a turbine with a long life expectancy and then fold up business after 5 years or so is disappointing for the consumer. Looking in the Spanish news it looks like it was a financial decision that ended Windspot. I see how Bill is unsatisfied. I appreciate Salvatore's efforts to help with the situation to keep the Winspots flying - Enair would seem to have some ability to provide solutions and as Cor said, "Only the wind is free". I have a temporary repair on my turbine and it has been doing well in the winter gales here. I am thinking I want a better turbine hub than what the original Windspot provided.
Best Regards, Pete

[Bill Glynn]

Hi to everybody following the Windspot saga,

Well, it's been awhile since my last post. Despite some difficulties obtaining parts for the hub, and other issues, I have rebuilt the hub and the turbine is flying again. Time will tell for how long. No help from the companies that designed and manufactured it either even though the unit is still under warranty.

I don't know how warranty issues are handled in the EU but in the US a manufacturers warranty is the responsibility of the manufacturer, not the dealer that sold the product or anybody else. This also applies to collaborations that make products. When the Pontiac and Oldsmobile collaborations with GM ended, GM still honored the warranties even though Pontiac and Oldsmobile had gone out of business. Enair and Sonkyo had a similar collaboration. Sonkyo went out of business for some of the same reasons as Pontiac and Olds. Enair should do the right thing and admit responsibility for warranty issues related to the collaborative effort of Enair designed, Sonkyo built turbines.

So, about the rebuild.

I found a number of issues once the hub was disassembled. Defective materials, defective workmanship and some design flaws that made disassembly difficult and future rebuilds inevitable. Extracting the old bearings was a particular problem. Also, the tapered roller bearings used as inner bearings have too large a roller for the limited amount of shaft rotation. The rollers never get to make a full roll. They just rock back and forth wearing troughs in the races. Smaller rollers would have made complete rotations and spread the wear more evenly. I considered changing to a different bearing but the hub had already been machined for these. I did have my machinist friend drill holes through the aluminum casting so the tapered roller bearing races could be driven out from behind using short pieces of drill rod.

Peter, I too considered the lock nut problem. I decided to leave the roll pin installed in the actuator arm for the added strength it provides and not worry about preloading. My hub has the tapered roller bearing as the inner bearing but has a ball bearing as the outer. The ball bearing isn't really made for preloading like a tapered one. Apparently, the designers were assuming that centrifugal force was enough to preload the inner bearing. The outer ball bearing is only there for shaft stability.

The workmanship issue involved the oil filled shock absorber located inside the coil spring assy. The hole in the check valve was drilled in the wrong place often blocking the flow of hydraulic oil. Much, if not most, of the time the shock was acting more like a steel post than a shock . This is what caused the brass three armed yoke to bend.

The materials issues involved a number of things. While straightening the brass yoke several casting flaws could be seen. I made a truss out of a 2.75" dia. 3/16" thick steal disc that goes on the shock absorber shaft right under the brass yoke adding stiffness to the assy. With luck this will keep the brass in one piece.

There is a old saying about how a good coat of paint can hide a multitude of sins. The paint on the blade shafts was thick enough that it hid a casting flaw in one of the shafts. A hole, 1/8" wide, 3/8" long and 1/2" deep was just under the bearing seal lip. Once the paint was worn away the rain water was able to run down the shaft and rust the bearings on that shaft. It's surprising, and lucky for me and my neighbors, that the shaft didn't break at that flaw. Had to weld the hole shut and re-machine the shaft for the outer bearing and seal to fit properly.

Also replaced the rod ends (Heim joints) with ones that can be greased. Found them at www.mdmetric.com.

Applied liberal amounts of Green Grease to all moving parts.

The machine has only been flying a couple of days but for now seems to be running smoother than I can remember. The shock absorber locking up is what appears was the main thing leading to over spin. This is why the charge controller was having to apply the braking on such a regular basis.

The tapered roller bearing issue will not go away so at some point those will have to be replace again. I bought a full set of spare everything to keep on hand for the next rebuild.

Maybe I can get a few more years of service out of this thing. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Bill

[Sven Cool]

Hi to everybody following the Windspot saga,

The machine has only been flying a couple of days but for now seems to be running smoother than I can remember. The shock absorber locking up is what appears was the main thing leading to over spin. This is why the charge controller was having to apply the braking on such a regular basis.

Maybe I can get a few more years of service out of this thing. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Bill

Got any Pictures Bill?

[Bill Glynn]

Sven,

Have lots of pictures taken during construction and installation but my hands were too greasy to take any pictures during the rebuild. Didn't want to ruin my camera. Sorry.

Bill

[Sven Cool]

Sven,

Have lots of pictures taken during construction and installation but my hands were too greasy to take any pictures during the rebuild. Didn't want to ruin my camera. Sorry.

Bill

Do you have a link to those pictures? Just like looking at other peoples setup...

[Bill Glynn]

Sven,

No link. I'll work on labeling the pictures and writing a short description of building and erecting the 100 foot tip up support structure. Not sure of the Forum rules on whether to post those here or start a new thread.

May take a few days. Out of town company arriving.

Bill

[Rob Beckers]

Sven,

No link. I'll work on labeling the pictures and writing a short description of building and erecting the 100 foot tip up support structure. Not sure of the Forum rules on whether to post those here or start a new thread.

May take a few days. Out of town company arriving.

Bill

Bill, either works for me. It may be a good idea to start a new thread that's focused on rebuilding a WindSpot though, just because it's a topic of its own with people looking for that (Google will index the thread title, making it easier to find for others).

-RoB-

[Peter Klaassen]

Hi Bill, I am glad to hear you have got your turbine back together. The comment about the roller bearing diameter caught my attention. Do you think you will replace them every year? I will be taking mine down for maintenance in September and I will let you know how the bearing seem. The balance is not quite right on my repair so I am a bit concerned about the generator bearings. I have also been in contact with my supplier about a new hub and blades from Enair. He was going to go out to Spain and meet with Enair but I haven't heard anything lately.
Pete

[Bill Glynn]

Peter,

I hope not. Changing the bearings is a real hassle. The coil spring is in the way and needs to be removed first. The snap ring is insufficient to hold the spring with any safety so the spring needs to be decompressed. If the new bearings last 5 years I'll be happy.

Rob, I tried to start a new thread with pictures and a description of the project but by the time I tried to preview the post the forum site had timed out and lost the whole thing. Both pictures and text. Reloading as instructed did not work.

Bill

[Rob Beckers]

Rob, I tried to start a new thread with pictures and a description of the project but by the time I tried to preview the post the forum site had timed out and lost the whole thing. Both pictures and text. Reloading as instructed did not work.


Sorry to hear that Bill!
The only setting I can find that would affect this is the session time-out, which was set at 15 minutes. It means you'd have to not do anything that gets back to the server (loading an attachment will tell the server you're still there, doing a preview has the same effect etc.) during that time for the server to consider you 'gone'. I've increased it to 1 hour.

People that log in with the "remember me" option checked should never get logged out, though after that timeout they'll be considered 'absent' from the forum.

-RoB-

[Bill Glynn]

Rob,

OK. I'll try to assemble a new thread again but it may take a while. Winter is fast approaching and a number of outdoor tasks must be completed before freeze up.

That's life in The Great Land.

Bill