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Forum Index : Windmills : MY TURBINE FROM GROUND UP>
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AMACK Senior Member  Joined: 31/05/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 184 |
A bit of an update on the mill, I have been running the turbine for a few weeks now and have seen some good numbers. Today the wind has been very light to the point of the mill even stopped, not like Kelvin View. I started the logger up at 8am as the wife closed the laptop lid before she went to bed. In 13 hours of a day that I would call no wind it has put out so far 102 wh ( watt hours) The mill peaked at 6.7 amp and the Rpm at one point got up to 290. From the logger info the best I have logged this week is 462 wh. The mill has put in more then the 4 X 64 watt unisolar pannels this week even with the light winds. It has been a bit hard to get info from the PL40 reg I have as if I want to get it to read I have to shut the invertor down to the house for 24 hrs as it works backward. What it does is: if the house has a load of 10 amps and the mill is putting out 20 amp it will only show a feed in of 10 amp. This also drops the amp hours in ? I am yet to have a look at the wiring to see if I can have it work the other way. It works well with solar but I don't think it likes the mix. You will see in this photo that the voltage is all over the place due to drops in communications in the logger. This is due to other devices using the same frequency as the logger and a week signal from time to time. I have just about got all the bugs out of the systems now and will be logging data full time. I have been having a few issues with one logger program but I have just got the thing running but stops now and then. It has also got a few readings from the anometer I do not have conected. 
Here is a very low wind days log. I have also posted the power curve V's RPM. 
This is for today also. It is quite flat due to the low wind for today. 
Here is one from a day with a bit more wind, you can see the difference in output. 
I am going to post a few more photos as the ones I have are quite bad due to fog and rain at the time. The weather is going to be nice for a few days so I will get a few that are clear. AMACk *Note to self 1. Make it thick 2.Make it heavy. 3.Make it stronger than it should be. 4. Don't rush the first job as the second job will cost more and take mor |
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| VK4AYQ Guru  Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Andrew I pick up my mill next week and hope to get results as good as yours, I think the wind here isn't as good as at Kelvin View though. 
This chart is wind for the last month with red trace as the average wind speed and the green is the gusting. Note the one high speed gust, it put the Chinese mill over 60 amps 28 volt for a couple of minutes, it held together OK as it dosnt furl, not sure of rpm but it was realy whistling., I raised it another 1.2 meters today to get a bit more clearance on the roof of the shed so is 7.5 meters high now. This has made it a bit more stable in light winds, so it isn't flicking around all the time. Camera battery died so when I go to town next week will get another one and post a picture or two. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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fillm Guru Joined: 10/02/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 730 |
Hi Andrew , One valid point here is that with this Wind Gen in delta the REAL CUT-IN is not untill 340RPM , this goes to show how much power can be harvested from low wind by using the Cap/Doubler for gens like this . It can give a wide range of power production and can also be used to tune the low end but also have the ability to produce good figures in Med to high wind . Hopfully the problems with your logging can get sorted out so we can all see how your mill is performing on the " Piclog on the Net " page . You could look at connecting your inverter direct to your batteries or on the other side of the shunt if you wanted the PL40 to read the total A/Hrs comming in from the mill . It serves as a good back up to logging to be able to read total A/hrs . At the end of the day in whatever wind this is what counts . PhillM ...Oz Wind Engineering..Wind Turbine Kits 500W - 5000W ~ F&P Dual Kits ~ GOE222Blades- Voltage Control Parts ------- Tower kits |
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| AMACK Senior Member Joined: 31/05/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 184 |
Bob, Good to hear. I have had good results with mine in DELTA with a doubler set up on it. It produces amps down low on the quiet days but when the wind picks up it makes the 100 amp rec warm. You can see it on the PL40 display when the turbine speed gets to 340 rpm the amps jump up to around 22.5 amp and them just climb untill it flur's. I do think it would keep going with a bit more weight on the tail but I don't want to push it to hard YET. Down the track I might but a little more on it to see what I can get. The cut in speed is around 168 rmp and I will give you the calibration set up for the logger program too if you are useing it. I will post some more phots tonight and the set up for logging calibrations too. It would be good to see two of these mill up against one another on a logger. I am yet to put up the anmoeter to give wind speed. I think with this input you can fine tune the mill and give a better under standing of wind use. AMACK *Note to self 1. Make it thick 2.Make it heavy. 3.Make it stronger than it should be. 4. Don't rush the first job as the second job will cost more and take mor |
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| AMACK Senior Member Joined: 31/05/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 184 |
I have got the logger now sending data to the BACKSHED web site. 
It has taken me a bit to get it running but you can now see real time the turbine running. Here is a link to it.. http://www.thebackshed.com/piclog/Report3.asp All you have to do is go up to the top a select AMACK's turbine and it's all there.. I am over the moon now that I can see it any time at work or from anyware at all.
AMACK *Note to self 1. Make it thick 2.Make it heavy. 3.Make it stronger than it should be. 4. Don't rush the first job as the second job will cost more and take mor |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Good work. A more direct link is http://www.thebackshed.com/piclog/Report1.asp?LogID=120 it will open straight to your data. PicLog 1.5 will occasionally crash, so far version 2.0 is very stable, as soon as its ready to go I'll post a link to the new version. Yeah the online data is very cool, I like the idea I can be at work and see what my RE setup is doing at home. On a calm day, with the solar connected I can see when clouds go over, dips in watt power
Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| AMACK Senior Member Joined: 31/05/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 184 |
Hi All, Have a look at the . The wind has picked up and have been watching the logger feeds to the web and have had a lot of readings over 600 watts. The logger and the PL40 reg I have do have a slight difrence. The computer logger was reading 19.5 amp and the PL40 was reading 22.5 amp. I can only go on what is logged to the site but I think the out put was a bit over 1144.9 watts. *Note to self 1. Make it thick 2.Make it heavy. 3.Make it stronger than it should be. 4. Don't rush the first job as the second job will cost more and take mor |
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| fillm Guru Joined: 10/02/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 730 |
Hi Amack, I have been watching your data as well , peaks of 900W , 1100W , & 1000W all in the last hr with the watt/hr climbing rapidly , "WOW"  .
Its great to see the logging on the net for pure wind turbine data , as I predicted these little 500W mills can push through the 1kW with the mods I have outlined, as well as can deliver the goods in low wind . I see you must be having a bit of trouble with the program dropping out as the W/hrs resets each time you fire it back up . Hopfully Glenns new program will sort out those problems when it is released . I only wonder how much higher it can go , time will tell PhillM ...Oz Wind Engineering..Wind Turbine Kits 500W - 5000W ~ F&P Dual Kits ~ GOE222Blades- Voltage Control Parts ------- Tower kits |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Good results AMACK. Yeah the new PicLog wont loose the Wh figure if you restart it, see http://www.thebackshed.com/Windmill/forum1/forum_posts.asp?T ID=2756&PN=1&TPN=4. PicLog 2.0 is a whole new beast, and so far very solid. In a future update the online graphs will let you display peaks as well as averages. Average is a good indication of the power your making, but peaks do add a certain Cool factor 
Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| AMACK Senior Member Joined: 31/05/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 184 |
Glenn, Thanks I will give it a run tonight. I had a good night of wind with a peak of 1349.2 watts( 50-55 amps at 24 volt) at one point. Most of the night it worked well but the piclog crashed about 2 am and it's going again but the wind has dropped off. You can have a look at the data here. www.thebackshed.com/piclog/Report1.asp?LogID=120 I like it.
AMACK *Note to self 1. Make it thick 2.Make it heavy. 3.Make it stronger than it should be. 4. Don't rush the first job as the second job will cost more and take mor |
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| AMACK Senior Member Joined: 31/05/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 184 |
Hi all, I have had grate results with the mill last night. I had to shut it down at midnight as the batterys were full and the mill was peaking at 1250 watts. I had 4 fluro's and 6 down light running and the volts kept on going up so off it went. The good thing about these mill is that you can stop them when you need to. 
AMACK *Note to self 1. Make it thick 2.Make it heavy. 3.Make it stronger than it should be. 4. Don't rush the first job as the second job will cost more and take mor |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Hi AMACK Its strange how your Piclog crashes so often, mine was crashing maybe once every few days to a week, and Naill and Windman reported the same. Anyway, I'll put the new PicLog on late tonight, I need to document a few changes and installation details before its let loose. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| AMACK Senior Member Joined: 31/05/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 184 |
Glenn I have been watching the piclog program and have found out the reassion for most of the crashes. It is when some OTHER program tries to do an update and the piclog must not like it. The last few crashes it has come up with an OVERFLOW fault. I am not to concerned as I know the next one is better. AMACK I can brake arcarock too.  *Note to self 1. Make it thick 2.Make it heavy. 3.Make it stronger than it should be. 4. Don't rush the first job as the second job will cost more and take mor |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Hi AMACK, yeah I heard about that bug, the PicLog was never meant to have the graph screen open constantly. The overflow bug I know about, but didn't bother to fix with version 2 on the way. By the way, version 2 is now available. http://www.thebackshed.com/windmill/forum1/forum_posts.asp?T ID=2756&PN=1&TPN=6 Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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