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Forum Index : Windmills : Truck Alternator
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| dwyer Guru  Joined: 19/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 574 |
Hi Crews Over numbers of years many windmill amateur have trying building windgenator by using car alternator and find waste of time due need high rpm plus higher ratio gearing to bring up 3000 rpm or more to max power or voltages however several months ago l got several heavy duty 12 volt truck but still waiting on 24 volts and during my spare time searching and found has 3phase and able to convert to 6 phase  and replace wire into serial connect and put on my lathe and speed up near 700 rpm and result got approx 14volts AC 16amp and 950 rpm is 29 volts AC around 25 amps and more reseach to be done.  
No rare magnet is use at the momest. Just use full 12 volt to feed the Amature direct on running on carbon brushes approx fews amps howver will try use 24 volts to see if able gain more amps but the heat might cook copperwires otherwises. Truck Alternator has very high amp outup well over 150 Anyway l will try download upsome photo very soon. Cheers Dwyer |
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wind-pirate Senior Member  Joined: 01/02/2007 Location: CanadaPosts: 101 |
Hi dwyer The one and only experment I did with a auto alternator, was to full field it "12 volts" and turn it at a high speed. I was able to get 110 volts out of it. "DC" The alternator was a mopar 100 amp. the motor needed to turn at about 2000 rpms. I was able to run my table saw with it. I have always wondered if a person could use a small 30 amp and full field it on a 2 meter. 2 or 3 blade prop. If a person might get some usable power out of it. You would have to have some type of cut in switch so it could start without the load. Thoughts!! THE Pirate. stealing wind & solar energy is fun |
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| kumtarest Newbie  Joined: 01/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 7 |
Hi Dwyer. I have recenty converted a truck alternator to a permanent magnet alternator and i am very happy with the results so far.I used a 24 volt 40 amp alternator an when i put it on the test bench for the first time at the auto electrician i got 155dc volts at 900 rpm open circuited at 1 to 1 ratio before i blue 2 of the diodes out of it . I then changed the rectifier and tried again with a 12 volt load this time i got 15 amps at 225rpm i could not go any more because i only had a 20 amp gauge on it .I am hoping to get 35 amps at 500rpm at 12 volts Matt Lyons on this web site has done the same conversion and came up with the a very similar result . I am presently carring out more tests at the moment and i am very happy with the results so far .i will keep you posted on the results . Regards Kumterest |
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| dwyer Guru Joined: 19/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 574 |
Thank Kumtarest Reason l went to truck alternator on this forum no -one ever bother try on something else apart F&P and all voltage & currect are limit after reading all information and lucky my friend gave me several truck 160 amp low rpm Alternator plus has 3 phase outlet and trying to find out what is 3 phase AC is use for ? but has two - & + bolts and nuts so connect the two wires to go straight to main batteries there is no ALT lights plugs like normal car to see if fan belt or ALT fail. Truck Alternator diameter size approx 250mm x 280mm long , weight 8 kg each L am hoping to get 24 volts tomorrow . Other night on the lathe running approx 980 rpm and amp meter working got 160 amp short ciricut after accidening shorten the wire plus thed shed got fill up with smokes from plastic 15 amp 240 power wire that use on testing.holy sh*t Sometime next year if my wife give me premission to buy rare manget somthing like 90mm x 10 mm thick x 12 wide approx 10 of them and will let you know . Cheers dwyer the bushman 
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| kumtarest Newbie Joined: 01/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 7 |
hi dwyer i will attempt to put some pictures on here of my generator as i made it. but my computer skills are not the best i hope they turn out.one pictur of the rotor after i had welded and machined and had put magnets on. The magnets had to be put on a angle to stop cogging as i found out the hard way after 2 attempts.the magnets in this picture are only the north magnets. It has very little cogging now if any with 2 meter diameter blades and it spins up really easy. The other picture is of the generator with the alternator complete. 
Hey I just moved the pic down to narrow the post up a bit, hope you dont mind. Glenn. |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5117 |
I've always thought it would be good to find some way to use a car or truck alternator as a windmill alternator. I mean, mechanically its a good building block, rugged with good bearings, designed to work in extreme conditions. Its the electrical side thats the problem. If we could take a standard 24v truck alternator, and use the existing stator and field winding, even if we need to break the star point, which is easy to find. Then configure the stator windings to gain more volts, maybe by individually rectifing, add some caps and connect the 3 phases in series. Add some smarts to switch in the field winding once the windmill gets up to speed. So we could take a standard 24v alternator, make a few small changes, add our black box of electrical bits, and end up with windmill alternator. Just add blades and tail! It may only make 100 watts, as big chunk of the power is used to feed the field coil, but its something that could be made from junk yard parts. I'm thinking remote comunities, where you are likely to find a few wrecked cars or trucks. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| Highlander Senior Member Joined: 03/10/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 266 |
Bloody Hell Ian be carefull mate, those amps could be really nasty.  Central Victorian highlands |
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| dwyer Guru Joined: 19/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 574 |
Hi highlander Yes l understand that amp is very high just like using stick welder as l am use to it as l have done welding up to 600 amp 60 volts mostly time welding around 220 amp setting on mig welder as part of my work depend on the metal material using .
I am hoping to load down some photo in next couple of days to see 160 amp alternator working on it Dwyer the bushman |
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| adelaide Regular Member  Joined: 24/03/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 46 |
WOW 250amps from starndad fp potenshall. did a test on 1 coil of 100 f/p .was fast and ruff , so pls some 1 conferm . got 500 w drill to shaft with nut removed up to 2000 rpm drill. it put out around 2.7 amps at just over 12 v ac not shore if it will change much when all coils used with feilds? etc but wow that = around the old grafts floting around as in over 110 apms at 13 v (100 p )or close to 1.5 kw ,(cool mill potenshal with geared big pro eg 5 m big root aria around 7 to 1 ratio) standard form .i then tryed adding the ac caps 100 then 200 uf to that and wow again it made a 20 watt and 55 watt (paralleled around 75 watts )12 v globs bright on 1 coil ac , so 75 w att x 42 coils is 3 kw at hi rpm gess 1500 rpm plus or in english to this thred 250 amps just over 12 v or rewire to say 30 v 175 amps prob achivable / to be comfermed on stater heat tolarance but short go was just warm so put 1 of thos at each end of shaft with pullly in midle and would be 500 amps (maby a seriies or pralell contacter for 2 x volts 1/2 amps prob better for welding ?)if temp testing was ok alot of caps prob im not shore ? ushaly efishancy rises alot with the hi rpm fps and no feild to excite like a car alt more cooling aria and lower rpm . can some 1 pls test this to more precis figers as well pls as would be the most amps out of fp with standard magnets 100 p delta mm?? help to make progres or radio and vitamin b |
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ArcticCat Newbie Joined: 16/07/2008 Location: United StatesPosts: 6 |
I see this thread hasnt been posted on in a while, so I wont feel too bad for stealing it... Im new here and new to the whole harnessing the winds energy. I've been looking at a project to keep me busy. I don't know how or why I found a site on wind generators, but here I am. I did some searching and found a youtube video on how to make a homemade wind generator by Layne Erickson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHB4zxWd3Ls I thought Id like to attempt to build one following his design. He seemed to be able to harness enough power to run his small shop. I see you talked about changing over to a solid magnet set-up. He used one from a site called www.windbluepower.com. They take a ordinary alternator from a GM car. Anyways, Im currently collecting the items I need to do this build. I have the pvc pipe promised to me by a friend thats a plumber. The altenator should be easy enough to find. I do have a question on batteries. Can I use 12 volt deep cycle batteries or do they have to be 24 volt? Also, what gauge wire do you reccomend for everything? Ken |
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readyakira Senior Member Joined: 17/07/2008 Location: United StatesPosts: 114 |
if the batteries are 12v of the same type then you should be able to use them as 24v just by connecting the pos of one battery to the neg of the other. this is in effect the same as a 24v battery. keep in mind though you will need to use a 24v device to connect to it. In other words you can not use a 12v inverter to make 110vac from this setup without disconecting the charging circuit first. which you would also run into problems with one battery not charging at the same rate that way. I used to tinker with remote control cars and learned alot about batteries and the advantages of using matched batteries and keeping cells all at the same charge. Don't you think Free/Renewable energy should be mandatory in new buildings? |
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