| For BM2K I built my own wind turbine.
I modified the deluxe windmill design from www.picoturbine.com.
It took me about 3 weeks to build. Total cost was about $100, mostly spent on magnets for the coils. I scavenged most of the wood and plastic. My home built coils produced about 4 volts AC. I built a rectifier to convert to DC for battery charging. I had it tied to the top of the motor home some friends were camping in. It ran for about 2 days. The 70mph wind knocked it over breaking one of the wooden uprights. (There was no other damage to equipment or humans. Fortunately it missed my solar panel when it fell.) After some repair and modifications it will be going back to BRC in 2001. |
Changes to design for this year:
| 1) Replacing wood structure with metal structure (aluminum?) the wood
structure was pulled out of square when tied down, causing the axis to
wobble, and didn't spin as well
2) Replacing the Rotors/coils with car alternator for better output 3) Base will be larger than top to add stability 4) Stronger axis to reduce wobbles. 5) Protect the bearings from blown playa dust as much as possible. Important lessons learned: 1) DO NOT BUILD YOUR OWN COILS. Very time intensive, complicated build for not much output. 2) SEALED BEARINGS The picoturbine plans have an open rotor/stator-very bad plan in the playa. My bearings worked great when I put the turbine up. Then they filled with playa and had to be hosed down with WD-40 twice a day to keep them spinning. Now they have rusted into a solid blob. 3) The "blades" worked great, they were a little slow to start but this is a drag-based design. Can be replaced with a "H-bar" Darrius blade aerodynamic instead of drag based. Should start at lower wind speed. 4) REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU MAY THINK - YOU DID NOT BUILD IT STONG ENOUGH, STURDY ENOUGH, OR STABLE ENOUGH TO SURVIVE ON THE PLAYA. It will need to be twice as strong/sturdy/stable as you think and this still may not be enough. If it wonşt stand up in an A-bomb blast donşt even bring it. If you have questions about this design email Sandy:grlfury(at)pacbell(dot)net
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