[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Anybody ever try this? Thanks, Ken Pearce > > Ken, there is one brand which definitely uses automotive pieces right > from an AC Delco catalog. > Other than that most of the brands are really alternators, that > rectify the AC to DC internally, so your friends advise was quite > appropriate. > Carl Hibbard
Any such machine that does use an automotive type alternator will have a problem of only producing significants power in pretty high winds or else needing to be 'furled' in only moderate winds, as such alternators are designed to run at high speeds and higher, not slower to higher as is needed for a wind generator. Increasing the current through the field windings of an auto alternator at slower speeds to get the higher power out will overheat it quickly at slow speeds. What's more such tech is relatively heavy and inefficient compared to modern wind generator tech. Auto alternators just do not make good wind generators for boats! Which is why you do not see them out there. Most modern wind gennys do not use anything that is very close to a modern auto set up, as they use compact high output low speed units that have stationary multipole windings for the field and rotating perment magnets, so are brushless. The comutating, rectification, and switch mode regulation are often done internally (as in all Air Marine models) and the generator that is designed to be used with this circuit to produce correct output (some are made with built in 'electronic braking' that will not work correctly without the proper 'brains' to control it). Other less sophisticated units still use a perm mag alternator designed for low speed start up and power production, and a regulator designed for that application. So in sum it is necessary usually to use parts designed for that unit or units very similar to that one, to fix it. The big advantage of the Air designs in my opinion is the ease of changing the various parts...half an hour will be all that is needed to change the 'guts' (you do not even need to remove it from the pole, I have found), a faster (and cheaper) way to fix than replacing board level components. The downside is that you then cannot save the damaged board as nobody repairs them and no schematics can be had and it is too expensive to 'easter egg', so unless the component failure is obvious and you have a readily available source, you are out of luck. You can't have your cake and eat it too! What amazes me is the number of folks that send in their unit for 're-build' when anybody could do it themselves in an easy afternoon and save hundreds if not a thousand bucks or so! I am saying, hey, its easy, don't throw it way, fix it! My next thing is that I am going to make a powerful surge suppressor and put it in the wind gennys lines, maybe it will have better luck surviving the next lightning (I know it is just a question of time there). -Ken > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape > <http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489> > in the new year. > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Liveaboard mailing list > [email protected] > To adjust your membership settings over the web > http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard > To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ > > To search the archives > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > The Mailman Users Guide can be found here > http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
