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Forum Index : Windmills : Update on the Lenz2
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
I tried a different stator on the Lenz windmill today. I was using a 80 (0.8mm wire ) series, and this started charging at 40rpm. I think this was a little early, the windmill struggled to get past this point, though I've seen a peak RPM of 96. So today I fitted a 100 series ( 1mm wire ) stator. Cut in is now a little high, at 100 rpm, but above that it runs easily. I've seen 145 rpm tonight, and 13 watts ( remember this is a small windmill ). I'll let it run a couple of days and look at the data recorded by PicLog. Then I'll modify the 80 series by splitting the winding in two. With the two halfs wired in parallel, I should see a cut in of 80 rpm, which I think will work best. Talking of PicLog, I've almost finished the upgrades to the software, will post an update in the next few days. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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windstuffnow Newbie  Joined: 30/06/2006 Location: United StatesPosts: 31 |
Glenn, I have a 3ft dia x 4ft tall L2 on my roof a little bit smaller than yours ( 12sq ft, yours is 16sq ft). I was looking at your piclog and something seems a bit off. I've seen as high as 30 amps from it in a 42 mph wind and normal winds it does around 0-15 amps. I tried to get back to your piclog but couldn't get in, you must have been making some changes. It seems like I saw one record that was in the 42kmh or 26 mph wind you should be seeing in the area of 300 watts+ by my calculations depending on how efficient the genny is. My tiny 2x2 does 18 watts in a 15mph wind, something is holding it back...? Oh, by the way, I love the windspeed addition to the piclog thats great! |
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| windstuffnow Newbie Joined: 30/06/2006 Location: United StatesPosts: 31 |
I calculated the rpm, after returning to the piclog page and its running just about on the money for that diameter but it seems like it doesn't have much load on it. I wonder if the battery, being pretty much dead has an open circuit in it, not providing much of any load for the turbine/alternator. I started watching your piclog activity off and on since you posted it and it's been bugging me about the output, way off from where it should be. It would be interesting to see if a good battery might change the results or another type of a load that could be calculated. |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Hi Ed. Yes mate, it would be a little off. I should have mentioned this before. I've been working on the code for the PicLog, both the PicAxe chip and the PC software. But my little controller doesn't have the windspeed input connections yet, so I cheated and used the same input signal as the RPM measurement. So what you actually see there is not wind speed, but RPM pretending to be wind speed. 
Its just to test the code, and totally bogus information. But the RPM, Amps and Volts are accurate. It saw 180 RPM and 18 watts at about 4:47am this morning. Yeah that battery is very sad, and the shunt resistor ( used to measure current ) is a little high at 0.6 ohms. But its giving good figures for the PicLog data, making it easier to check the code. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
I should mention the PicLog readings you see online are hosted at a little PC at my home ( the www.thebackshed.com web site lives on a server in town ). I have a satelite connection, great for downloading or surfing the internet, but a little erratic when sending data out. As it is I had to make changes to the firewall so you could see the data, I'm not meant to host a web site with this satelite connection. I modified a 80 series stator this afternoon and replace the 100 series on the windmill. The 80 is split in two, two groups with 21 poles ( 7 per phase ) each. See how it goes, should start charging at 80 rpm. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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