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ptchernegovski
Newbie

Joined: 17/02/2013
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 3

Posted: 08:31pm 23 Feb 2013

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I know it's an oldie but it looks like a good starting point for building wind turbines as wanting to work my way up to eventually building F & P smart drive turbines.
Am just wanting to build it to charge a few rechargeable AAA batteries at a time when wind is blowing. Have just a couple of questions about it.
Will it work for NiMh batteries?
Will IN4004 diodes work well as the rectifier on it?
What sort of voltage/current rating will it give out?
So far I have yet to find a stepper motor, just stripped apart a old broken printer I have but to no avail, have found a couple on trademe and jaycar though if need to buy one.
Have also found a jaycar stockist nearby who has the components that I need for the circuit board.
Thanks for any help

Downwind

Guru

Joined: 09/09/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2333

Posted: 03:07am 24 Feb 2013

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Yes IN4004 diodes will be fine, you will need 4 for each coil of the stepper if its a bipolar, or 2 for each wire of a unipolar stepper.

I would not rush out to buy a stepper as if you hunt through some discarded electronics you will find one somewhere.

I see no reason that you cant use NiMh batteries.

The voltage and current will depend on the stepper motor used, the blade type used, the blade length used, number of blades, and the speed of the blades, etc.
So there is no real way of knowing until you find a stepper.
Wire it up with the diodes and spin it with a cordless drill in low speed and measure the volts/current.

Steppers are VERY coggie and take a lot of energy to get them to move, once spinning they are not so bad, but to get them started in the wind can be a big problem.

There is a lot to be learn by building a mini mill.

Have fun.

Pete.

Sometimes it just works

ptchernegovski
Newbie

Joined: 17/02/2013
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 3

Posted: 08:15pm 24 Feb 2013

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Cool thanks for reply.
Have gone through all my old electronics gear and found a few motors, and also found all my components have disappeared over the last couple of years. Looks like have to go stock up again. None of the motors I found are steppers. Don't think there's any other electronics that are broken that I am able to look for motors in. Will keep an eye out though.
Good about batteries, saw it only said NiCd where as I have NiMh.

Yea definitely a lot to learn, I have been following this site for a while reading a lot on the turbines and copying stuff to research and compiling a long document on it all.

Thanks

ptchernegovski
Newbie

Joined: 17/02/2013
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 3

Posted: 03:22pm 01 Mar 2013

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Got the components I need, put all of them temporarily into a push board to test and used the motors I got out of the printer I stripped apart.
The QK1-1263 at low RPM was running around 1.5V and easily went up to 3V. Got it spinning very fast and started producing 6V but I doubt the turbine will ever spin that fast.
Now just have to test the current going through it and add the rest of components and a small load to see how it all runs then. If still runs well will make a proper board for it and solder all the parts in and make the turbine.
Only other problem at the moment is there is no wheel on the shaft, so have to find one for it before can mount the blades.

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