Wind/diesel installation....

[wookey]

That not-at-all-round alternator belt is just marvellous. Had me falling out of the chair here :-)

I don't really understand this alternator excitation thing - is that the same as controlling the alt output using the field control wire? As done on camper-van/marine battery chargers to get variable rather than fixed output for better-controlled/faster charging? Or something else?

[stephen]

When are you getting a bigger shed!!!!  This has now gone past the Warp drive stuff!!
wach out for Clingons!! or is that clingers on?

[frotter]

Hehe - o what fun...
Excitation wittering explained. A bit.
To get charge/output from an alternator the big spinny bit that whizzes around inside the output coils needs to have some magnetism about it. There are no magnets in an alternator of this type so a DC current is passed through the windings on the rotor to magnetize it via sliprings/brushes.  An alternating current is then produced which is rectified to a DC output by a pack of chunky diodes hidden within... In a standard car alternator there is a little regulator which controls the current to the rotor so as not to overcharge the battery.
We have binned that and directly control the current into the unit so we can dial up a precise output current which doesnt tail off as battery voltage increases. (as in a car..).
Clear as mud M'Lud..
Case dismissed! Take him away!

Nooooooooo o  o   o    o     o      o     .      .          .           .            .             . !

X

[wookey]

OK. Got it. So a shorter answer would have been 'yes,it's the same thing'.

[frotter]

Yes it would have been a shorter answer. Correct.
Sadly i like to drone on a bit as you can plainly tel....

 

[paul149]

Drone-on Dr Frotter with sprinkles of pic's it's all very addictive in so far as where will this all go and how it will settle down into a well oiled piece of engineering-bit like a Rolex only bigger, noisier, heavier, dirtier, and probably more expensive!!! ok then not quite such a good analogy

[frotter]

More like one o them knock-off Rolexes.. looks great at first glance then turns out to be unreliable and more trouble than its worth maybe?
 

I can DEFINITIVELY verify that 'its not easy being green'. If indeed whatever it is we are doing here is the tiniest bit 'green'... There are so many things that just hoover up your time. Today, for example, when i got back to Frot Towers around lunchtime Ivor had stopped sometime a bit earlier due to high engine temp. There wasnt enough water in the engine... Still - at least no disastrous overheat this time. It DID mean, however, spending about 30 minutes with the hot air gun melting lardy fuel filter/pipes to get it to flush out to restart Ivor. Fine. Also random lard spillages.... it makes such a mess if even half a fanny full (sorry - old builders expression. Couldnt resist it..) escapes onto floor/workbench/trousers/hair. In the winter at least it can be scraped up once cold an cheesey! Devils business though, spillages.

A case in point is this event last week. The RCD went out randomly one day. The following day i noticed the lard melting tank (in 'Eastern Europe' filtering shed..) was a bit cool, oh and there was all lard slopping around the bottom of it... The Cursed Lard had seeped onto one of the heating elephants and caused sparks to fly...




Yikes - needs to be made more better then you Ginger Git!! Not much of a surprise it failed really, is it??




So here we are with a new elephant fitted all clean and luverly.




I decided to make a completely new box. The old one was SO gunky it must burn. Also slightly larger will be useful as some of the tubs are a bit of a squeeze. (fat b*stards!)





What we need to do really is make sure the Dreaded Fat cannot become juxtaposed with the Realm Of Electrons - as it were...


So - back at my local tip i scoured the area in vain for an old copper water cylinder and ended up with an old garage door panel. Obviously.




The big idea here is to make a sealed metal liner to sit atop the hot elephants. Heat will be transferred, Lard will not. I was somewhat dreading the prospect of sliced pinkies due to wrestling tin snips across this evil steel when i remembered this splendid ancient nibbler i picked up in an auction years ago. Its gnashing jaws of hardened steel Doom soon got to work.
Two words. Stanley knife, Butter. Three words..   




Watch more of this paint drying next time - if you DARE...!



X

[goodnoisefella]

Can't fail Frot, there's a half a reel of gaffa tape on it already

Garage door?....right.

[stoveboy]

All welcome to join in the weekend sweepstake guessing what time Stoveboy will be up. You may wonder why he hasnt been on here rebuking me roundly for constant p*sstaking. Well its cos he's too feckin busy having a rest to register!

Aha! I'm here to rebuke you!

Ive been getting up earlier as of late - although I havent really been helping much as Speccy-Face has made the work too complex and 25th century. Even digging a hole became a battle of rulers and included special digging 'buzzwords' like "approximately" and "bigger-than-you-think"... I was flummoxed and needed a rest...

[byways]

Hehe - o what fun...
Excitation wittering explained. A bit.
To get charge/output from an alternator the big spinny bit that whizzes around inside the output coils needs to have some magnetism about it. There are no magnets in an alternator of this type so a DC current is passed through the windings on the rotor to magnetize it via sliprings/brushes.  An alternating current is then produced which is rectified to a DC output by a pack of chunky diodes hidden within... In a standard car alternator there is a little regulator which controls the current to the rotor so as not to overcharge the battery.
We have binned that and directly control the current into the unit so we can dial up a precise output current which doesnt tail off as battery voltage increases. (as in a car..).
Clear as mud M'Lud..
Case dismissed! Take him away!

Nooooooooo o  o   o    o     o      o     .      .          .           .            .             . !

X

Thanks for those details Lard Laird, 

That's filled another gap in my edification.  Is the frequency of the AC then a way to measure engine speed (once calibrated) IF there is no belt slippage?

For a, say 12v 80Amp alternator, (or any other you know about)  what might the exciter current be for say 12v 40amps, and what might it be for maximum possible output, and what voltage and current might that max output be?  (All in very rough terms of course, just to give a clue as to the size of components to aim for.)

Chris

[stephen]

Frotter just a small Idea for you. Can you rig your fuel line so that if the high temp switch is activated you pump either veg oil (the normal stuff not solid Frotter stuff) or diesel to clean the lines. This could run on a timer or until under gravity until the top tank is empty.
Just a thought, What do you think!!

Stephen

[frotter]

Wahay! look. We got Stoveboy online..... Now just need to get the ESH logging in and the whole sorry team will be on!
   

Re alternators..... The AC generated is hidden away inside and the output is DC cos of its rectifier. But yea i suspose you could use the ac as a tacho if you could be arsed to.... ken...?
I cant really give any idea about a 12volt setup but i know that in ours (48volt) it takes about 3 amps at 18 volts or so applied to the alt to give around 30 amps output. (48volts so 1.5kw roughly..) We are still tinkering with possible max output but we have managed to almost completely stall Ivor with 24volts applied to alt inputs (didnt measure current.) With a single alternator energised we have had 50 amps or more out of it.... 2.5 kw!
With 12 volt setup - just fiddle about... everything will be fiiine...

More later, hopefully.

XX

[jason]

Frot
do you still want a cylinder freeeeeeeee !!!!!!! worth giving away just for the entertainment. i have a couple in BT drop us a line
jason

[frotter]

More balderdash, then.....

So this here metal (yes its from a garage door...) is to be cunningly fashioned into a sort of tank. (non combat, silly...)






See, look. its all square and container-like. The bottom is going to be made from the last bit of an old copper cylinder you can see on the floor. Mmmmm, verdigris...!






'But how are you going to join it all up so boiling hot Lard wont find its way out, ye Ginger Tw*t!!??'
Eh? Who is that..?
Er, soldering, obviously. With the manly 200 watt Iron of Power. I should think.





Took some flap-wheeling to remove that blimmin' etched primer i can tell 'e!






Here we are - copper bum soldered on and all sealed up inside its cosy celotex kennel.




 
 Mmmmm.. warm lard for tea again mum?




Anyhow - it seems to be working now - hoorah!
Completely random moment..... programming my fiendish 'idiot-map' today turned up this surprising estimate for how long my journey was going to take....



Oi! - Tom Tom, Leave it out. 136 Years? Not even Boj is THAT slow!

 

[paul149]

I think that Tommy Tom has got so much local knowledge that it has allowed for "straying of the path".!!!