Building a wind turbine

[Anonymous No.1471151]

Any electronics fags here? I have a question about building a charge controller. Is this correct: Rectify 3 phase wind turbine output to dc, use voltage converter to continously adjust output to say, 14 volts, to charge battery, have some sort of sensor that will detect voltages about 15 or so and activate a relay to short the turbine output and consequently brake it. Is this a stupid way to do it? Charge controllers are of course available but I like the idea of building it from scratch and also keep it modular so I can add more turbines and solar panels as I wish. Pic is not mine but basically what I want to build.

[Anonymous No.1471153]

>inb4justkillmyself

[Anonymous No.1471154]

A charge controller is probably one of the trickier parts of a off grid system. I can't recommend building it yourself, mostly for safety concerns.

You'll need circuitry to make sure your batteries don't go over their rated voltage, or under a critical threshold where they won't be able to re-charge later.

The voltages coming out of the turbines and solar panels aren't going to be consistent, so you're going to need capacitors to make up for those dips.

Then you have to worry about reverse current detection, which is another headache.

Oh, and if you have multiple batteries, you'll have to worry about how you charge them, you can't just stick them in parallel and call it a day, some charge faster, some discharge faster due to brand, or even just light variances in manufacturing in the same brand.

I don't recommend it.

[Anonymous No.1471159]

>>1471154
Not what I wanted to hear but great answer. Guess I'll look into consumer units, for now at least. Thanks anon

[Anonymous No.1471165]

>>1471154
Thanks for the PDF.

[Anonymous No.1471180]

>>1471154
OP don't listen to this guy, he doesn't know how to design electronics and is talking from cletus-level knowledge. Your project is a worthy and good one.

You can do this, but expect to spend at least 200-400 hours on it, depending on your existing knowledge. Budget if you have no materials or tools would be a few hundred bucks.
If you work hard and persevere, at the end you will be amazed at how much you've learned. Something like:

Basics of DC and AC electronics
Switching power supply design
Physics of inductors and generators
Fabrication
Soldering
etc
etc

If you can't use that much time or aren't dedicated to learning, don't bother starting.

[Anonymous No.1471202]

>>1471154
>>1471180
lmao @ these fucking nerds
OP just build your generator undersized for the battery it's charging and skip the charge controller
if it goes over 15 the battery will just lose water so all you have to do is make sure it doesn't dry out
low tech is best tech

[Anonymous No.1471205]

ssr

[Anonymous No.1471209]

>>1471202
Low tech is the best, that's why our cars all use carburetors and walmart is the biggest employer in the US.

[Anonymous No.1471239]

So, you've got the concept right.
You'll rectify your AC voltage (if it's an AC generator, instead of a DC Dynamo, both are possible to build, but the AC one is 'how it's done' with most things now days.) to DC power.


The problem is, this DC voltage will fluctuate WILDLY with the wind speed.
You need to make sure that:

a) Can't allow 'backfeed' from the battery to the turbine. (A diode can do this, pretty simple.) You don't want your (not very good) motor-generator eating your battery power. At times when the wind was calm, you may have lower voltage off the turbine than the battery. This could mean the battery would try to 'power' the turbine unless you have a blocking diode in place.

b) Never above your battery's max charging voltage. (A current limited voltage regulator can do this, this is a solved problem and available on ebay from a variety of Chinese companies for varying prices and qualities... but you COULD build your own from components, but I doubt you'd save money on it.)


So, now comes the next problem: You can't just 'disconnect' the turbine when your battery is full.

The turbine could go into over spin or such, because it is now 'unloaded'. To solve this, you'll need a dump load and dump load controller.
Dump load controllers, essentially, switch a 'dump load' on when the voltage reaches the set point (Usually 0.05 - 0.1 volts over the battery's max set-point) to 'dump' the energy that is continuing to come from the turbine.

Grid-tied systems basically don't have this problem, because they feed EVERYTHING into the grid, and it just 'soaks it up'. But off-grid, since they are much smaller and more 'rigid' in terms of capacity, need a place for excess energy to go. The dump load provides this, safeguarding your batteries and your wind turbine.

Dump loads are generally a large resistive load, such as a heating coil. Some people use a water heating system as their dump load, to avoid wasting the energy that is dumped.

[Anonymous No.1471240]

>>1471239
I should clarify that when I said not-very-good motor generator, I should have said:

You don't want your wind turbine, which is a generator but makes a very poor motor, to try to eat your battery power.

I didn't mean your wind-turbine would be shitty. :)
And also didn't mean to cause any confusion between a wind turbine and a motor-generator, which is a different device.

[Anonymous No.1471247]

why not use a bicycle disk brake for rotor breaking, + turning it out of the wind

[Anonymous No.1471257]

>>1471154
>don't diy!

Don't let the door bump you in the ass on the way out, kid.

[Anonymous No.1471973]

>>1471257
This. Wind turbines need a shunt regulator. Not too hard to build.

To and lurk fieldlines board for a week or so to see turbine related projects.

[Anonymous No.1471976]

>>1471257
best dump load ever..
replace your 240vac water heater elements
with 12-24v dc water heater elements
instead of waste, you get free hot water

[Anonymous No.1472065]

https://www.thebackshed.com/windmill/articles/TL084-Controller.asp

[Anonymous No.1472068]

>>1471151
Bamp because i want wind power also

[Anonymous No.1472071]

>>1471154
Fucked.

So buy a charge controller. Not op but i have acess to the stand for a large windmill and live on a hilltop. Would a hub off of a small car suffice for a solid wind turbine beginning or???

[Anonymous No.1472072]

>>1471165
Kys


Op asked for knowledge. Anon gave said knowledge. Hell I'm glad i stopped by and read it. My stupid ass was about to arson some chickens

[Anonymous No.1472076]

>>1471209

...all my cars are carbureted tho and have been since i realised 3/4 ton diesle quad cabs were not the general lee. I was 15. Been driving only carbureted shit since then. Fml. Been 17 years.

[Anonymous No.1472077]

>>1471239
You seem pretty knowledgeable. Would wild fluctuations matter in a hobby tier hydrogen generator?

[Anonymous No.1472078]

>>1471257
I think this is a tad above most of the 14 year olds abilities on this board. We always have 4 active threads on how to take out screws ffs

[Anonymous No.1472081]

>>1471976

Solid idea for well house or side room

[Anonymous No.1472173]

>>1471151
Do everything as modular as possible, and fuck breaking.
Step one: Full bridge rectifier
Step two: Relays/Contactor, no, not for shorting the thing, silly, just to cut power. (You don't need to slow the thing down, it'll be fine spinning with no load)
Step three: Capacitor to smooth that shit out. Even three phase rectified is noisy
Step four: Step down. If the input's less than 15V, disable the previous relays. Monitor voltage before relays, on the output of the full bridge rectifier.
Final step: Charging circuit.
If lead acid, easy pz. Just use something that outputs 14v current limited, so the input voltage doesn't get pulled below 15v in the previous step
(And if it does, you should disable it anyway.)

[Anonymous No.1472174]

>>1471180
>200 fucking hours
Nigga I could do it in an afternoon with a 3 phase hub motor and five circuits from aliexpress.
See >>1472173
I've already done something near identical using the motor from a fucking hoverboard.
Used it to charge off an exercise bike.

[Anonymous No.1472175]

>>1471239
>Can't allow 'backfeed' from the battery to the turbine
With a full bridge rectifier, fuck, any rectifier, this would never happen

[Anonymous No.1472176]

>>1472072
>My stupid ass was about to arson some chickens
Wat the what now were you going to do to some poor chickens?

[Anonymous No.1472184]

>>1472173
>You don't need to slow the thing down, it'll be fine spinning with no load

unloaded, it'll spin like crazy and vibrate, reducing the life of the bearings, and possibly causing it unscrew itself from the foundation, and even coming apart in high winds.

[Anonymous No.1472189]

>>1472184
Where does OP live, the middle of a tornado?
Fair enough, throw in a dump controller then.

[Anonymous No.1472254]

>>1472176
Was trying to power a heat lamp with 3rd world circuitry for the poor little cluck cucks

[Anonymous No.1472276]

>>1472175
The next sentence is diode, you fuck

[Anonymous No.1472337]

>>1472276
Are you not aware that a rectifier is a type of diode?

[Anonymous No.1472499]

>>1472184
you can control the rotation speed by changing the pitch of the blades

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCY8FDe4MKA

[Anonymous No.1472710]

>>1472254
>poor little cluck clucks
Now I'm sad, tell me more.
>This whole time anons been desperately trying his hardest to keep some baby chickens alive under a heat lamp
>There's nothing we can do to help him
MEGA SAD