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Dirtydirk
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Joined: 14/02/2016
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 9

Posted: 12:36am 20 Feb 2016

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]UK SMART DRIVE LG WASHINGMACHINE
In the UK all staters have aluminium windings so are hard to reconfigure,I am therefore thinking of rewinding the coils with copper wire . Q should I rewind with the same gauge wire or go thicker or thinner
It will eventually be attached to a PACWIND/SEAHAWKS VAWT
Looking forward to your comments
Thanks dirk
This is a link to my turbine that I picked up on eBay for �150
http://youtu.be/dl6m4emdeBIEdited by Dirtydirk 2016-02-21

ryanm
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Joined: 25/09/2015
Location: Australia
Posts: 202

Posted: 03:04am 20 Feb 2016

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Hi Dirk,

I've also recently discovered this website and my first turbine is still in the works, so if someone would like to correct something I've said they should go right ahead because they're probably right.

On the Aluminium wire it has close to twice the resistance of copper, but at the power levels I assume that you are working at it shouldn't make much difference. The other main downfall of higher coil resistance is internal heating. Although you do live in England, so overheating is not such a problem. If you don't believe me come and visit us in the colonies... Aluminium is apparently devilishly hard to solder, but from what I've googled a physical connection like a screw can make a very conductive joint.

To me the whole idea of the smartdrive turbine is taking something that would have otherwise been thrown away and generating power with it. If you are going to go to all the trouble of rewinding a stator you may as well buy a few higher power magnets and make an entirely custom system that will work more efficiently. Also please do not underestimate how difficult it is to get those little wires to line up while winding and epoxying, or the hours (or days or weeks) of your time it may take.

As for the wiring configuration you should use, well you haven't given us enough information to go on. We have no clue how fast your turbine will spin, or the voltage output that you desire. Both of these things are required to determine the wiring of your stator. In general if you use thinner wire (hence more turns) you will get a higher voltage, but we cannot tell you if you need a higher or lower winding count without more information.

Since VAWTS (I have no personal experience with them) are generally fairly slow turning I think you might be best served with the stator in standard configuration (depending on your battery/inverter voltage). Please be aware that doing that might produce unsafe voltages in high winds, although you should be prepared for that with any turbine running at any speed.

Weird that UK LG uses aluminium, would love to see some pictures.

All the best,

Ry.

Dirtydirk
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Joined: 14/02/2016
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 9

Posted: 06:00am 20 Feb 2016

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Pacwind Seahawk

Dirtydirk
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Joined: 14/02/2016
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 9

Posted: 06:02am 20 Feb 2016

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Edited by Dirtydirk 2016-02-21

Dirtydirk
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Joined: 14/02/2016
Location: United Kingdom
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Posted: 12:46am 01 Mar 2016

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Starting the big rewind 1.6mm

Dirtydirk
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Joined: 14/02/2016
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 9

Posted: 12:49am 01 Mar 2016

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The hub on the bottom plate of my Seahawk/packwind vawt

Dirtydirk
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Joined: 14/02/2016
Location: United Kingdom
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Posted: 10:32am 01 Mar 2016

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Got to stop got a blisters on my fingers 42 turns per coil 1.06mm

Dirtydirk
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Posted: 03:26am 02 Mar 2016

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We'll I'll never do that again
Coils are a bit scrape but should do for now
Going to give my fingers a good restEdited by Dirtydirk 2016-03-03

solarwind

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Joined: 03/02/2008
Location: South Africa
Posts: 51

Posted: 04:52am 02 Mar 2016

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Well done! Keep us posted on your progress and findings!
You are better off using copper since you can get away with slightly thinner wire. The norm is that copper cross section can be 20% less than cross section of aluminium due to better conductivity.

You don't have success until you've tried it!

bitdog
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Joined: 13/11/2016
Location: United States
Posts: 15

Posted: 12:13am 14 Nov 2016

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Nice rewire, but if you had decided to go with aluminum, I work like ryanm, "To me the whole idea of the smartdrive turbine is taking something that would have otherwise been thrown away and generating power with it." So did it like this: I cut my aluminum coil wire, scraped the coating back 1 cm, and crimped copper on it. I smashed the end of a 12 - 10 gage bare copper house wire, cut the end flat, soldered a multi strand copper wire to the round end, bent the flat end like a hook, doubled back the aluminum end, deoxed, and crimped them. Then glued it to the stator. The glue was 100% silicon bath tub caulking. The kind that hardens like rubber. Glues to rough surfaces, rubber mounts things for vibration, & conducts no electricity. It's water proof, but won't handle oil/gas/thinners/etc. I use it on circuit boards lots. The length of the copper wire was very short 1cm, enough to solder to and then crimp. The glue covered the entire connection, sealing, & holding everything in place. The crimping was done with channel lock pliers, because the crimp clamps hard on the TIP only. The deox was an anti oxygen goop for aluminum connections. The hammering flat was just flat enough to have a THICK flat spot to bend & crimp. Just practice on some other wire before you do your stator. Then the copper wires out can be connected or soldered the way you want, IF you or others want to try other freebee generators in the future, of course.
It may be that aluminum stators is all we can get in the future. And since aluminum is such a big resistor, shorter wires might be best, so cutting or tapping the coils to increase watts out, might be the right route to go.
I hope this helps some one, some where, some how. Bitdog

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