| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Phil Martin |
Posted - 22/07/2007 : 20:50:22
Hi all this is my first real post and any help would be appreciated,I bought a very small Finca in Northern Spain a few years ago(a big present to myself, by the way of myself alone building,roofing ,plumbing ,wiring,plastering , the hole damn 3 years and still not finished lot) a double extension on the side of our house in Skipton North Yorks, all the builder were a waist of time, promises, promises.
Anyway the finca has great views and reasonably good access,but No services at all,Thats how I really got GREEN, I have done nothing to it yet as all my spare time is spent at home working on it,Apart that is from spare time at work were I regularly check out the scrap pile,which is the source for more or less all projects.
I started building the first wind gen last summer but never finished it ,the second big one only last week, It is a BALDOR treadmill motor ,I have not run it up on anything(to see what it puts out) because it is so damn big and heavy, but I think it is worth the effort as you can see in this fingers crossed pic.
By spinning the shaft i can light up a 24v 150watt halogen bulb.
The motor is mounted on a 3"" OD tube with short bit of 2 1/2 "" welded into the top section to turn on,with the weight of the motor on it is very difficult to turn even with grease ,so this may need some attention,maybe a taper bearing ,your advise please,also any advise on Furring,will I need it mechs any advise again would be great.
The Props well I had hoped to use some large diameter ABS pipe but the damn contractors working at the hospital i work at did not leave any so I found some hardwood Laboratory worktops a couple of years ago and these I am sure will make great props with some work.
I also so far located (again scrap from a industrial floor scrubber) a couple of fantastic Trojan batteries and a very big charger which I will run using a little cheap petrol generator I have at the finca ,a Faulty, ebay, 1500 watt contiguous inverter ,there was hardly anything wrong with it, A great buy for £20.00,, a couple of big fiberglass water tanks ,a brand new 24volt diaphragm pump ,some people throw all sorts away ,keep it up, and the pile still growing,wish I could find some solar panels but there as much chance in that as me getting a kiss from Kate Wins let sorry but Titanic is on the TV behind me !!!! please check out some of my pics and again any help advise is much appreciated as I am not a electrician only a thick fitter welder
Well it is nearly time for work 10/6 shift so bye for now
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| 14 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| ll81 |
Posted - 26/07/2007 : 17:02:48
The 200 amps is because the meter is used across a low resistance shunt so passes a small amount of current whilst the shunt passes the rest, to get the correct reading you will need to do some experimnents or research to find out what shunt to use. Only small current meters pass all the current.
woo-hoo |
| Phil Martin |
Posted - 25/07/2007 : 19:21:54
Hi All
Just adding a few more pics of the motor taken apart.
Fungus the shaft size is 22mm turned down to a 15mm keyed,which I think is a bit on the light side for fixing 6/7 foot props too ?
Also have a look at the DC amp meter I bought the other week from a local market for a £1.00, I think it is from a Aircraft/ military as the stall had lots of ex MOD bits for sale. I hooked up a couple of wires to the meter and spun the shaft and it spins the dial straight over to 200amps ? is this because the motor is putting out AC ?
I managed to cut the drive cooler down the other night,it was not cast iron, cast steel took a bit of time but has turned out OK, My plan is to weld a large dia disc, ( I have spotted a nice bit of steel plate at work that is redundant) to the coller.
See you Phil
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| gotwind |
Posted - 23/07/2007 : 20:45:41
As II81 mentioned, you are very lucky you have a rare find.
Spinning will give you a brushless PMA
You don't have to do anything to the motor Phil
The Futures Green - Getwind of it. |
| Phil Martin |
Posted - 23/07/2007 : 20:33:42
Thanks Guys for your help,Ben Checked out other power.com/BALDOR lots of conversions,rewinds, Neo mag add on etc..Expence !!! so do you all want me to strip down tonight at work ?I Will measure the shaft size Fungus I think around 20mm.
Any ideas on cutting cast iron ? the drive shaft fit a very nice collar(Forgot the name of this )that ran a belt to the rollers, which I want to use but cut down ,I will post some pics,as easier to view than for me to put in words.
Thanks again Phil |
| gotwind |
Posted - 23/07/2007 : 19:27:31
Cheers guys for the input, that motor had me foxed - I want one 
The smaller motor marked '600 rpm' is worth trying with maybe the 4 ft PVC blade design - not much to loose, as they can be built in a day.
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| fungus |
Posted - 23/07/2007 : 18:34:21
oooohh... nice motor!
It does look perfect for a wind generator, 'brushless DC' isnt quite true, it will be driven AC from an external driver. It will have a pretty low cutin, only about 150-200rpm, a 7ft blade set should do well. I would recommend carving wooden blades for any wind generator as they perform much better. Measure the 2 small wires, they will probably be a tachometer output or relay, the former should show a small voltage and the latter should turn on/off when it turns. What size is the shaft? |
| ll81 |
Posted - 23/07/2007 : 18:32:44
The inner spinning part of the motor will be a permanent magnet with DC moved between the outer windings. Oddly enough the voltage needed to run the motor will be a form of AC. It is referenced as DC as it will be fed with switched DC around 0v reference point from the various windings. Spinning will give you a brushless PMA. It doesn't work the same as a squirell cage induction motor and needs voltage feedback for the controll circuit to know where to switch the DC pulses to so hence DC brushless motor. Being a treadmill motor it needs to be speed variable and obviously is out of a professional gym installed treadmill so is a long life unit hence using a brushless DC.
woo-hoo |
| Phil Martin |
Posted - 23/07/2007 : 18:22:54
Sorry should have put "Turning the shaft by hand"(fairly difficult) in last post,also I am sure the bulb is a 24v 150 watt dc and the motor is putting out AC ,like you mentioned Ben more advise please.
The small motor in the pics does have brushes, and I ran this up on the drill press @ 600 rpm, is this still worth pursuing ? as I spent quite a bit of time on this one and is quite a light set up and I would have thought a set of plastic pipe props a good idea on this mill.
See you Phil
PS my wife has been reading my messages and is embarrassed at my lack of punctuation etc....I can only apologies for this,as grammar is defiantly not one of my strong points, thank god this site has a spell checker ! |
| Tom |
Posted - 23/07/2007 : 18:15:07
It must be a Brushless permanent magnet motor then, just about perfect for a wind generator.
The third wire must just be am earth - the rotor must have magnets on it. |
| Phil Martin |
Posted - 23/07/2007 : 18:04:23
Hi Ben It is a 24v 150watt bulb in the pic and I am only turning the shaft by, if you short the wires whist turning the shaft it locks up;like a brake !!.
If I have some spare time tonight I will pull it apart and take some pics.
Thanks again for your help Phil |
| gotwind |
Posted - 23/07/2007 : 16:50:35
I hadn't realised it was a DC induction motor?
I'm surprised it lit that 12v 150w bulb without fitting Neodymium magnets to the rotor.
We need Fungus's input here I think.
The Futures Green - Getwind of it. |
| Phil Martin |
Posted - 23/07/2007 : 15:45:58
HI Ben and the rest of you,wet again !!!! I have only had the motor apart once when I stripped it out of the Treadmill,and I cannot remember any bushes(Should be better?) see pic of name plate.
There are five wires in total coming out 3 big ,3 phase AC? and 2 small control wires ?.
I go on the US otherpower.com site most days, and have seen others use BALDOR motors but they rewind them, and fit those very expensive magnets they all use on the piggot type machines, so there may be some extra work to do here that I don't yet know about !
I m still not sure what to do about a tail & boom arm it would be a easy job to just weld on some big box section and cut a bit of ply but ,that seems too easy,do I relay need a furring mech?
Like I wrote earlier the hole thing weighs a hell of allot and thats without any props so will it spin round in the wind just sitting on top of a pipe,I reckon if you got a strong wind it would just bend a boom /tail rather than sin into the wind so what I'm getting at is bearing in the top section some how with the cables running down ,sorry for rambling on ,brain gone into overdrive again !!!!!!!!
The tower well I have got 3, 3 meter lengths of 2""angle(TRIANGLE Frame) so that with some 2 1/2"" welded to the top will be the tower, probably far too short but thats how this whole project will go on a shoe string! It will also need to be dropped down easy as I don't want to draw attention to the finca ,and as I probably will be stuck here in the UK most of the time not very safe to leave up unattended.
Do I take the 3 wires coming from the motor to 3 bridge rectifier,then do I have DC a little help here would be appreciated ? as 3 into 2 to batteries controller ?I was bought a Hugh piggot smith book a couple of years ago that had loads of information on this, but I'm dammed if I can find it Now !!!.
Thanks again
Phil |
| gotwind |
Posted - 23/07/2007 : 09:38:22
Hi Phil.
Wow, you seem to find some great 'scrap' up there in Yorkshire...
Those motors look good, Baldor is a well regarded brand, they have brushes, so will need replacing at some point.
You may want to aim for 12v at 300 rpm, 600 is a bit fast.
I would guess your looking at some bigger blades than my 4 foot PVC type, maybe 6 ft diameter, avoid P.V.C at this diameter it flexes.
As you have engineering skills, take a look at these aluminum blades sold in the U.S, I have a set of the smaller 3Ft blades - work o.k
http://www.tlgwindpower.com/rotors/allrotors.htm
Perhaps you could replicate some?
Fieldlines is a great site for info on bigger machines, search for 'baldor' e.t.c here
http://www.fieldlines.com/search
Cheers
Ben.
The Futures Green - Getwind of it. |
| ll81 |
Posted - 22/07/2007 : 21:38:57
smart. It's nice to see good solid engineering. Is that a pma motor? I have a several broken inverters off ebay (well until I fixed them), you got lucky there if it needs only a little work.
woo-hoo |
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