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Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

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    Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

    Good day folks. A former colleague of mine recommended me to a relative of his and I got to speak to this man today in person. He's a bit of a mad scientist/tinkerer sort-of guy - just my kind of weirdo Apparently this chap builds all sorts of generators and wind turbines in his little shop at home and sells them here and there. He even showed me some footage of some of his inventions in action out in the field. However, as he himself very kindly put it, he's not good with electronics - he just designs and builds the generators (from scratch, I might add) and turns to others for the electronic side. He doesn't have a regular guy for this task, which can be a red flag that people don't like working with him, despite him being very kind. There's only one way to find out and that is to give this guy a shot and humor him....for a while at least.

    Have a look at these two schematics he asked me to build for a small-scale turbine. Right away, although I have close to zilch experience with gennies of any kind, these look like nothing I would stick on the output of a generator. Apparently, someone else drew them for him, who in turn got them from....somewhere. Maybe I'm a noob and they're actually some really standard setups that just don't click with me, or maybe they're just complete baloney that would never work for this, or just go pop within seconds....

    There are WAY too many questions that need answering here, starting with the generator itself: he claims he can build any generator, in any shape and size, with any number of coils...which he showed me on his phone - told you the guy's nuts In the larger schematic, the outputs from the coils (2 coils in this case) are those 4 dots in the upper-left (that's the Romanian word for "coils" BTW ). Trouble is I'm not sure how the pairs are supposed to be arranged: is one coil the upper two dots and the other coil the bottom two, or are they the left/right ones instead ??? What sort of output are we expecting from them ??? Number of turns ??? Wire gauge ??? Poles, magnets ??? Not a single capacitor in this schematic. Neon lamp across the E-C junction of the 3055, why ??? It's been a while since I had to reverse-engineer something, so although this seems simple on paper, there are many things I don't get - not to be rude, but it's almost like someone threw random components together. The bar is set too high for this thing I can't see how it's expected to rectify the AC those coils SUPPOSEDLY spit out, regulate it and then stuff it into the batteries. The only thing that I CAN kinda see is D2 blocking B1 from attempting to turn the generator. The whole thing looks like it's trying to be some sort of regulator....which it isn't because there's no reference voltage set anywhere (zener anyone ???) and no series-pass element...unless one coil acts to limit the speed of the rotor and that's your regulation.... That 5K.....pot (?) is another thing that seems unfinished. No, it's not an error - the chap says that's how the other guy drew the schematic. Might as well be a fixed 5k there then.

    How I would do it, even with 0 knowledge, is stick a rectifier on the output (3 phase if necessary) smooth it out and feed it into a DC-DC converter - MUCH more efficient and LIKELY to work, at least at small scale....

    Is there even any point in building this ???
    Attached Files
    Wattevah...

    #2
    Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

    The circuit is a "2N3055 joule thief" which is very common in the "free energy" crowd. Basically, just a primitive one transistor boost-converter.
    To sell a fake generator, it's common to show more volts out than in = aliens, unicorns, magic - helping generate more.
    When you actually measure power in and power out, usually one battery is being drained while the other appears to be charging. It seems to fool the mind.

    The neon acts like a gas-discharge tube and protects the transistor from over voltage if a battery is disconnected when it's running. These are really low tech, low efficiency and not worth building.
    Instead, why isn't the generator outputting more voltage? Add turns of wire or speed and get the voltage you want in the first place lol.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

      Ok, at least now I know what it is I guess it is not commonplace in the field of high-power wind turbines, since I see most projects involving friggin' AA batteries I'm not sure how it would get hooked up to the guy's generator though...

      Let's instead focus on how to ACTUALLY design a wind turbine and what the electronics that come after the genie should look like - I'm talking mostly OTS stuff. I'm fully aware that we're not about to compete with the factory-built stuff that already exists on the market, but at least for home use, mostly for fun and for learning stuff....
      Wattevah...

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

        It's not hard to generate electricity from something moving, even better when it's just rotating - because things go back to their original state.

        Just going back to Maxwell, all you need is to move a magnet over a wire and you get some electrical energy. The faster you can move a larger magnetic field over a large amount of wire, the more energy you'll draw from mechanical energy and make electrical energy.

        The question is whether you make the magnetic field from electricity (alternator like in cars) or from magnets (generators). Doesn't really matter which way, just need to design it such that you come out ahead, not really a big deal.

        All you really need is to just get a permanent magnet motor and spin it. You get your electrical energy, don't need anything else. Just that it may not be the voltage/current/power/time consistency you need.

        For me, getting that motion/rotation costs me more money than just buying electricity from the power grid. Solar energy is better in this respect.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

          http://www.mdpub.com/555Controller/

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

            I agree with solar power being the best and also with the price-to-payoff ratio of DIY-ing wind turbines like this. The redeeming factor in this case is that the guy often sources stuff for free or from scrap yards, so it's not THAT expensive. Converting the dirty sh!tty output from the dirty and sh!tty generators he builds into actual usable energy for home use is my job in this deal

            Right now, I'm thinking of whether it'd be possible to just stick the awfully unstable output of the generator directly on the mains input of a SMPS to charge some batts with it, or will it get destroyed, or at least severely limit its lifespan doing it this way. The other idea is to use a FULL BRIDGE RECTIFIER to get my unregulated DC and stick THAT on the input instead. I'd still be all over the show, but not as much, due to the smoothing caps. Capacitor inrush current would be an issue and unless the wind is particularly strong, it might stall the blades and keep them from turning..only one way to find out and that's to actually build something.

            I'd then maybe design like a little circuit to toggle between the battery and the generator for powering an inverter which then runs the house or whatever....
            Wattevah...

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

              i have an unregulated wind generator here .. i still need a regulator . will eventually do something simple like a relay and a couple of transistors etc .. it will light an outside light when the voltage goes over a certain point at the battery like 14.4v or something like that . will have to try a 24v light for this or something with its own regulator .. the generator can go up to at least 18v open circuit ..it blows 12v car headlight bulbs
              i might even use the low battery voltage warning light circuit i built to switch the relay .

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

                Originally posted by petehall347 View Post
                This you ?
                Wattevah...

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

                  Originally posted by Dannyx View Post
                  This you ?
                  not me ...

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

                    Another thing I'm concerned about if I use a SMPS on the output of the generator, be it AC or DC, is the generator exceeding the input the SMPS is rated for....you know, due to TOO strong a wind. I'd need a way to slow it down and the crude and primitive way I'm thinking of is to simply load it some more using a dummy resistor that I'd engage as needed, automatically of course...a more complicated setup would probably involve an additional winding to mess with the fields somehow...I need to brush up on my motor theory
                    Wattevah...

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

                      they just about stop if you short the output . like i said my dummy load is to be outside lighting . nice to have outside lights in high winds .
                      on another note i knew someone that designed and built wind generators very clever he was . he had one doing 240v 50 hz ..

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

                        Wonder if I could use a pre-made controller/charger/UPS thingy normally designed for solar panels. I'd stick the rectified wind turbine on the input for the solar panel and it apparently does the rest for me...no need to reinvent the wheel here...
                        Wattevah...

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

                          should work .. mppt controller is best

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

                            Fairly expensive stuffs, but not nearly as expensive as what I was going to come up with Can't find any big-name brands though and they're all intended for solar panels, meaning I'm not sure if they can slow down the turbine with the dump load to keep it below the maximum input voltage....although the one I have my eyes on the moment claims it can do up to 500v on the input from the solar panels (which will be the generator in my case), which let's be honest, is unlikely this chap's gennie will reach I THINK the MPPT does just that, so I'm probably all set to go.
                            Wattevah...

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

                              check out victron energy . everyone thats serious uses their stuff .others cheap out and buy mppt units that are actually pwm .and at best set on fire whilst you are home and can deal with it .

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

                                Yeah, I found some Victrons and the price difference between them and other random stuff is significant, possibly hinting to their quality in the industry. Even though the cheaper one I found also does MPPT....supposedly. The norm for the battery bank seems to be 48v for most of these systems.
                                Last edited by Dannyx; 09-17-2022, 02:42 PM.
                                Wattevah...

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

                                  plenty of 12v stuff around i think

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

                                    Not a problem. I think it's better to have a higher input voltage anyway, since the closer you get to the output you're trying to achieve (230v in this case), the more efficient the system is, albeit more expensive with all those batteries...
                                    Wattevah...

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

                                      I ended up putting together the smaller circuit with the BD139 after all, just by soldering the components to one another because I couldn't get the guy out of my hair I'm actually kinda curious to see what happens once he hooks this up to whatever coils he put together at complete random, with no specs and no measurements like inductance and the likes. I'm no expert either when it comes to this advanced a topic, but I know for sure there's more to it than that. If I had to take an educated guess, I'd say the battery will immediately kill the transistor (assuming it's a 12v SLA he attempts to use), because once the C-E junction starts to conduct, that battery is capable of pushing WAY more than the 3A the BD139 is rated for, since it will just pass through coil 1-4 like a dead short, with only minimal resistance from the wire. The wire itself may melt and split at that point anyway...
                                      Wattevah...

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Re: Wind generator charger schematics (or load of baloney ?)

                                        Need more details of how the electromechanical parts are made, what are the rotor windings, stator windingsl is he using magnets or electromagnets to generate the field, what commutator is being used, etc., etc. - without those details it's hard to tell what needs to be connected to what, and what kind of voltage output is to be expected?

                                        There is no standard, using a DC PM motor in reverse as a generator requires significantly different circuitry than using an alternator from a car to generate electricity...

                                        Comment

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