catching up

hi everyone,  I have started a new position with a large company in the electrical field building some vary large systems. the training will continue for about  two years but has already started 3 new projects , on paper at this point. the blogs will be at a slower rate but will be increasing efficiency at most all points of most all systems and the pma design project is moving forward with mind blowing results, think about 58v and 15.8a per coil at 100rpm, the number of coils are only limited by available room for your project. I hope everyone is doing well and will update as often as possible but looks like about once a month till winter sets in, thanks to all for reading.

dump loads, not a good term

hi everyone, the term DUMP LOAD is not a good term because the hole point is to NOT waist ANY power produced. the extra loads applied over and above the set point of the battery charge must be used for an intended purpose and not wasted by them dam things called waist resistors . this is how many systems are designed, I would advise against buying from anyone that uses a waist type system, they don't have the buyers best interests in mind and mostly say its a safety , bull shit, its a lie. my system is mostly home made and I don't have one waist resistor at all. I'm also able to dump 1.7 times my production ability, also all power diverted is used to work some thing useful . I get a return on all power produced like the true wind system was designed to be. also I have a blog on dump loads that cost under 10 bucks and is capable of 4000w , can be used as water heater or used in a air heater. I'm also converting a block heater for my truck for the winter with this same ss threaded rod . your only limited by your imagination . all power produced should be doing some thing useful or its all a waist of time and effort. the point is not to DUMP but rather use the power for all the pleasures of life. food for thought. thanks for reading.

voltage sensing relays ?

hi everyone, I have tested and used voltage sensing relays, most are not suited to windmill control system. this is do to the operating voltage and cycle control type. I was called to check a problem with a guys system, he was using the voltage relay type control board. this was a ebay type unit sold for about 10 - 15$. these can be used but are not properly suited to windmill applications. they work by simply watching voltage and mostly to a single digit . they work but are crud at best. they do not watch the s.o.c  and most are again mechanical relay type, short life.  in a wind burst the system went dead. his system has vary easy access. we tested the output voltage of his mill on my test bench , the output voltage was 68 volts, this was a problem because the voltage sensing board specs say its voltage limit is 90 volts max. any wind bursts can increase voltage to failure point quickly and the relay on all boards iv seen are only 10 amp max. all in all not suited for wind use. if you burn 2 of these boards you could have bought a windandsunpower.com board and never have had any problems to worry about. ------- one piece of info---- many of the 440 amp systems being sold are controlled by these types of so called controllers. there a failure waiting to happen. this is food for thought. thanks for reading.

27amp alt type pma, wow

hi everyone, I was able to assist the build of a heavy equipment alt for wind use. I looks like a cataterpillar , it was yellow and no tags at all. this was given to a friend for wind pma build use. using the original stator windings the alt was converted like any other chevy alt for wind use. he dosn,t have a test bench but I was able to help to get some usable numbers to pick a starter set of blades. after mounted on a pole he recorded a charge amperage of 27 amp in 26mph wind with the blades he had already , blade type is unknown and its a 5 blades system. ether way its some ideas to try for the new people instead of getting drawn into the chevy alt type junk out there. the output is way higher and is the same work to build. I was asked about my build, IM SORRY, I have a third party paying for the R&D of these units and cant release any info until complete. once all done this info will be released with all specs and test info for all to see, this will be a year or so from now. the output of 27 amp is a mild build, that's all I can say. so if your building a pma, its simple, go big or go home. its the same price. food for thought. thanks for reading.

split the power

hi everyone, two of my small mills are on the end of the dock, one low and one high. the low one is at the same height as the high dive and would be a problem for swimmers. for these reasons it is removed for the summer from the pole. the other is at 21ft up and dosn,t  pose any problems. after removing the low mill the higher mill is rewired to dump from its main battery bank to the bank from the lower mill. the higher mills dump load is disconnected and the dump power now feeds the second battery bank, this helps to keep the batteries fresh and dosn,t waist any power to the dumps until both banks are up to charge, at that point the second bank will dump as allways. I only use my small system for l.e.d. lighting in the summer , this works vary well for my usage and duration used. this is a thought for anyone with the need to remove one of there mills for any reason, this also lowers the battery maintenance over the summer months on the second battery bank. food for thought.

pma assembly tips

hi everyone, these are some tips to help with the assembly of a pma for long term use. these tips are what works for me and has proved true time and time again. after all work and testing is done , this means any and all work is complete and is ready for install. at this point you need to completely dismantle the unit, the bearing need the grease removed and new extreme low temp grease installed, one vary small drop at each ball on one side and 3-4 drops of lucas stabilizer on the other side. if your rear bearing is a needle bearing, use the same extreme low temp grease and about 1/4 fill the bearing cup with lucas, at assembly you will use one strand of wire from a 14 wire placed in the seal while installing the rotor to allow any extra oil to leave the bearing. the inside of the casing needs to be painted to stop any corrosion . the rotor needs to be painted also for corrosion . if the pma is a 3 phase any conections must get a piece of shrink tube before being secured down, the wires from each phase needs to be long enough to reach the first connection at the slip ring without any splices. these wires also need to be secured to the pma rear housing after the stator is installed. if the pma is a dc type you also need to use dielectric grease on all bolts and electrical connections for the rectifier . the stator should already have a coating on it to protect the windings, if not you MUST coat the windings with something to protect them from vibration in the wire from the eddie currents and frequencies , these cause the wire to try to move around and rub together and cause shorts over time. I use 5 minute apoxy on the units with no coatings, let the stator warm in the sun or nere a heater before applying the apoxy and it will be drawn into the center of the stator core by the heat, no extreme heat only good and warm to the touch. try not to be messy because you will be cleaning a lot to get it to assemble again. now when your assembling the pma you need to coat all bearing surfaces with grease on the rotor, there is usually two types of casings used, two front covers, one front and one back, this is the better in my opinion because of the larger bearings on both ends , this type can only be used on the three phase because you cant install the rectifier in this configuration . the standard rear casing must be installed in the proper way because there is drain holes at the bottom and the wires should exit also at the bottom , look at the casing and you will see the holes I'm talking about. the wires need to be secured to the rear pma housing before the rotor is installed and checked for clearance of any rotating parts of the rotor. the screws for assembling the cases need to be greased with dielectric grease for corrosion and will fuse to aluminum from the field currents being absorbed through the cases when in service over time. after assembly everything should be checked for clearance and smooth operation, once everything is good you can paint the outer casing if you have not already. once complete the unit should be tested on a test bench for all the needed install data , these numbers will let you use the right parts for the install the first time and save any extra work and time. the blades need to be balanced, this is done with a string and a thimble, most thimbles have one dimple in the center on the top, drill this dimple to the string size and install the string, insert the thimble through the hub and to the ceiling, this should be done inside so any wind wont be a problem. take a measurement from the tip of each blade to the floor and add any weight to the tips as needed, flat washers work good, if you need any more than two washers for any one blade you should move blades around as needed to achieve the balance, this can be time consuming if your using home made blades, each blade should be balanced before assembly to help speed this assembly up.  this is the process I use and has given vary good results every time. I hope this helps anyone with the assembly of a pma, if any help is needed just ask. thanks for reading.

adding 2 blades

hi everyone, today I decided to add 2 blades to a small test mill I have. it had 3 hemi blades and is 14 ft above the lake at the end of the dock. I'm in a low wind area and on a average day it seldom will use the dump system, now I added 2 blades for a total of 5 blades, the dump system was seldom used on a average day prior to adding 2 more blades, now it uses the dump system most of the time. in low wind the blade count and type are critical for success . I use hemi blades for all my smaller mills in low wind. plane and simple , they work and vary good for lowwind. one of the easiest ways to check your systems output is with the use of a watt hour meter, the average over time is the best way to test and make any adjustments with. pick a time frame of about 8 hours and a start time and check it every 8 hours for several days and you will find when you best power times are and also record the wind speeds as often as possible. the time spent will give the info to make any changes needed quickly and accurately. the smallest change to the right parts can give big changes to the output. food for thought. thanks for reading. you will also find with a watt hour meter that the wattage for your pma is not the advertised wattage.

l.e.d,s and wind mills

hi everyone, I was talking to a guy with a vary large l.e.d system for his property , it was wired directly to a battery system and a battery charger. he recently installed a wind mill and most of the l.e.d,s are now burnt. most l.e.d systems cannot be wired directly to a wind system because the voltages seen by the l.e.d. system will be the dc charge voltage , this is most often way higher than the battery voltage. a battery charge voltage at the battery might be say 13.9 or so but the in coming voltage to the battery can be as high as 60 volts , the l.e.d. system wired direct will see the 60 volts. these systems need a driver to regulate the voltage and amperage for the system when a wind mill is used. the charger system he was using will adjust the voltage to about 13.9-14.2 volts and never have caused a problem until the wind mill started to charge and the lights when out. if your using any l.e.d,s in your system make sure there on a driver circuit rated for the size of system your using to be problem free. most other components of a wind system like inverters are made to take full voltage and amperage and the unit will deal with any needed changes to the supply power as needed, the l.e.d,s will not and require a driver to do this adjustment to protect the systems as required. this is the largest l.e.d. system iv ever seen , it draws 23.5 amps continues and light most all of his property. food for thought. thanks for reading.

watch for the hologram effect

hi everyone, the hologram effect is alive and well, there are several sellers that over rate the ability of there parts and units for sale, if they told the truth you wouldn't buy them. in the blogs below several lies are uncovered, most of the sellers lie because if they don't they wouldn't sell anything , the experienced guy wouldn't buy because they know the lies and what to expect in the real world and also how easy it is to make there own parts and where to buy when they need to purchase anything. if I told you I have a chevy type pma for sale that putout 250w in 20mph wind you would think im crazy and would never sell that unit. BUT you didn't ask the right questions, because this pma,s rating is power production into the battery bank and is one of the best real world number you will see from a alt type pma. this pma has a sales pitch rating of 1400w, and would be bull shit to advertise this number because you could never reach this number in service in the real world, the facts are simple, its a 250w pma  and nothing more, any other numbers are lies and used for sales to make it sound way better than it realy is. I cant stress enough the importance of the home work and asking questions if you don't know or are having troubles. the rectifier is a simple piece and most are saying 90-100amp, if you go outside and look at the power line feeding a older home it would be 100 amp service, look at the size of wire, the RMS factor is .707 to get the dc power equivalent , then look at the little wires at the rectifier  and ask who is bull shitting who, these are the people selling the parts ? . I here every single day of people getting ripped off and would like to see this stopped. the blades is the area I see the biggest lies, people just don't know that much about blades when they start out in wind generators. its one of the easiest scams for the sellers, most will tell you they have the best blades on the market and not knowing much about blades many will agree with the sellers from lack of knowledge. this could be the area that needs one of the most study time if you don't want to be screwed, warlock.com has a good blade calculator and try to find as much info on any blades your thinking about before buying and ask a lot of questions with many different people and sites, low wind blades is the hardest because nothing is forgiving, with little wind it will work or not, there,s not much in between. try your hardest to not get a cogging mill for low wind, you will spend more to get it to work right and will still be down on watt hour numbers over time, a small amount of cogging could be acceptable but is not wanted. any mill that has cogging to the point that it feels like a steel gear with a bad bearing should not be used at all. I could go forever on things to watch for but the buyer needs to ask the rite questions and do the home work, help is never far away, your here now, if I can help just ask. thanks for reading.

alt type pma ?

hi everyone. I was asked witch type of alternator to use to build a pma. these are my thoughts. most people use the chevy alts because the parts are every where, almost any alt can be used, my thoughts are to use the biggest one you can get your hands on, it will have a larger stator winding and a higher surface speed resulting in higher output most often .keep in mine in most cases you will be rewinding the stator, most all alts use way to heavy of a wire for wind use. your looking for the biggest diameter across the stator you can find and the most slots in the stator you can find. if your lucky , you might find a skewered stator, this is when the wire windings are on a angle across the stator, this would be a awesome find, this saves the headache of angling the magnets. the magnets should be the strongest ones you can get for your application , the stronger the magnet the higher the output will be. there are several pics on the net for rotor design, there is a million ideas on this topic, just use as many magnets as you can fit into the rotor and as strong a magnet as you can get. most are using ether 7 or 14 magnets in there designs, I have seen as low as 5 and as high as 18 in a alt type pma, you will need to figure out the amount of magnets for the room your rotor has. so the chevy has the most available parts but is a smaller alt, the diesel transports and equipment have a lot larger alts to use and will net more power at the end of your efforts , these are my thoughts. thanks for reading.