I'm building a HAWT

[cujet]

I just discovered this thread.

Amazing! I wish I had the time to experiment with such projects. These are the things that really interest me. Nice job!!!!!! 

Here in South Florida, not much steady wind, but plenty of solar.

[rcavictim]

Project Update.

I have been really working my tail off trying to get this tower up on the custom concrete blocks.  As of last Friday we have liftoff.  Thanx to an electric winch I was able to achieve my very first erection of this 20m tilt up tower!!!!

I used to work with video and I know that a picture is worth 10,000 watts.     Here's a photo essay of the past weeks efforts which ought to represent some real watts fairly soon down the road.  Enjoy.

[rcavictim]

more pics...

[rcavictim]

and more pics...

[rcavictim]

and still more...

[rcavictim]

So now that the tower is at long last in place and the tilt works I have two immediate issues to deal with.  Need to upgrade my electric winch.  The one I used is too small and continued use would be very risky.  The straight section that tilts is very top heavy now even with the lowest section, the part below the 'pin' filled with cement.  I need to fabricate about 700 lbs of bottom counter weight to compensate for the tower and the extra weight that the turbine nacelle and blade will add to the top.

Once that is done I have to finish running the electrical wires on the tower and add three electrical boxes.  Finally I need to finish the nacelle and blade fabrication, and the spinning 3-cup annemometer system that will sit on a short horizontal stub tower sticking out of the vertical tower below the main  turbine blade.  The wind signal sensed by this annemometer will be used to proportionally turn the main propeller into and out of the wind, an automatic means of controlling the amount of power the turbine blade receives depending on wind conditions.  Some folks will call this auto furling.  Lots of work to do yet!

[mobile_bob]

holy crap! RCA you da man!

what a project! and it is coming along very nicely.

i have no idea where you get the energy for such an ambitious project.

let alone the motivation 

great job, i am impressed.

bob g

[rcavictim]

In the plan for a foundation substitute I came up with the idea of hiring a concrete plant to cast custom re-bar weldments that I made with an 8"x8" x1/2" steel plate on the top surface into some 2x2x4 foot blocks. Each block weighs about 2500 lbs. I welded a 1-1/8", high grade steel threaded rod onto each plate to be used to mount the tower the way municipal steel light poles are mounted.  Earlier in the photo essay I showed me unloading one of these blocks from the float trailer on which I had nine of them delivered.  Five are used for this project.  The other four will be used to add extra ballast to the bottom of the larger BGT VAWT.

The topsoil has been removed only enough to expose the firm clay layer upon which the blocks were precisely placed after levelling the holes.

I had a lot of trouble finding a cement plant that was willing to work with me on this custom project.  Fortunately I did find one and they also gave me a great price of just $40 per block.  Delivery was $300 however and then there was also full taxes to pay.  The threaded studs were over $30 each and the nuts about $5 each.  We sure pay through the (select most abused body part here) in Canada for quality hardware for DIY projects.

[rcavictim]

holy crap! RCA you da man!

what a project! and it is coming along very nicely.

i have no idea where you get the energy for such an ambitious project.

let alone the motivation  

great job, i am impressed.

bob g

Thanx Bob!  I have to admit, this project turned out to be a lot more work than I originally invisioned.  It has taken me pretty much two years so far to build.  This is time taken away from finishing the larger, much more ambitious BGT that must get done next.  I don't see any rest time on the horizon just yet.  Sure will be nice the call I make to Hydro to tell them I no longer need their obscene power bill delivered to my mailbox every month.  That day IS on the forseeable horizon now!  

DIY Rob
aka rcavictim

[Henry W]

WOW!!!

RCA,

I must say I had my socks blown off seeing what you accomplished. Very nice indeed.
Hoping for good weather for you.
Please be safe.

Henry

[rl71459]

RCA

Man.. you amaze me! Good Job, Nicely done.

Your creativity and ability never cease to amaze me.

Rob

[Tom Reed]

Awesome job there RCA. Amazing what will determination and talent can do despite a physical handicap. Inspirational!

[mike90045]

Wow.   NASA could use that as a launch tower too !! but since we have nothing to launch anymore, best to use it to generate power.

(I've now been officially laid off, and living in a scrapwood cabin while my new house is being finished, seeing as this great country of ours has to buy seats on Russian craft, to get to orbit.  Even Red Bull flies folks higher than NASA can.  )

[rcavictim]

Hi guys.  I continue to build the components that will soon adorn the top of my 20m tilt tower.  When I had just completed fabricating the frame that can hold up to eight, 100 lb. precast cement patio stones to act as an 'adjustable' counterweight at the lower end of the 'stick', I took a video of the day I tested the motion of the system.  It appears to work AOK!  

Enjoy.

[rcavictim]

I made the decision that I would fabricate slip rings into the Yaw or AZimuth drive platform under the nacelle so as to avoid problems with tangled wires and potentially catching the loop of cable with the turbine blade one day.  That would have put a quick end to the whole experiment!  Because my AZ is powered by an active, DC gearmotor driven control system to seek the wind, measure it's strength and turn the turbine blades in or out of the direction of the oncoming wind at an increasing offset angle as winds climb, in order to continue to be able to harvest power rather than merely flipping the turbine out of the wind as so many small HAWT's do, I had quite a fabrication task ahead of me.  I required a total of six circuits from the ground to the rotating nacelle.  A large flat custom slip ring assembly with ten carbon brushes was fabricated from scratch.  This 'package', which will slip onto the end of the tower and secure by tightening four, 3/4" bolts, just took me a whole 3 months to fabricate.  Picture essay follows.  The slip rings are fabricated from 1/8" thick yellow brass cemented to a 1/4" thick Glastic (electrical fiberglass) disk insulating them from the 80 tooth, #50 roller chain AZ drive sprocket.  The two heavy power rings each are attached at approximately 120 degree points and heavy brass lugs permit three #8 copper wires of equal length to go to the nacelle, equalizing the current in the rings.  There are three heavy duty carbon brushes riding on each of the heavy power rings with equal length #8 wire from each brush holder to an output terminal which will hook to the #2 AWG aluminum cable which runs about 500 feet to the basement of the house.  I expect to see as much as 50 amps flowing through the power brush set.  Since the shorting contactor will be on the earth side of the rotating joint, I required as much reliability and redundancy in this conductive path as I could manufacture.  Not being able to 'lock the rotor from overspeed' is not an option, ever, period.  If the automatic system fails or if I get nervous before it activates, I will have the option of shorting the generator from the house with the flick of a switch.

This command also engages the 'automatically seek 90 degree pointing away from the wind direction and park there', system.