April is project contribution month

[vdubnut62]

RCA, are you planning on "furling" the airfoils, using a Big Ass drum or disc brake...or both?
That sucker will take some serious stopping power in a storm huh? (Why, yes Mr. Obvious it will.) Duh!
Sorry, been a looong day.
Ron

[mobile_bob]

i don't know how many remember the pepsi points game from about 10-12 years ago
it went like this

you got points for each pepsi product purchase, bottle caps and the like
and they put out a book/catalog where you could spend your pepsi points to buy everything from
radio's, and televisions, leather jackets, etc. all the way up to a jet fighter plane which took 6.5 million pepsi points.

herein was the catch, they also allowed you to buy pepsi points for a dollar each, the idea being that if you were short a few
points to buy a tv or a jacket you could simply buy the extra points and redeem for your product.

well a college student quickly figured that a jet fighter was worth about 10x the 6.5 million pepsi points, and put together a consortium
of investors and then presented pepsi corporate with something like a half million bottle caps and a cashiers check for 6 million dollars to
buy the needed pepsi points and demanded the fighter jet product.

pepsi fought it through the first trip to court, lost  the case and then settled for an undisclosed amount which reportedly made the investors happy
and paid for the student 4 years of college, plus a jump start on life.

apparently those in government are not the only one that think the general populace is too stupid to be able to do simple math.

one would think that anytime someone in biz or gov comes up with some hairbrained scheme that is thinking outside the box, someone would think
to ask, "hey what say we run this past the legal dept, and maybe we ought to hire some streetwise kids to have a look at it too"

it really doesn't surprise me that the canadian government got 16k applications, i am just amazed it wasn't 16 million!

actually i am amazed that immigration to canada didn't skyrocket as well.

bob g

[rcavictim]

RCA, are you planning on "furling" the airfoils, using a Big Ass drum or disc brake...or both?
That sucker will take some serious stopping power in a storm huh? (Why, yes Mr. Obvious it will.) Duh!
Sorry, been a looong day.
Ron

Ron,

The airfoil design is such that they will self speed limit, being only able to accelerate unloaded to about 1.5 to 2X the windspeed.  Additionally I plan to be able to use the 24 kW gen head as a dynamic brake into a dump load located on the wind machine under automatic control to shed energy and speed when necessary.  Finally, I dun dragged home the biggest and baddest type of brake that was easy for me to acquire. It is from a semi tractor drive axle. It got a new set of shoes and is installed on the solid 4" steel upper short mainshaft that the actual rotating assembly bolts to between the bearings.  I plan to purchase a 12 VDC linear actuator from Surplus Center in the US to tug on the slack adjuster instead of a maxi-air pot.  I have my eyes on one that has 2000 pounds pull rating and 12" stroke for $250.  This will be easy to control.

[vdubnut62]

Yep, that's along my line of thought, anyway it's ass is big enough!  I assume that you can torque limit the linear actuator? That thing just might crack a brake drum.
Looking good! I'm still in awe of the basic idea and execution.
Ron

[rcavictim]

Yep, that's along my line of thought, anyway it's ass is big enough!  I assume that you can torque limit the linear actuator? That thing just might crack a brake drum.
Looking good! I'm still in awe of the basic idea and execution.
Ron

Yes I do plan to torque limit the linear brake actuator with low ohm power resitors in series with the 12 VDC supply.  I can have shorting solenoid  switches across each one and address the current and thusly applied torque by BCD digital control if I wish.

Funny what a big difference a day can make.  I reported earlier that PLC's were just not likely where I was going by myself because of a total lack of experience in this area.  Nevertheless I am certainly aware that in reality that is the very best way to accomplish my complex monitoring and control needs.  Well last night looking by chance at the Barrie, ON Kijiji website I happened to go see what was for sale in the industrial electronics and lo and behold found an ad for a really slick Mitsubushi Alpha-2 called a AL2-24MR-D. 

Info here as well as free downloadable hardware and software manuals. 
http://www.electrodepot.com/al20mrd.htm

The asking price was $100 each (they are used pulls). This is the most advanced model of this product released to date. This is less than I'd pay for a PLC chip and evaluation board from a major supplier and it is one slick and completely loaded package.  Can be programmed through the on board panel buttons and display OR by RS232 (RS202 Newfoundland Ha Ha  ), from a pc running a very powerful programmer and emulator in a windoz environment.  I got a copy of the windoz software as well.  It will run on my XP.  You can set up as many as 200 logic or function blocks and test the system behaviour even inputting simulated inputs generated by the software package and completely debug the system before you upload it to the PLC itself.  I picked up two of these because they will also be perfect to make a 3 stage battery charger with as well.  I have enough power in one to also run my motorized variac as a MPPT controller.

You could set one up to monitor a diesel engine or several (there is enough I/O) and do auto start and shutdown with it with most of it's hands tied behind it's back.  The analog variable voltage inputs, AC or pulse/frequency counter inputs and relay outputs are all there.  The box needs 24 VDC to run.  Has the ability to make a digital data phone call through a cell phone network to report to home base too! 

I really didn't want to get into a straight vertical learning challenge which this is going to be for me right now, but I do recognize that this will be the very best way for me to do what I need to do, and will be less time consuming and cheaper than any relay logic 1950's alternatives that my Ruby Goldberg brain can concoct.

I could sure use some help though.  Anyone here familiar with these Mitsububishi Alpha 2's? 

If anyone wants one or more I can put you in contact with the seller.  He has almost 50 available.

[Crofter]

RCA, that looks like a dandy brake system. I think as long as you engineer it so it does not come on too quickly and shock load things, you will have no problem. Fierce brakes with no feel ~ bad! Your servo will be considerably less pull than the 6" or so air chamber normally powering the unit so With the right levers and that much travel you have options to give it whatever it takes.

[mobile_bob]

the typical type 30 service chamber or 30/30 service/park chamber is capable of over 3000 lbs of force applied to
the slack adjuster clevis pin.  the type 30 spring brake has just at 3600lbs of capability.

your actuator will never break a drum under any circumstances, and at 250 lbs of force will be a rather soft application
so there should be no harsh stops.

if anything you may want more power to the lever,, so you might want to extend the arm length of the slack adjuster
which would be very easy to do.

bob g

[rcavictim]

the typical type 30 service chamber or 30/30 service/park chamber is capable of over 3000 lbs of force applied to
the slack adjuster clevis pin.  the type 30 spring brake has just at 3600lbs of capability.

your actuator will never break a drum under any circumstances, and at 250 lbs of force will be a rather soft application
so there should be no harsh stops.

if anything you may want more power to the lever,, so you might want to extend the arm length of the slack adjuster
which would be very easy to do.

bob g

Thanx for the comments on the brake Crofter and Bob.  The $250 was the price of the linear actuator, not the pull rating.  The pull rating is 2000 lbs dynamic and 3000 lbs. static.