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Forum Index : Windmills : Help need charge.
| Author | Message | ||||
Solaray3232 Newbie  Joined: 27/10/2006 Location: United KingdomPosts: 5 |
I AM IN NEED OF GUIDENCE!!! Hi, I hope you can help me. I am a complete novice when it comes to wind turbine design. I have constructed a 15ft, including small oil drum cut in half vane, vertical generator. I have made the coils, 6, from high voltage windings from microwaves. The 8 magnets came from the microwave diode assembly, can't remmember correct name, are in a circular disc of 12mm MDF board. On nearly all the sites I have researched, they say generation starts around 7 miles an hour. Mine needs some speed that can only be obtained using a cordless drill on high speed. Nothing on the drill gives RPM. The coils are air core. All I can obtain in a fair wind, 20mph, is 1.79Volts. They are wired in star configuration. Tried delta. But that produces nothing. Any ideas that do not use gear boxes would be much appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read my mail. My best regards. Raymond. PS. A spare hurricane or tornado might do the trick. Raymond |
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| KiwiJohn Guru  Joined: 01/12/2005 Location: New ZealandPosts: 691 |
Hi Raymond, can you point us to a description of the generator you are using? John |
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makourain Senior Member  Joined: 19/04/2006 Location: Posts: 111 |
hi there, i am planning on doing the exact same thing you are doing, except all the microwaves got thrown out before i could extract the magnets. i have the transformers though, (25 of them). the magnets being a ring will lower the output of your turbine, if you were to have a solid disc of a magnet rather than just an empty ring it would increase output. also, having a core in your coils will increase output. but those things will increase cogging :\ i plan to use speaker magnets for my prototype and then buy some neo magnets off ebay. do you still have the laminated material that the transformer coils were wrapped around? they make excellent cores for anything coil related. what is the gap between the magnets and the coils you have there? bringing it as close as possible will help too. [quote]The 8 magnets came from the microwave diode assembly, can't remmember correct name,[/quote]called a "magnetron" |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Just a little safety warning about working on Microwave oven. Dont trust them. I used too repair them for a living and they are a dangerous beast. The magnatron runs at about 3000 volts, and there is a fair bit of current behind that. In short, they will kill you without any warning. If you want to pull a microwave apart, first make sure its unplugged. Yeah pretty obvious, but still worth a mention. Next you need to make sure the capacitor is drained, even if the oven hasn't been used for weeks I wouldn't trust the capacitor to discharge by itself. The caps usually have a bleed resistor, but I've seen these go open circuit, so a cap could still be charged. I used a shorting stick. A length of dowel or plastic about 300mm long, with a nail in one end. I soldered a length of wire to the nail about 500mm long, and soldered a aligator clip to the other end. To use, clip the aligator clip to the metal cooling fins of the magnatron, as these are earthed to the microwave case. Then poke the nail end onto all the high voltage terminals, leaving it there for a few seconds. This will make sure the capacitor is drained and safe. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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Pt w/field Matt Senior Member Joined: 24/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 105 |
hi ya all gizmos right those trannies kick hard i blew up a digital meter by ignoring the high voltage warning sticker,lucky for me one side on the high voltage side was earthed,dont play with them. matt matt down south |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Hey Raymond. Have you tried measuring just one coil, see what sort of volts you get from one coil, you may have a wiring problem. Also how far away from the coils are the magnets. For the air core alternators you need to get the magnet pretty close. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| Solaray3232 Newbie Joined: 27/10/2006 Location: United KingdomPosts: 5 |
I have pics on disc at home. Will bring in and post so you can see. Many thanks for everyones help. Raymond. Raymond |
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| Solaray3232 Newbie Joined: 27/10/2006 Location: United KingdomPosts: 5 |
 
Hi everyone, I hope these pics got on site ok at your end. Many many thanks again for all you help. Is there anyone in the UK who can tell me where I can get an abundance of microwaves. The shops round here give dud ones back to customer, because they have no room to store them. Surely there is someone sitting on a pile wondering what to do with them. The reason I ask is I have been told I might do better with more coils and magnets. I have a 10 inch disc at the moment and want to go up to 20 inches. I do have the room for about 15 20 inch coil and magnet discs. Regards, Raymond. Raymond |
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| KiwiJohn Guru Joined: 01/12/2005 Location: New ZealandPosts: 691 |
Hi Raymond So lets review this design a little. You have your eight magnets in a disk with 6 stationery coils close to them and the magnet disk rotates? Is that basically the design? The first thing that springs to mind is that there does not appear to be too much incentive for the magnetic lines of flux to pass through the magnet coils which they must do to generate any power. If you can get more magnets like the ones you have I would suggest getting six of them and putting one under each coil. Now I dont pretend this is tbe optimum design but it is something you can try without undoing the work you have already done. With this configuration when a like pole passes over the coil the lines of flux will repel so there wont be much flux passing through the coil at all, when a unlike pole passes over the lines of flux (at least some of them) will pass from one magnet to the other through the coil. You could get a similar, maybe better (I dont really know) effect by mounting your coils on a steel plate. Better still by putting a steel plate behind your rotating magnets. For testing purposes I would suggest isolating one coil from all others and putting your volt meter across that one, at least you will know when you have a configuration that actually generates then you can consider how you connect them together to get the required voltage. I hope that helps as it must be quite frustrating to get as far as you have and not have any real output! John |
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| Solaray3232 Newbie Joined: 27/10/2006 Location: United KingdomPosts: 5 |
Hi John, Many thanks. Will give your ideas a test over the weekend and let you know the results. Raymond. Raymond |
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| KiwiJohn Guru Joined: 01/12/2005 Location: New ZealandPosts: 691 |
Raymond, I failed to mention it but I assume those magnets are mounted in alternative polarity? |
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| Solaray3232 Newbie Joined: 27/10/2006 Location: United KingdomPosts: 5 |
Yes Kiwijohn they are. Many thanks to all for your continued help. Raymond Raymond |
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