01-05-09 This page is still under construction.

It's not finished yet so here are some images of what I have done so far. When I am finished, I will do a much better write up of how I made everything.

The goal is to be able to get 100-200 Watts of power to charge my 12v battery bank in my camper when I am camping off the grid. I could use a generator but what fun is that?

Solar is an option however it is very expensive for even small panels.

The generator is a 90 Volt 1750rpm DC Motor I found laying around.

This is a flywheel off the same motor. I drilled holes to mount the blades.

The blades are made out of 6" PVC pipe. I won't go into detail yet but here is the site where I got the blade info from. http://www.mdpub.com/Wind_Turbine/index.html This guy has a really nice site and I am following his plans fairly closely.

 

Update 01-10-09

Here are some more pics. I have not tested it yet but the temperorary stand is built and the wind vane on the back is done. It's all ready to go.

I used a 1" pipe inside a 1-1/4" pipe for the thrust bearing for now.

Aluminum tent pole for the tail support. I drilled the wood block so it would fit.

Plywood for the tail.

 

Update 01-13-09 New Video

First test video

 

Update 01-21-09

I moved it out away from the trees and buildings. It performed much better

and I was able to get 15-20 volts from a 10mph wind. The blades were spinning

at about 200 rpm for 15v and about 250 rpm for 20 volts. I did not see the

voltage drop below 15v the whole evening. I even added some christmas lights.

Powered by wind only. Now I need to get building the charge controller.

 

 

New video

Update 03-30-09 Charge Controller

Display shows battery voltage and charging status

The 40 Amp diode requires a huge heat sink (just in case)

Terminal Connection. It will handle a 20amp Wind Turbine and a 6amp Solar Panel.

Inside the controller.

Here is the control circuit. Two op amps and two NOR Gates.

I got the circuit design from here. It works perfect and I added a voltage readout.

I used two single op amp chips since thats what I had laying around.

Bottom view. What a mess......

I used a cheap $10 LED readout off Ebay for the voltage screen. It arrived

already calibrated for the correct voltage. I had to supply 5v to power it so

I used a common 7805 regulator.

 

Thats it for now.

Homemade Wind Turbine and Charge Controller

GENERATOR| BLADES | CHARGE CONTROLLER | TOWER