Great project. Can’t wait for the actual testing to see if you can get 1KW. Like the way you make science easy, practical and a simple solution to our most basic daily problem.
Robert, sir, I am in awe of this contraption. You are a gent after my own heart. I must admit, I have been a "scrounger" since I left college at 24. About all I learned at college was that it was a waste of time. Had I persued something practical, as you have demonstrated, I might have made something of my life, instead of just being an awestruck bloke. But I find your work inspiring. Thank you very much, my friend. I have a good mate that is an engineer that I will share this series with. Cheers,. Bob in Montana
Looking good so far. I am a new subscriber, and after viewing all the previous videos (that took some time) I am more than impressed. Looking forward to seeing the results here. I can't offer much in the way of advice / ideas as I think you're spot on so far. Well done Robert, you have been an inspiration so far, long may it continue mate!
This build is great ! I admire your enthusiasm and energy. I had an idea a few years ago of utilising an old washing machine drum for a vertical wind turbine project with its associated bearing and pully. The spider arm was going to locate into a fixed bearing and a belt was going to drive off the pully to an alternator. Unfortunately this just stayed in my mind and never came to fruition.
Wow that's impressive. So many videos like this on TH-cam but most of them never really take into account the volts and current and only the volts. It was cool to see it light up that panel, and that's with only 1 coil.
This is brilliant in more ways than one. To light the panel at this stage shows real potential. I've been following very closely a d looking for the parts. Thanks.
Excellent! I'm impressed with having only a millimeter of clearance, we know closer is always better. As long as stability is never an issue, the only concern for me would be weather proofing the electrics. Where I live (eastern Pennsylvania) it's either a beautiful day or complete rubbish. I will check back tomorrow!
Truly awesome Rob! You've got me taking apart a couple of old office chairs. I'm going to try to increase the output current by testing some other magnetic pickups and perhaps add addtional solenoids in the attempt of adding magnetic braking, just for fun. But I have other challenges that you have so skillfully illustrated to conquer first, lol!
I have to wonder if this would work with multiple coils with their own rectifiers then on to a capacitor bank and then to a solar charge controller and on to a lead acid deep cycle. What do you think, Rob?
@@ThinkingandTinkering love it. Is there a video in which you state the type of batteries and how and where you placed them? A diagram would be helpful. Maybe a walkthrough of the bridge rectifier. Please.
every yorkshire farmer should have one of these. Never been there myself but I watched a lot of james herriot in my young days, the series had a great tune!
Hi Robert, I think it would be better to angle the corner baffles so they direct the airflow onto the driving side of the rotor and block the airflow onto the returning side, wherever the wind is coming from. Possibly curved baffles and maybe more than four. Also would it help to let air out of the top and bottom discs to increase flow over the blades? Great videos, very thought provoking and well made
Just a quick Thank you as I had just been trying to figure out a horizontal turbine to use as I saw being used by another country in the middle of their streets to produce power from the air currents produced by the traffic ( I think it was Spain or France not sure ) anyway as I live on a very busy main road in my town and have been planing to put up a new solid fence It came to me that I could do the same thing. I want to add several of these type turbines in the body of the fence using its structure to include the frame for them. I want to build them thinner than the one you have here, with aluminum blades made from old news paper printing plates, PVC or aluminum body parts to keep the weights to the bare minimums I like the idea of having the magnets on the drum and the Transformer on the base. This should reduce the barrel and fins weight as well Thanks for the ideas. I'm working on a similar idea of my own design and after I get it up and running to show proof of concept I may make another and make a video of my build. Again thanks for the ideas and the videos, I am now a new loyal follower of your channel .
@rob have you thought of adding more Microwave transformers and place them between 2 magnets. So #1 settled to 1 magnet, #2 almost 1/3 between 2 magnets, #3 2/3 past the magnet. This will counter the cogging effect and possible help push the whole thing forward a little.
that sound very smart, never heard of cogging effect, bien joué ;), so 1 inside and 1 outside basically ? each running opposite magnetic side of course
I'm curious if you tried arranging the magnets in a Halbach array. Would basically direct magnetism to one side, increasing strength of magnet... likely boosting performance. I really know little but stronger magnets would likely mean more power correct?
As a suggestion, if you produce a series of coils and connect them in series and even,y space them around the circumference. Also to get the best magnetic coupling you need to have a ferrite core for each coil to increase the amount of magnetic flux in each coil. Just having air spaced coils will give you low saturation and less output. Also to gauge the power output you have to take into account that when under load, there will be a significant amount of braking so this is where to get maximum energy it’s a function of the work done, ie proportional to the amount of surface area to the wind versus the braking effect as you load the coils. Can’t wait to see how it goes but you can improve it all the time, it’s a great project Rob with lots of potential (haha see what I did there.... potential....ok I’ll get me coat) Yeah great stuff Rob love seeing all your builds.
lol - I did see it mate - there are certainly limitations at play here and this is far from perfect but - for me - an interesting investigation that's for sure
That is awesome mate, I like that it will power the light under just a little push and oh wow, that thing is a lot lighter than I would had thought. That is awesome in it's on, being so light weight will help it be able to turn easier in the wind for sure, just awesome...
Nice. I would put more of those wind capturing boards on and in offset to center. In such case wind will be directed on working side blades and excluded to blow on opposite side. This means higher efficiency and more output.
Good design this will be very good the channel fins look good you could help that more to spin forcing air in with them an it's stackable this is why I like it. 🔋You could use them for skyscrapers corners?💎you could get power from the top as well.
Very impressive with the light at the end which is just proving my theory I’m gonna end up using a dense plastic as light as possible but clean engineering on joints/brackets loving the light touch
Using the diodes in the capacitors isolating electronic pickup that you have next to the magnets when you don't do that and allow the AC to be injected into the grid all kinds of permutations are taking place cancelling out some of the energy that you are trying to generate. But by using the diode bridge and the capacitors you are taking away any design flaws in placing the coils in the exact place at the exact time have you thought of using a magnetic bearing to support the weight of this unit and cut down drag. You just some amazing stuff and pique my interest in a lot of things God bless you
Would it be possible to have more then 1 coil and connect through a rectifier to give a smoother consistant power supply? I cant wait till Ive got spare time to play, ive purchased a 1960s lucas dynamo of fleabay, and it has good resistance compared to the rule of thumb ohms Ive found onine.
The more inertia you have, the less problem cogging will offer, but, again, strategic coil-to-magnet ratios [many papers suggest the simple ratio of 2:3 (or 3:2, depending on how you read the information, pretty sure it really does not matter which)] can help greatly reduce the cogging, and this will technically help raise the efficiency of the generator, albeit to what extent, will vary from unit to unit. I am working [on paper so far] on a way to use a sort of cam to operate the blades at an elevated efficiency, and still yet [HOPEFULLY] keep the overall cost of the unit low enough to justify the added complexity, especially since all such mechanisms must either be carefully concealed from the weather, or else made in such a manner as to make the weather [leaves, twigs, ice, snow, etc] irrelevant. [some sort of low profile design, and/or some form of shielding of the moving parts, especially since in some instances, moving parts could perhaps offer a threat of injury to small animals such as lizards who might accidentally find themselves up inside the cage in between bursts of wind]. While my work has not produced anything conclusive yet, what I do have on paper seems pretty promising, in theory at least. I must admit, because of the fact you have something where all parts must be mounted and rotated on the same axis, some of these designs are looking like they may need a set of small hidden gears to articulate the cam system, and that indeed would increase the complexity of the machine significantly, so we shall see. ~( ,m,)~
Would you call the light panel a LOAD? Seems not to slow it down at all, although there's no actual way to know that from my end. Frankly; I love the whole project. The honeycombed Aluminum panel (originally developed for the aerospace industry) is a fantastic weight reducer, and with the light plastic fins the sucker should run literally like the wind! Another great Job Robert! Well done!!!
The law of sod seems to have a hand in this. All the wind we've had recently, build a wind generator and the wind goes on holiday. A bit more windy on Friday afternoon but back to single figure wind speeds for the rest of the week. Oh well.
@@ThinkingandTinkering Do you have a blower for garden or know someone that have 1 ? could be nice just for testing, of course an electrical version would be nice ahha, but just for testing also.. since it won't be 100% like a natural wind, except maybe a stormy wind lol
Hey my friend, instead of buying ceramic magnets, have a think about cutting (or scoring and snapping) those circular microwave oven ceramic magnets onto e.g six segments each, and using those.
very cool. impressively smooth operation for thrown together. if you added 1 or more additional microwave transformers you could probably double the output.
@@ThinkingandTinkering hi robert, query.. how many transformers could you add until cogging becomes a prohibitive issue? any idea? "or before another issue becomes problematic?"
Thoughts, Re heavy wind, what about a bicycle disc brake at the top, cable goes to a flap, the stronger the wind the more it brakes , adjustable , like a lever system. Anyway just a thought. Or an old magnetic clutch from a car air con compressor
Nice idea, a suggestion, horizontal axis rotation with magnetics both sides, coils on both sides. Possibly multiple air coils on both ends for more output.
I was hoping to get off grid by installing solar panels and batteries, but the up front cost of doing this makes it not worth while, so I'm really interested in your project and would love to have a go myself.
I've just converted an upright pedestal AC fan, it produces 44v / 2A.( I used a cordless drill on speed 2 to turn the spindle. Question ? How can I convert this to DC and use it to charge leisure batteries on my camper.
I love your videos but is there a reason for no close ups ?. I understand your verbal description, but would like to see the actual parts and how they are put together. Thanks for all the great content.
@@strongforce8466 people keep suggesting it cause I am sure mr. Smith could make a video to show how it works. A double half wave rectifier would keep the light on as well but you lose voltage at the diodes. So in reality he just needs to connect half the lights one way and the other half the opposite. Now the two sets alternate.
@@strongforce8466 one thing I have learned about Robert is he does things his way. He accepts suggestions from others. But he makes the final judgement on how the project is done. Knowing Robert he did it the quick easy way which is directly connected. Kinda shocked he didn't use a 1000 watt hairdryer to make a few watts with his turbine. One time I got asked why I was using the kirby to spin up one of my disks. So I asked the guy why they use blowers to start jet engines. I was trying to see the wave output of the coil as the magnets spun around. The output from the transformer coil is AC. So the right capacitors are needed and extra diodes. The lights robert is using are diodes. So a second set of lights is the cheaper route. Makes use of both directions of current and could possibly charge a battery to boot. I think a lot of people are seeing the potential this idea has. Myself I noticed how you could see it start cogging when he switched the meter to amps. One of my wind up lights I completely tore up the gearbox when I put a heavy load on it. I know I put out a suggestion to use a office chair. Don't know if Robert read the comment but when he used a office chair I laughed. What he did wasn't what I was thinking, but I do like how he used it. Using gutters over cutting pipes in half was another good idea I got from Robert. I know Robert's primary objective on this project is for it to be done as cheap as he can salvaging as much as possible. I think he is doing a great job on his objective. Turning trash into treasure. Pun intended with turning.
I really love your videos! I know you're trying to make that on a budget but I know from experience that you will need a better set of coils for the output you're trying to achieve. When in the amp setting you should have a very hard time to move the magnets past the coil. With that configuration you would need to see a few thousand volts to make 1000 watts. With that type of a rotor you'll never get reasonable rpms. I'm not trying to discourage you, just giving some advice from 20 plus years of generating my own power.
I am not discouraged mate - I think your advice is awesome - I really don't know what I am doing here and just giving it a go so I really appreciate the advice - cheers
Do you think it would be possible to build something similar.. (little smaller) And set it up with a bunch of different gears and run it with weights? Like a grandfather clock? Or maybe even a cuckoo clock? 🤔 Run the lights, or radio in the shop? I love your ingenuity 👍 GREAT JOB!! 😎
Hey I love your stuff and you're happy disposition! I watchef parts one and two somehow I missed what you're powering it with. Did you take that out of the microwave?
Thank you for your reply! And do me and your mother a favor and put on some dang safety goggles when you're using that grinder Man! LOL I flinch every time I see you doing that
the axle's stationary right! , so do a 'weebles wobble' axle below pivot point extension with weights at the bottom pivoted at the current bolted section perhaps, that will then self stabilize
I wonder if you could draw more electricity from this if you had magnets along the blade edges and had some upright brackets with copper coils at the magnet heights. Any thoughts?
Don't know much about generators but could you please explain why the coils have to only be on the periphery of the rotating blades could the whole area from the center to the circumference not be utilized.
I am sorry mate I have no real idea - I am going to source as many as I can and that will mean they will be all over the place but the magnets are ceramic 4.5cm x 1cm x 2.5 cm with 3.6kg of pull
Really cool Rob. I would still use multiple transformers to get the minimum current above 2 amps, just my opinion though, depends on your intended usage.
Did you have a update about the progress? Sorry, just saw that there were clips up to 7. TH-cam sometimes is hard to navigate. But I still didn’t find the update I was expecting/waiting for. How does it preform on the roof?
Ahh yes, that's smooth. Your support-structure is nice. I wonder, and you may have wondered as well: do you get better performance out of it by tilting those supports at a different angle from 45-degrees? I'm thinking if there's more room for the air to head in straight-on at the leading side, then there will be less turbulent flow, *much more laminar* in it's approach. I hate to mention the swastika symbol, for obvious reasons, but I feel if those support vanes leaned out a bit more toward that direction, you might get higher speeds. Don't think I would go completely open, but somewhere between there; 60 degrees tends to be an easy angle to reproduce.
lol - I never noticed that mate - to me it lookalike the top of Isengard from lord of the rings - but we all see things differently I guess - also the swastika is a symbol of peace - or is it good luck - in the Far East - either way not only do we see different things we also have different a social interpretation
Great 👍 what about an electricians conduit bender and a cross of galvanised conduit with threaded ends screwed down and a star box at the top a bearings or the like , very existing stuff love it 👍👍👍
I do hope you will be able to try it out underwater when it’s finished using an air stream underwater to drive it. The torque underwater would be phenomenal.
oh almost forgot what is the auto behind you in your shop? I ask because I found your videos while looking for videos about building recomebant hand rowing Trikes.
Very exciting to watch and if you got as many microwave oven transforms as you can fit underneath with some neodymian magnets i bet that turbin would beat the pants off a commercial one X10 in the emorata words of Chris Tarent ( THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT ) tiswas cecum 1979 , keep up the good work, wow this is exciting
Wow a great video and fantastic work nd Insite on wind turbines and I have a question I have been told that car alternators can put out 240v if you buypass the resistors don't know if this is true and would love you to do a video not it pls it would be cool
Almost all squirrel cage fans are positioned horizontal. This puts the weight on 2 bearings. They spin with less resistance and the bearings last longer. Its fine if you want the vertical axis windmill, but horizontal might work better.
do you know what I have found mate - it doesn't matter what you do someone always suggests you do something else - I don't mean this to be critical but in the first vid this was in a horizontal position and I got told to shift it vertical - I have found there are always good reasons too - it really comes down to doing what you feel works for you
@@ThinkingandTinkering I know everyone lists every little detail at you. I didn't mean it as only my way is best. How about 45 degrees, lol. I am just kidding. Love your videos, I will keep watching with interest.
Very good! "Not sure what the rpm is..." any single coil could act like a hall effect sensor without hindering electrical generation. Properly calibrated, it would make a decent velometer. It would be nice to record performance over weather conditions, even if only to help validate the starting ideas.
@@ThinkingandTinkering maybe with a rasperry pi or something similar you could easily log the data, just a thought, don't know if you mess with those but it seem pretty cool
I missed the discussion regarding the choices going into the blades. So we have the shape and the length of the radii There is the angle that the blade is positioned Also the number of blades. It would be amazing if we could get someone to produce a set of mathematical equations
Another interesting video Rob, thank you. Please can you explain how your meter calculates Amps, my own digital meters only seem to accurately calculate amps when in series with a load. Does your meter have a load built in. The only reason I ask is that when youve quoted amps, a couple of times it seems on the very low side, and I would have imagined you would be getting a higher amperage. Cheers Antony
You should attach or combine your Wimshurst Machine to the top and bottom wheels. I'm just babbling. Great job, keep it up. Looking forward to further vids. A+
with the transformer, is it possible to get the actual coil closer to the magnets ? could that improve the output ? also, having multiple coils would definitely increase the output. thanks for the update, looking good so far.
I know the idea is to make a turbine that doesn’t need planning permission as a HAWT would, but your VAWT is quite big so perhaps it would need permission, but I expect you have checked that first. I suppose it also depends where on the roof it is put. It’s so crazy not allowing small domestic HAWT’s on our houses/flats, when LA have no issues with big Satelite Dishes, There’s an old Sat Dish below my flat window bolted halfway up the block., all the wires are cut and the Dish is going rusty that’s ok, but a mini Wind Turbine on my balcony isn’t ok!.
It is crazy how the rules are implemented - but you are right it depends on site and I have a stepped roofline so it basically can't be seen from the street - the size is basically 1 cubic meter - on the bench that looks large on a roof it is tiny lol
If you added more transformers extra blades could be fixed inside also to torque through additional cogging or blade length could be increased with slanted mounting and heat bent ends for fixing tabs with no height increase?:)
depends what you mean by better mate - it would be more expensive - so for a budget build - no it would be much more costly - if you want to hang the expense and try for lots of generation then yes sure - it all depends on your objectives
@@ThinkingandTinkering Something I was wondering, if you cut the middle of the "E" halfway - just above the coil so there is a channel, and run the magnets NSNSNS etc through it, it could really improve the performance, (not that there's anything wrong with what your reading so far). I'm thinking the analogy of a tape head, getting the magnets as close as possible:-)
Nice... I figured you would have a whole array of microwave transformers. One will not give a significant output. I trust you spaced magnets based on the transformer pole spacing. If you place transformers based on this same spacing output will be in phase with each other and you could simply put them in series or in parallel. I think in this configuration it could do 3W or so. 34 transformers would do 100W maybe. Not the power you are targetting but still an excellent return on your investment.
Hi Robert, can you go over using the transformer coil and magnets to produce an output with me? I am designing a VAWT for my turbomachinary class and that part is a little out of my understanding. I can talk through email if you are able to. Thank you!
if you add another circle a smaller one to the axis it turns on you will lose some rotational speed but will need less magnets and you should be able to reduce the gap this should allow the use of more powerful magnets and because you are using a large circle to turn a smaller circle you will get more torque
very true mate and nice ideas but if you remember this is about being a budget build and exploring the possibilities of low torque generation - it's really why the magnets are ceramic and why the wheel diameter is so large
@@ThinkingandTinkering if you go with a larger circle lower torque higher speed just a thought like the build also hard drives have samarium cobalt magnets you can salvage those as well older will be bigger.
Will you be putting additional transformers on and connecting them in series? Seems like you could greatly increase the output by doing so. Even just one on each side, I would think would help to multiply the voltage and amps as well.
Great project. Can’t wait for the actual testing to see if you can get 1KW. Like the way you make science easy, practical and a simple solution to our most basic daily problem.
cheers mate and thanks for taking the time to say so
Totally awesome. This is one of my favorite builds of yours. Looking forward to seeing it in the wind again.
Thank you very much mate
Robert, sir, I am in awe of this contraption. You are a gent after my own heart. I must admit, I have been a "scrounger" since I left college at 24. About all I learned at college was that it was a waste of time. Had I persued something practical, as you have demonstrated, I might have made something of my life, instead of just being an awestruck bloke. But I find your work inspiring. Thank you very much, my friend. I have a good mate that is an engineer that I will share this series with. Cheers,. Bob in Montana
Looking good so far. I am a new subscriber, and after viewing all the previous videos (that took some time) I am more than impressed.
Looking forward to seeing the results here. I can't offer much in the way of advice / ideas as I think you're spot on so far. Well done Robert, you have been an inspiration so far, long may it continue mate!
wow - cheers mate and thank you for taking the time to post and say that - all the best
@@ThinkingandTinkering What about a power-kite? they have so much area
This build is great ! I admire your enthusiasm and energy. I had an idea a few years ago of utilising an old washing machine drum for a vertical wind turbine project with its associated bearing and pully. The spider arm was going to locate into a fixed bearing and a belt was going to drive off the pully to an alternator. Unfortunately this just stayed in my mind and never came to fruition.
it's a good idea mate - maybe time to dust it off and give it a go?
I'm following your project with excitement, I have watched until part three so far and I'm in awe, congratulations 👏🎉
Brilliant,. All those TH-cam videos coming down to a actual generator that really works, that we can all build. Can't wait for the next video.
cheers mate
Wow that's impressive. So many videos like this on TH-cam but most of them never really take into account the volts and current and only the volts. It was cool to see it light up that panel, and that's with only 1 coil.
Great Work Earthling Quality Stuff
Bless Up
lol - cheers mate
This is brilliant in more ways than one. To light the panel at this stage shows real potential. I've been following very closely a d looking for the parts. Thanks.
awesome mate
Thanks again Rob, you said that you can't wait. I can't wait, its brilliant.
lol - we will get there mate for sure
You always do 👍
Excellent! I'm impressed with having only a millimeter of clearance, we know closer is always better. As long as stability is never an issue, the only concern for me would be weather proofing the electrics. Where I live (eastern Pennsylvania) it's either a beautiful day or complete rubbish. I will check back tomorrow!
yes I worry about that too - cheers
Truly awesome Rob! You've got me taking apart a couple of old office chairs.
I'm going to try to increase the output current by testing some other magnetic pickups and perhaps add addtional solenoids in the attempt of adding magnetic braking, just for fun. But I have other challenges that you have so skillfully illustrated to conquer first, lol!
that v cool mate - share your results? I am basically playing it by ear here and love the suggestions lol
I have to wonder if this would work with multiple coils with their own rectifiers then on to a capacitor bank and then to a solar charge controller and on to a lead acid deep cycle. What do you think, Rob?
I think it would work just fine like that mate
@@ThinkingandTinkering love it. Is there a video in which you state the type of batteries and how and where you placed them? A diagram would be helpful. Maybe a walkthrough of the bridge rectifier. Please.
every yorkshire farmer should have one of these. Never been there myself but I watched a lot of james herriot in my young days, the series had a great tune!
I lived in Huddersfield - heart of Yorkshire mate lol
I like the way you think methodically. Great vids.
this was a great video. much better than the one i watched earlier. everything was explained and shown in detail. thanks
Hi Robert, I think it would be better to angle the corner baffles so they direct the airflow onto the driving side of the rotor and block the airflow onto the returning side, wherever the wind is coming from. Possibly curved baffles and maybe more than four. Also would it help to let air out of the top and bottom discs to increase flow over the blades? Great videos, very thought provoking and well made
With a good wind it will be impressive. Wonderful work till part 4, I cant wait. Cheers Robert, great to see it develope. Ron.
cheers mate
I agree, I can’t wait to get it finished either. Cheers Rob.
awesome mate - cheers
Just a quick Thank you as I had just been trying to figure out a horizontal turbine to use as I saw being used by another country in the middle of their streets to produce power from the air currents produced by the traffic ( I think it was Spain or France not sure ) anyway as I live on a very busy main road in my town and have been planing to put up a new solid fence It came to me that I could do the same thing. I want to add several of these type turbines in the body of the fence using its structure to include the frame for them. I want to build them thinner than the one you have here, with aluminum blades made from old news paper printing plates, PVC or aluminum body parts to keep the weights to the bare minimums I like the idea of having the magnets on the drum and the Transformer on the base. This should reduce the barrel and fins weight as well Thanks for the ideas. I'm working on a similar idea of my own design and after I get it up and running to show proof of concept I may make another and make a video of my build. Again thanks for the ideas and the videos, I am now a new loyal follower of your channel .
@rob have you thought of adding more Microwave transformers and place them between 2 magnets. So #1 settled to 1 magnet, #2 almost 1/3 between 2 magnets, #3 2/3 past the magnet. This will counter the cogging effect and possible help push the whole thing forward a little.
that sound very smart, never heard of cogging effect, bien joué ;), so 1 inside and 1 outside basically ? each running opposite magnetic side of course
yes mate I have
I'm curious if you tried arranging the magnets in a Halbach array. Would basically direct magnetism to one side, increasing strength of magnet... likely boosting performance. I really know little but stronger magnets would likely mean more power correct?
As a suggestion, if you produce a series of coils and connect them in series and even,y space them around the circumference.
Also to get the best magnetic coupling you need to have a ferrite core for each coil to increase the amount of magnetic flux in each coil. Just having air spaced coils will give you low saturation and less output.
Also to gauge the power output you have to take into account that when under load, there will be a significant amount of braking so this is where to get maximum energy it’s a function of the work done, ie proportional to the amount of surface area to the wind versus the braking effect as you load the coils.
Can’t wait to see how it goes but you can improve it all the time, it’s a great project Rob with lots of potential (haha see what I did there.... potential....ok I’ll get me coat)
Yeah great stuff Rob love seeing all your builds.
lol - I did see it mate - there are certainly limitations at play here and this is far from perfect but - for me - an interesting investigation that's for sure
Robert Murray-Smith it’s a great job mate well done
That is awesome mate, I like that it will power the light under just a little push and oh wow, that thing is a lot lighter than I would had thought. That is awesome in it's on, being so light weight will help it be able to turn easier in the wind for sure, just awesome...
cheers mate - I am looking forward to getting it on the roof
@@ThinkingandTinkering I'm excited for you, I'm really looking forward to seeing it's total output.
A very interesting project. Things like this are inspiring and helping me to learn basic electronics, taught by TH-cam :)
awesome mate - I was basically pretty new to wind turbines and it is where I got a lot of my info - actually I also look at google scholar a lot lol
Nice. I would put more of those wind capturing boards on and in offset to center. In such case wind will be directed on working side blades and excluded to blow on opposite side. This means higher efficiency and more output.
Thanks for the tips mate
Good design this will be very good the channel fins look good you could help that more to spin forcing air in with them an it's stackable this is why I like it. 🔋You could use them for skyscrapers corners?💎you could get power from the top as well.
that is a nice idea mate - cheers
Very impressive with the light at the end which is just proving my theory I’m gonna end up using a dense plastic as light as possible but clean engineering on joints/brackets loving the light touch
nice one mate - cheers
Using the diodes in the capacitors isolating electronic pickup that you have next to the magnets when you don't do that and allow the AC to be injected into the grid all kinds of permutations are taking place cancelling out some of the energy that you are trying to generate. But by using the diode bridge and the capacitors you are taking away any design flaws in placing the coils in the exact place at the exact time have you thought of using a magnetic bearing to support the weight of this unit and cut down drag. You just some amazing stuff and pique my interest in a lot of things God bless you
Would it be possible to have more then 1 coil and connect through a rectifier to give a smoother consistant power supply? I cant wait till Ive got spare time to play, ive purchased a 1960s lucas dynamo of fleabay, and it has good resistance compared to the rule of thumb ohms Ive found onine.
yes mate and that sounds like a good dynamo
The more inertia you have, the less problem cogging will offer, but, again, strategic coil-to-magnet ratios [many papers suggest the simple ratio of 2:3 (or 3:2, depending on how you read the information, pretty sure it really does not matter which)] can help greatly reduce the cogging, and this will technically help raise the efficiency of the generator, albeit to what extent, will vary from unit to unit.
I am working [on paper so far] on a way to use a sort of cam to operate the blades at an elevated efficiency, and still yet [HOPEFULLY] keep the overall cost of the unit low enough to justify the added complexity, especially since all such mechanisms must either be carefully concealed from the weather, or else made in such a manner as to make the weather [leaves, twigs, ice, snow, etc] irrelevant. [some sort of low profile design, and/or some form of shielding of the moving parts, especially since in some instances, moving parts could perhaps offer a threat of injury to small animals such as lizards who might accidentally find themselves up inside the cage in between bursts of wind].
While my work has not produced anything conclusive yet, what I do have on paper seems pretty promising, in theory at least.
I must admit, because of the fact you have something where all parts must be mounted and rotated on the same axis, some of these designs are looking like they may need a set of small hidden gears to articulate the cam system, and that indeed would increase the complexity of the machine significantly, so we shall see. ~( ,m,)~
that was a very helpful post thanks fro taking the time to do it - cheers
sorry but what do you mean cam ? and nice thinking !
Would you call the light panel a LOAD? Seems not to slow it down at all, although there's no actual way to know that from my end. Frankly; I love the whole project. The honeycombed Aluminum panel (originally developed for the aerospace industry) is a fantastic weight reducer, and with the light plastic fins the sucker should run literally like the wind! Another great Job Robert! Well done!!!
it is definitely a load mate and cheers
Looks great but I would like to see all of your parts like the Bottom of the windmill and how you put the magnets.
Thank goodness I can watch these one after the other as I would be hard to wait to see the next video! LOL #4 here I go! 😁
The law of sod seems to have a hand in this. All the wind we've had recently, build a wind generator and the wind goes on holiday. A bit more windy on Friday afternoon but back to single figure wind speeds for the rest of the week. Oh well.
I know what a pain lol - I'll get it built and have to wait for the wind and have loads of comments saying where is it - lol
@@ThinkingandTinkering Do you have a blower for garden or know someone that have 1 ? could be nice just for testing, of course an electrical version would be nice ahha, but just for testing also.. since it won't be 100% like a natural wind, except maybe a stormy wind lol
looks excellent.. i missed the reason for the chair base inside the drum
Hey my friend, instead of buying ceramic magnets, have a think about cutting (or scoring and snapping) those circular microwave oven ceramic magnets onto e.g six segments each, and using those.
very cool. impressively smooth operation for thrown together. if you added 1 or more additional microwave transformers you could probably double the output.
for sure mate
@@ThinkingandTinkering hi robert, query.. how many transformers could you add until cogging becomes a prohibitive issue? any idea?
"or before another issue becomes problematic?"
Thoughts, Re heavy wind, what about a bicycle disc brake at the top, cable goes to a flap, the stronger the wind the more it brakes , adjustable , like a lever system. Anyway just a thought. Or an old magnetic clutch from a car air con compressor
like a governor - I like it mate - cheers
It's coming together quite nice.
I am liking it lol
Nice idea, a suggestion, horizontal axis rotation with magnetics both sides, coils on both sides. Possibly multiple air coils on both ends for more output.
Cool idea
I was hoping to get off grid by installing solar panels and batteries, but the up front cost of doing this makes it not worth while, so I'm really interested in your project and would love to have a go myself.
I bloody love this Chanel!
lol - awesome mate - cheers!
This is progress!! Made my day!!
cheers mate
We can't wait either !
😃👍
awesome
Well hello Plymouth Prowler, I certainly wasn't expecting to see you in the UK
How come a load, like a led panel. affects the voltage readings?
Coming along nicely. Here's my bit for the TH-cam algorithm gods.
lol - cheers mate
I've just converted an upright pedestal AC fan, it produces 44v / 2A.( I used a cordless drill on speed 2 to turn the spindle.
Question ? How can I convert this to DC and use it to charge leisure batteries on my camper.
I love your videos but is there a reason for no close ups ?. I understand your verbal description, but would like to see the actual parts and how they are put together. Thanks for all the great content.
Cool project.
cheers mate
Adding a capacitor would smooth the output and reduce flickering in the light. Love your work!
for sure mate and cheers
@@ThinkingandTinkering lol people saying that like Rob doesn't know
@@strongforce8466 people keep suggesting it cause I am sure mr. Smith could make a video to show how it works. A double half wave rectifier would keep the light on as well but you lose voltage at the diodes. So in reality he just needs to connect half the lights one way and the other half the opposite. Now the two sets alternate.
@@MAGnetICus_Attractus or maybe they say it for other people, fair enough
@@strongforce8466 one thing I have learned about Robert is he does things his way. He accepts suggestions from others. But he makes the final judgement on how the project is done. Knowing Robert he did it the quick easy way which is directly connected. Kinda shocked he didn't use a 1000 watt hairdryer to make a few watts with his turbine. One time I got asked why I was using the kirby to spin up one of my disks. So I asked the guy why they use blowers to start jet engines. I was trying to see the wave output of the coil as the magnets spun around. The output from the transformer coil is AC. So the right capacitors are needed and extra diodes. The lights robert is using are diodes. So a second set of lights is the cheaper route. Makes use of both directions of current and could possibly charge a battery to boot. I think a lot of people are seeing the potential this idea has. Myself I noticed how you could see it start cogging when he switched the meter to amps. One of my wind up lights I completely tore up the gearbox when I put a heavy load on it. I know I put out a suggestion to use a office chair. Don't know if Robert read the comment but when he used a office chair I laughed. What he did wasn't what I was thinking, but I do like how he used it. Using gutters over cutting pipes in half was another good idea I got from Robert. I know Robert's primary objective on this project is for it to be done as cheap as he can salvaging as much as possible. I think he is doing a great job on his objective. Turning trash into treasure. Pun intended with turning.
I really love your videos! I know you're trying to make that on a budget but I know from experience that you will need a better set of coils for the output you're trying to achieve. When in the amp setting you should have a very hard time to move the magnets past the coil. With that configuration you would need to see a few thousand volts to make 1000 watts. With that type of a rotor you'll never get reasonable rpms. I'm not trying to discourage you, just giving some advice from 20 plus years of generating my own power.
I am not discouraged mate - I think your advice is awesome - I really don't know what I am doing here and just giving it a go so I really appreciate the advice - cheers
@@ThinkingandTinkering thank you for sharing I'm loving the videos
a fan belt using gearing could up your rmp maybe as a plan b but keep doing what your doing because i want to know how it turns out
cheers mate
brilliant..looking forward to the results man.....cool.
Fingers crossed!
Do you think it would be possible to build something similar.. (little smaller)
And set it up with a bunch of different gears and run it with weights?
Like a grandfather clock?
Or maybe even a cuckoo clock? 🤔
Run the lights, or radio in the shop?
I love your ingenuity 👍
GREAT JOB!! 😎
I would suppose so mate but it would really be a question of how well you built it
Hey I love your stuff and you're happy disposition! I watchef parts one and two somehow I missed what you're powering it with. Did you take that out of the microwave?
yes mate I did
Thank you for your reply! And do me and your mother a favor and put on some dang safety goggles when you're using that grinder Man! LOL I flinch every time I see you doing that
the axle's stationary right! , so do a 'weebles wobble' axle below pivot point extension with weights at the bottom pivoted at the current bolted section perhaps, that will then self stabilize
it is and that's a nice suggestion - cheers mate
@@ThinkingandTinkering it does have it's limits oc but good enough here perhaps.
Great video.
Are you going to use a Capacitor/ battery set up to smooth out the power?
I wonder if you could draw more electricity from this if you had magnets along the blade edges and had some upright brackets with copper coils at the magnet heights. Any thoughts?
Don't know much about generators but could you please explain why the coils have to only be on the periphery of the rotating blades could the whole area from the center to the circumference not be utilized.
You're right it is cool. How many coils and magnets and what are the specs on the coils and the magnets? Thanks Rob
I am sorry mate I have no real idea - I am going to source as many as I can and that will mean they will be all over the place but the magnets are ceramic 4.5cm x 1cm x 2.5 cm with 3.6kg of pull
Really cool Rob. I would still use multiple transformers to get the minimum current above 2 amps, just my opinion though, depends on your intended usage.
you are spot on mate - I am just using 1 to test - I'll be putting more in there
Did you have a update about the progress?
Sorry, just saw that there were clips up to 7. TH-cam sometimes is hard to navigate. But I still didn’t find the update I was expecting/waiting for. How does it preform on the roof?
Ahh yes, that's smooth. Your support-structure is nice. I wonder, and you may have wondered as well: do you get better performance out of it by tilting those supports at a different angle from 45-degrees? I'm thinking if there's more room for the air to head in straight-on at the leading side, then there will be less turbulent flow, *much more laminar* in it's approach.
I hate to mention the swastika symbol, for obvious reasons, but I feel if those support vanes leaned out a bit more toward that direction, you might get higher speeds. Don't think I would go completely open, but somewhere between there; 60 degrees tends to be an easy angle to reproduce.
lol - I never noticed that mate - to me it lookalike the top of Isengard from lord of the rings - but we all see things differently I guess - also the swastika is a symbol of peace - or is it good luck - in the Far East - either way not only do we see different things we also have different a social interpretation
Great 👍 what about an electricians conduit bender and a cross of galvanised conduit with threaded ends screwed down and a star box at the top a bearings or the like , very existing stuff love it 👍👍👍
that sounds like a good way to go mate
Hi you didn't show where or how you put the transformer or magnetics will you be showing that ?
I do hope you will be able to try it out underwater when it’s finished using an air stream underwater to drive it. The torque underwater would be phenomenal.
I am sorry mate - that's not likely
oh almost forgot what is the auto behind you in your shop? I ask because I found your videos while looking for videos about building recomebant hand rowing Trikes.
Very exciting to watch and if you got as many microwave oven transforms as you can fit underneath with some neodymian magnets i bet that turbin would beat the pants off a commercial one X10 in the emorata words of Chris Tarent ( THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT ) tiswas cecum 1979 , keep up the good work, wow this is exciting
do you know what - I'll bet it would lol
What materials did you use for this? I’m looking at building one for a project was wondering?
This is very effective desigh of wind turbine.
So, it generates about 1/2 of a Watt?
Wow a great video and fantastic work nd Insite on wind turbines and I have a question I have been told that car alternators can put out 240v if you buypass the resistors don't know if this is true and would love you to do a video not it pls it would be cool
Almost all squirrel cage fans are positioned horizontal. This puts the weight on 2 bearings. They spin with less resistance and the bearings last longer. Its fine if you want the vertical axis windmill, but horizontal might work better.
do you know what I have found mate - it doesn't matter what you do someone always suggests you do something else - I don't mean this to be critical but in the first vid this was in a horizontal position and I got told to shift it vertical - I have found there are always good reasons too - it really comes down to doing what you feel works for you
@@ThinkingandTinkering I know everyone lists every little detail at you. I didn't mean it as only my way is best. How about 45 degrees, lol. I am just kidding. Love your videos, I will keep watching with interest.
Brilliant video thank you 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Very good! "Not sure what the rpm is..." any single coil could act like a hall effect sensor without hindering electrical generation. Properly calibrated, it would make a decent velometer. It would be nice to record performance over weather conditions, even if only to help validate the starting ideas.
for sure mate - I actually have hall sensors so I could just attach one
@@ThinkingandTinkering maybe with a rasperry pi or something similar you could easily log the data, just a thought, don't know if you mess with those but it seem pretty cool
I missed the discussion regarding the choices going into the blades.
So we have the shape and the length of the radii
There is the angle that the blade is positioned
Also the number of blades.
It would be amazing if we could get someone to produce a set of mathematical equations
Another interesting video Rob, thank you. Please can you explain how your meter calculates Amps, my own digital meters only seem to accurately calculate amps when in series with a load. Does your meter have a load built in. The only reason I ask is that when youve quoted amps, a couple of times it seems on the very low side, and I would have imagined you would be getting a higher amperage. Cheers Antony
It's a Rigol meter mate a DM3058 if you want to look up how it actually does the job - it's a good meter
Do you have a video of how you install and how you wire the transformer.
What is the make and model of that light panel if you would please? And what are its input specs? Thank you.
I love all your vids but this series is great :)
wow - cheers mate
Brilliant as always! 😊👍🏻
Thank you! Cheers!
You should attach or combine your Wimshurst Machine to the top and bottom wheels. I'm just babbling. Great job, keep it up. Looking forward to further vids. A+
electrostatic machines don't do well in weather mate - the need dry conditions
@@ThinkingandTinkering Create a partially sealed dry space enclosure.
there are quite a few of us "can't waiting for tomorrow"
lol - me included
with the transformer, is it possible to get the actual coil closer to the magnets ? could that improve the output ? also, having multiple coils would definitely increase the output. thanks for the update, looking good so far.
you could slide the coil up I guess and I think you are right about the coils mate - cheer
I know the idea is to make a turbine that doesn’t need planning permission as a HAWT would, but your VAWT is quite big so perhaps it would need permission, but I expect you have checked that first. I suppose it also depends where on the roof it is put. It’s so crazy not allowing small domestic HAWT’s on our houses/flats, when LA have no issues with big Satelite Dishes, There’s an old Sat Dish below my flat window bolted halfway up the block., all the wires are cut and the Dish is going rusty that’s ok, but a mini Wind Turbine on my balcony isn’t ok!.
It is crazy how the rules are implemented - but you are right it depends on site and I have a stepped roofline so it basically can't be seen from the street - the size is basically 1 cubic meter - on the bench that looks large on a roof it is tiny lol
If you added more transformers extra blades could be fixed inside also to torque through additional cogging or blade length could be increased with slanted mounting and heat bent ends for fixing tabs with no height increase?:)
nice ideas mate - cheers
Best of luck rob : it will be interesting to see if its worth improving on
for sure mate
What is with the Twizzy. Is is broken. What is wrong
with it has it been trouble.
is the power of the magnets important? Say using a 7 pound rating instead of a 3 pound? Would using neodymium magnets be better?
depends what you mean by better mate - it would be more expensive - so for a budget build - no it would be much more costly - if you want to hang the expense and try for lots of generation then yes sure - it all depends on your objectives
Really like this Rob, I'm thinking since MOTs are free, you should add a few more.
for sure mate - I have four but on the look out for more
@@ThinkingandTinkering Something I was wondering, if you cut the middle of the "E" halfway - just above the coil so there is a channel, and run the magnets NSNSNS etc through it, it could really improve the performance, (not that there's anything wrong with what your reading so far). I'm thinking the analogy of a tape head, getting the magnets as close as possible:-)
Hi Robert,
What do you think about adding the same configuration of magnets and coil sets on the top part of the device doubling the output?
it's a good idea mate - I am going for budget build but the possibilities are huge
Nice... I figured you would have a whole array of microwave transformers. One will not give a significant output. I trust you spaced magnets based on the transformer pole spacing. If you place transformers based on this same spacing output will be in phase with each other and you could simply put them in series or in parallel. I think in this configuration it could do 3W or so. 34 transformers would do 100W maybe. Not the power you are targetting but still an excellent return on your investment.
Thanks for the tips mate
Hi Robert, can you go over using the transformer coil and magnets to produce an output with me? I am designing a VAWT for my turbomachinary class and that part is a little out of my understanding. I can talk through email if you are able to. Thank you!
You are great!
lol - cheers mate - thanks for saying so!
Awesome!! Looking great!!
Thank you! Cheers!
if you add another circle a smaller one to the axis it turns on you will lose some rotational speed but will need less magnets and you should be able to reduce the gap this should allow the use of more powerful magnets and because you are using a large circle to turn a smaller circle you will get more torque
very true mate and nice ideas but if you remember this is about being a budget build and exploring the possibilities of low torque generation - it's really why the magnets are ceramic and why the wheel diameter is so large
@@ThinkingandTinkering if you go with a larger circle lower torque higher speed just a thought like the build also hard drives have samarium cobalt magnets you can salvage those as well older will be bigger.
Will you be putting additional transformers on and connecting them in series? Seems like you could greatly increase the output by doing so. Even just one on each side, I would think would help to multiply the voltage and amps as well.
That's the plan mate
@@ThinkingandTinkering that was what I thought. Really look forward to seeing the results.