| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| CWAVE |
Posted - 02/05/2008 : 06:24:13
Hello.
I've recently purchased an Ametek 99 for my wind generator project. Been doing a lot of reading and want to make sure I get the right things for the job.
As I understand it a solar charge controller won't do the trick as it needs to be able to dump current once the battery pack is charged. I've also come across the http://ghurd.info/index.html "Dump Controller", however I'm confused.
What I think I need is something that will take the current from the Ametek 99, and charge the battery pack, then when charged, dump the current to a load.
Is this what the Ghurd dump controller will do for me (charge AND dump when the pack is full?) If so, is it robust enough to handle the power that could potentially come off the Ametek 99?
Basically I'm looking for a charge controller for my Ametek 99 wind generator that I'm building that will charge the pack and also dump current to a load when the pack is full.
Any comments or thoughts on something that would work well with an Ametek 99 would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your time and comments in advance.
Thomas |
| 13 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| ghurd |
Posted - 04/05/2008 : 03:49:22
The dump load cycles on and off very quickly. The bulb would flicker at best.
If the bulb stays on long enough to make usable light, then it is not dumping enough amps to control the battery voltage.
Assembled gets expensive with the time, nickles, and dimes. $3.50 for an enclosure. $1 for the shipping box. Wire. Extra shipping costs. Adds up quick.
Every one is different, and would pretty much need to be one-off. $1 for a switch if desired. LEDs on the front or top? One guy ran the yellow LED 100' {30 meters} from the battery and load. 1' wires or 8' wires? Hysteresis of 0.08V, 0.1V or other? Set point voltage?
Nearly anyone with basic PCB soldering experience can do it. Someone who never soldered before did a fine job after watching a "how to solder" on you-tube.
G-
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| sacongo |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 05:43:45
Its not the cost its just i rather it giving off some light at night then just heating a resistor up.
I will be purchasing 2 or 3 of your controllers soon. Why dont you offer your controller assembled??
I think i can tackle it but i rather have it solder together by a expert. I did solder together a strobe light kit back in electronics in high school but i remember little about it. |
| ghurd |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 04:19:09
A headlight is in the 5.5A area.
They don't last very long for me. Plus they cost more than what I sell the resistors for.
#1156 tail light bulb will dump about 2.3A. They last longer than the headlights I used.
G- |
| sacongo |
Posted - 03/05/2008 : 01:41:01
quote:
Originally posted by ghurd
My 10 ohm resistors each take about 1.4A. They are connected in parallel. 40A / 1.4A = 28 resistors.
Each fet can take 5 resistors, IF the fets heat sink is good enough. Might be just as easy to go with 7 fets, each feeding 4 resistors to avoid any headaches later.
Ghurd would you be able to connect a 5 amp 12v lamp per fet instead of the resistors?? And if so what do you recommend? |
| CWAVE |
Posted - 02/05/2008 : 22:39:31
Speo;
I will most certainly share whatever data you need from it. The fellow that I bought it from put it in the mail today so I should have it in a week or two. You never know with the post office up here if Air mail will take 6 days or 6 weeks. But once I get it, I'll measure it and do whatever you want to get you the info you need.
How would I measure the RPM's when the motor is connected to a battery?
With some help from you guys, I'll get all the data you need, and perhaps you can help me in figuring out what rotor diameter I'll need for this baby.
Thomas
quote:
Originally posted by speo
Thomas,
Please share with us some data about your Ametek 99 motor.
I am quite interested in knowing the resistence between the two wires of the motor (winding resistence). Ametek 30 motors have 3-5 ohms, Ametek 50 about 1 ohm.
Is there any chance to measure it's RPM and the voltage when it's hooked to a battery?
These things will be realy useful in finding out the power this baby can make and finding the optimal rotor diameter for certain wind speeds.
Thanks,
Speo
www.windpulse.com
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| CWAVE |
Posted - 02/05/2008 : 21:29:50
Just hauled the cable out of the bush (where it's been sitting for the past 4 years), and looks like there's 50 feet of it! Pretty good I think. The cable is 2 inches wide and 1.25" thick. The individual wires look to be about 5/8" thick. Should be able to carry the current alright from the generator to the house. Was thinking of running that cable from the base of the tower to the wall of the house, then use #6 cable into the house. Could use a few runs of that to give me enough of a conductive path to minimize line drop.
I found another diode that I'd ask you to take a look at if you have a chance. Although this one is only 85A it looks pretty decent. But then, I'm no expert.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160235291984
Thanks,
Thomas |
| speo |
Posted - 02/05/2008 : 20:06:23
Thomas,
Please share with us some data about your Ametek 99 motor.
I am quite interested in knowing the resistence between the two wires of the motor (winding resistence). Ametek 30 motors have 3-5 ohms, Ametek 50 about 1 ohm.
Is there any chance to measure it's RPM and the voltage when it's hooked to a battery?
These things will be realy useful in finding out the power this baby can make and finding the optimal rotor diameter for certain wind speeds.
Thanks,
Speo
www.windpulse.com |
| ghurd |
Posted - 02/05/2008 : 18:12:42
The 100A 300V would be fine. It will need a serious heat sink. Maybe the blown head off a full sized Stihl saw?
That $13 S&H to Canada is enough to make me look elsewhere.
The 400A assembly heat sink is way too small.
The 100A underground wire is probably Al. And the prices went through the roof since then! |
| CWAVE |
Posted - 02/05/2008 : 17:14:12
Thanks Ghurd! This is great information.
My motto has always been go big or go home... Heh.
Anyways, this is great information.
With respect to the diode for the feed line from the wind generator would this be good:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200182939852
or this...
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300193539472
I have some 100a underground wire left over from when we built our acreage, and was thinking of using that to feed the power from the wind generator into the house. It's some serious copper. I recall it was freakin expensive, but have a good chunk of it left over. Figured I may as well use that.
I'm still contempating the tower, but will come up with something of a serious nature.
Great call on the batteries! I had "deep cycle" in the back of my mind but am really glad you brought this to the forefront. I will definitely go that route. Now that you mention it, I recall having read something before about other people using golf cart batteries.
I also received your e-mail, thank-you. I'll be going through your comments and links with great interest. I will also be ordering your kit as discussed/described in your message to me, so I'll just need your paypal account information so that I can make the payment to you for the parts you mentioned.
Thanks.
Thomas |
| ghurd |
Posted - 02/05/2008 : 15:36:27
Good answer Speo. It wasn't there when I started.
Each power fet and resistor bank is seperate from the others. The kit can drive many fets. The wire from the kit would be split into as many wires as there are fets.
31A is a lot of power. If you expect to get that much, then you want to dump about 40A.
My 10 ohm resistors each take about 1.4A. They are connected in parallel. 40A / 1.4A = 28 resistors.
Each fet can take 5 resistors, IF the fets heat sink is good enough. Might be just as easy to go with 7 fets, each feeding 4 resistors to avoid any headaches later.
It needs a diode, or you will have a giant fan on a tall pipe. It needs a serious diode. 50A is not good enough. More like 100A, and a huge heatsink for the diode. Don't parallel diodes for something like this, no matter what some random website said.
It will need a strong tower.
The wire from the Ametek to the batteries needs to be large ($), and looking into aluminum USE wire from the tower base to the battery bank will save a LOT of money.
It will need a large battery bank to absorb the amps, and supply the dump load amps. I would recommend 3 pairs of 6V golf cart batteries (Sam's Club or Costco is the cheapest, by far), AKA "Trojan T-105" but a different brand. The next step up is L-16 or L-16HC ($$$), but the golf cart batteries are a great start and should last a long time.
Don't even think about "12V deep cycle marine RV caravan batteries", no matter what the engineer (for some reason working at Wal-Mart) tells you. They aren't up to this kind of power.
You have jumped into a hobby at a pretty deep level.
The $400 is kind of minor compared to the rest of the stuff.
G-
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| CWAVE |
Posted - 02/05/2008 : 14:48:38
Hello, and thank-you for your replies.
I wasn't aware that you just connect the wind generator to your battery pack and let it feed into it. Likely you'd need to put a diode of some sort on the positive line to prevent the battery pack from running the generator as a motor?
Ghurd:
Feed power from the generator directly into the battery pack... got it!
Ok, I understand the dump controller concept. When you mention adding more power FETs and more dump loads that's ok, but I don't understand electronics enough to know how you'd add more FETs to your dump controller. You'd just solder them in, in parallel? From specs that I've been reading, 31 amps is possible for output from the ametek 99 generator. So, given that possibility, what would you recommend as to modifications (additional FETs?) to your dump controller?
I understand the need for adding enough power resistors to dissipate the load. When you add the resistors (creating a resistor bank I suppose), would you hook them up in a series and parallel combination such that you keep the overall resistance at about 10 ohms (figuring it out using ohms law)?
Thanks again for taking the time to respond to my questions.
Thomas |
| ghurd |
Posted - 02/05/2008 : 14:29:51
I know something about that controller. 
Don't mix the windmill and controller.
The windmill charges the battery. It goes straight to the battery. That's it.
The dump controller (or any dump controller) goes straight to the battery too.
When the battery is full, the dump load drains the battery just enough to keep it from being over-charged.
It doesn't care where the power came from (wind, solar, hydro, or any combination), it just gets rid of the extra.
It is 'robust enough'. Add more power fets and loads to dump more amps than the possible input from the 99.
I don't have any idea what that 99 will do. I have seen a few different claims.
G-
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| speo |
Posted - 02/05/2008 : 13:56:01
Hi Thomas,
"What I think I need is something that will take the current from the Ametek 99, and charge the battery pack, then when charged, dump the current to a load"
I think you got it a little bit wrong. You don't take the current from the Ametek 99 to charge the battery. You let the Ametek put the full amount of power into the system, and Ghurd,s controller diverts any excess in the system to a dump load, making sure the battery voltage is always below the preset voltage.
You can have a solar panel, a wind turbine, a hydro generator, all putting their power into the battery and only one controller (shunt regulator) that diverts the excess in the system.
I am not sure about how much power the Ametek 99 can generate, but if you ad more fet's to ghurd's controller, you can handle more power.
Ghurd is a member of this dorum, and probably you'll get a better reply from him. I bought a kit from him and I like it very much.
Speo
www.windpulse.com |
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