Another Crazy Newbie!

I have just recently got into thinking of building a wind generator. It looks to be very interesting. I am totally intrigued. I have already built an anemometer and have been monitoring wind speeds for the past 2 months. Now I want to dive in and try to build a simple wind generator to charge the batteries in our RV.

I have 4 Ametek motors and I am trying to decide which one to use or if it is even worth it? I have 2 50VDC long body (7 inch), 1 38VDC and 1 40VDC. I have found quite a bit of info. on the 38 and 40 but not too much on the 50? Should I just chuck all of these and look for a lower RPM motor? Or will one of them work? Common since says that the 50 should produce more amps. It is much heavier and has "more in it". But if I have to spin up to 400 RPMs to make any power it seems like a moot point.

Are there any other good generator solutions out there that anyone is using? I see quite a bit out there and there are several surplus places near by. I just need to know what to look for.

AJ

Certain models of Ametek 50 are better than 38, 40, and 30 models.

I played recently with one Ametek 50 that was very similar with the Ametek 30 in terms of volt/turn, but it has a lower coil resistence. I consider the lower resistence an indication of the motor being capable of pushing more amps into the battery.

What is the serial number of your Ametek 50? Mine was #116339-00

I would chuck them and see which one has the lowest RPM and I would also measure the coils resistence. If the lower RPM and lowest resistence are for the same motor, thats the one Id use.

Speo



www.windpulse.com

Speo,

Interesting. I was thinking that these are higher RPM motors?

Here is the info off the side:

011188F7
"I.D. 119105"
4022781-02 EC 49700
01A (E56617) 116339-00
50 V.D.C. Nominal

AJ

AJ,

Here is mine. It seems like its identical with yours.
I dont have the bench test numbers handy, but Ill get back later with them.

Indeed, the RPM is higher, but the voltage is higher too. On top of that, the winding resistence on this one is lower than Ametek 30, and 40.



Speo

www.windpulse.com

Wow... That is good news! If it can produce what I need at a low enough RPM that is great. It seems that they are identical except for that top "F7" number. I have another 50VDC long body in storage. I will pull it out and have a look at that one too.

When you have it connected to a drill... How do you tell how many rpms the drill is turning the motor? Is that an easy thing to do? If I can figure that out, I will test it and the other one.

I am currently waiting on my arbor and hub. When it comes I hope to have all of this together by the end of the month. I still have to build the blades, mount and pole.

I would really like to see the info. on your motor if you can find it. If I can find out how to test mine properly, I will post those results as well.

AJ

Sebastian, FL

Wind gen. in progress

To get the RPM you need a tachometer or a bicycle speedometer (computer):
http://cgi.ebay.com/AUTO-LASER-PHOTO-TACHOMETER-CASE-MEASURE-RPM_W0QQitemZ180212204253QQihZ008QQcategoryZ11704QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
or
http://cgi.ebay.com/Bicycle-Bike-LCD-Cycle-Computer-Speedometer-Odometer-i6_W0QQitemZ270208344553QQihZ017QQcategoryZ30108QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The tachometer will read directly RPM and the bicycle computer can read speed and few of them read directly RPM. The one I pointed you to, is capable of reading the RPM direcly. If the bicycle computer cannot read the RPM, you can enter the wheel size 1667 and the speed showed on the screen multiplied by 10 is the RPM.

A quick and relatively accurate way to test your motor is to hook it to a battery and count the rpm and measure the volts. The numbers in "generator mode" should be close to the numbers in "motor mode". If you dont have a tachometer or a bicycle computer, attach a magnet to the shaft, place your finger close to the shaft and count how many times the magnet touches your finger in one minute. Thats the RPM. You wont be able to keep up counting, so, make a mark on the paper every 4 hits - 1,2,3, mark, 1,2,3, mark, 1,2,3,mark....and count the marks after 1 minute...

Ill get back with the numbers I promised.

Speo

www.windpulse.com

I use a laser based tachometer for benchtesting. Dead cheap and really handy.

Heres an example (its actually identical to mine)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Digital-Laser-Photo-Tachometer-great-tool-for-HVAC_W0QQitemZ220197983004QQihZ012QQcategoryZ40004QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Cheers

Del

Nice tip Del.
Those Digital Laser Photo Tachometers had passed me by.
The Max / Min RPM feature might also be useful.

Good find.

AJ,

Here are the numbers for Ametek 50 #116339-00, compared to Ametek 30 - 0.03 #10 (the higher RPM version of Ametek 30) and also compared to Ametek 30 - 0.04 #01 (the lower RPM version of Ametek 30)





You can see that Ametek 30-004 beats Ametek 30-003 in terms of Voltage at the same RPM, but Ametek 30-003 beats Ametek 30-004 in terms of Amperage at the same RPM. Now check the Volts x Amps for Ametek 30-003 and Ametek 30-004, they are identical.

Now, the voltage of Ametek 50 is very close to the voltage of Ametek 30-004, is higher than Ametek 30-003, but look at the amperage now: Ametek 50 beats BY FAR both versions of Ametek 30, making three times more amps than the highest amperage of Ametek 30s.

If I were you, I would definitely choose the Ametek 50 #116339-00

Have fun,
Speo

www.windpulse.com

Speo,

Excellent bit of work mate.

Im amazed by the performance of the Ametek 50. I wonder why this isnt widely known as its three times as powerful than the 30s with no downside. It would be interesting to see the performance of the 38v units if you have one to test.

Cheers

Del.