OK Larry. It has been good days but we are running out of windy days. So I went and changed the little pma. To three 30 inch blades on a large three blade hub. It starts producing power at the same time as the 500 watt five blade turbine. It is still on the 10.8-30 volt GTI. I stuck the little one on the 22-60 volt GTI all by itself. Now hope we have a few windy days to check them against each other and make a video.
Was doing a video showing a grid tie not dumping during power outage. While doing it my 22-60 volt did not over volt and had a 5 ohm resistor on it and stuck in dump mode. Still makes power but if you hook a resistor to the dump it stops the turbine. Sounds like FET replacement time. Took the Mosfets out of the 10.8-30 volt and put them in the 22-60 volt GTI. Seems to have fixed the problem. Not reading any voltage on the terminals when plugged in anymore.
The 30 inch blades spun up the turbine too fast and the 22-60 volt was going to overvolt. Changed them to the Three 35 inch blades and now everything is working good. The 22-60 volt has only gone over volt a few times and the Mosfet replacement is working OK.
Thought I would share the Zener circuit I will be using to switch between grid ties in the near future. The relay is a 30 amp with NO/NC terminals I found at Love's truck stop for $9.99 Zeners are 10 volt 1 watt ones. 100 for $6 on ebay. R1 10 ohm 10 watt and D7 12 volt LED and R2 100 ohm 1/4 watt from Radio Shack. When I finish making the board I will post a picture. Credit for the circuit goes to Minnesota and Leamy. Added D8 Diode to help stop relay chatter.
Resistor came today. The mailman stuffed in the box. I took the rubber feet off of it. Have no idea what they were for. Setting it on a desk? I used 1 inch square stock to mount it off the board and a piece of sheet metal for a heat shield. Also clean with Windex or something to get any fingerprints or grease off the tube. Just like halogen bulbs may create hot spots and cause breakage. I also bored out the end plates so the insulators are now what supports the resistor. Sent pictures to manufacturer of my install. Asked why the holes in the end were not bigger. Make installing a lot easier.
Tom Very well done and thank you taking this to the next level. The adjustable switch is the key. Thanks
I added a few things to the switch I will be building.Also got an account at Circuit Lab so I do not have to rebuild the circuit every time.
For everyone's entertainment. A BLAST from the past !!!! While working on the circuit. I looked around and found my power supply I built for a workshop in 1979 at Ohio Institute Of Technology in Columbus,Ohio. Even then we had an off/on switch from Mexico. It still works. Thinking about it now. Why they did not have us build a cover for the bottom?
Why not let the turbine power the circuit? I might suggest a cap across R2. Might be helpful to make the hysterisis adjustable too at some point. Is 30A enough for the relay? Do you have the bench facilities to test this out? This could make a nice product ... call it the LRT (Leamy, Rent, Txxx) GTI bridge switch or something.
Which one are you talking about the zener or adjustable one for the cap? As far as the relay I have had no problem with the 30 amp. When it reconnects back to the 10.8-30 volt it only jumps up by the most I have seen is 50 watts. You could use a bigger one for a bigger turbine. The adjustable one I am still waiting for parts and there will be changes. Getting ready to upload the circuit for the basic zener switch. (DONE) I am trying to keep the circuit as simple as possible. With voltage going from 0-70 volts and more would be kinda hard and you need steady voltage for it to work right. Have any easy suggestions for me to be able to power the circuit with steady power from the large varying voltages? I am not that good with design. But I do have an o-scope and power supply. So will be testing first then more on the turbines. Before I make it final.
Cap on the adjustable circuit, R2, just to avoid chatter. Might have to experiment to get the best value as it is a function of how noisy the incoming voltage is.
Here is the basic zener circuit and the board file from eagle design program.You can unzip the brd file and sent it to a board mfg to make one for you. OSH Park but you have to buy them three at a time. Added a diode to stop relay chatter.
Thanks for the suggestion will see when I receive parts and try it out. The prototype boards are still in process of being manufactured. I will adjust the circuit diagram and brd file when complete on the adjustable one.
Thanks. Well it will be cheaper than the other voltage switches I bought for a lot more money. I am using the VCS-1AH right now at 19 volts disconnect 18 reconnect and it is working well with the 30 amp relay. Have been thru two windy days and saw it a few times where both turbine were at 490 watts at the same time. Then it went to dump. In fact today it has been to 450 watts a few times while the other turbine has been in the 150 watt range. I am finding out that the wind to both turbines is a lot of the times not equal at all. Like I was telling Larry that I bet that over the past year that one turbine was going up in volts and blocking the diodes of the other and causing power loss.
Well as far as I think. If the turbines are around your house and have obstructions in different areas. It would be better in the long run to run them on separate systems. If you have no obstructions and the turbines are the same configuration then they could all run on one system.
