And that's a fail

Today the wind blew and quite a strong series of gusts. They did move my turbine blades and proved one thing. The design is a total failure.

Now, taking that design failure apart, let's see what failed and why. From observing the motion of the turbine and from spinning the blades rapidly by hand I can conclude the following:

1. Spinning the blades rapidly by hand I did get enough power for my LED so the generator probably does indeed reach 12v.
2. The blades need to spin far more rapidly than that in order to make viable electricity.
3. The blades are probably at 2.5 gallons each a bit on the small side. A second set of blades would definitely be an advantage.
4. With the existing space taken up by the turbine plus any extra space, it is not a viable option for a motorhome.

Where does all that leave me? It leaves me with a very promising little generator that clearly needs more than just bigger blades. In all honesty I think a small model aeroplane engine would run that generator just fine. The only downside with that is such engines are somewhat costly.

As I sit, typing, the turbine is indeed turning occasionally. Bigger blades would help a lot but as I have already said, for a motorhome, it's not feasible to carry such big blades given that the power generated will be so low. It would be more beneficial to have this as a tiny generator running from a small model aircraft engine. Sadly, those seem to be quite expensive - more so than the cost of the cheapest Harbor Freight generator.

In conclusion, it's a $15 Chinese generator that has way too much internal resistance from the gears for it to be remotely worth using. It's not worthless junk but it's pretty unusable unless used as a water turbine. Then it might have some promise.

Wind Turbine Pt 4 (or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8)

Somebody asked me the other day why I was building a wind turbine and what it would power. The answer is that I had the turbine generator that I'd bought off eBay some years ago and never had used. Having all this free time, I can use some for experimentation. The turbine generator is alleged to produce 12v. I have yet to see 12v from it. Turning the turbine blades by hand I got 6v but I wasn't turning them all that fast. Thus I've wired a 12V LED light directly to the turbine. That actually lights up at around 8V. I'm expecting some strong winds over the next day or so so I've sat the turbine outside in sight of a window. That way I can see if it's producing sufficient power to make it worthwhile in this form.

A possible change would be to build it into a water turbine though currently I lack an adequate water source to test that.

Thus far I have to say I probably get far more still days than windy days and those days with a breeze, the wind speed is too slow to do anything - even to flutter leaves on a tree. Watch this space for developments. The goal is - if this experiment works - to turn it into a wind generator for my bus.

Here you can see clearly the LED. It's not an LED I'll be using in the bus. It gets very hot and to my mind that's no advantage over my halogen bulbs. I have plenty halogen bulbs. The whole argument in favor of LEDs is very sketchy.

LEDs are supposed to last a long time. Not my experience. LED flashlights don't last much longer than the batteries. LED 120v bulbs don't last as long as the implied warranty. I've never had one last more than a year and frequently they don't last more than a month or two. The failure rate for a device claimed to last around 7-10 years has been about 95%.

LEDs are supposed to be very bright - sure they are if you like being dazzled by very directional light that's hard on the eyes.

LEDs are supposed to be very cool as opposed to incandescent lights. Not really - some of them are but most have great big cooling vanes (or like this one, no cooling vane) and get really hot.

To cap it all, I paid $5 for ten halogen bulbs and LED bulbs are $5 each. LEDs are not cheaper to buy. They're not cheaper to run (because of the extraordinarily high failure rate) and they're worse for the environment (all those that have to be thrown away). I can't say anything about carbon dioxide as my lighting is solar powered so whether they're LED or halogen, no fuel is burned to produce the electricity.

As regular readers are aware, I'm unhappy with the performance of my twin 35AH AGM batteries. Everything else in the system is top notch. The batteries are the weakest link. I've heard choruses of buy this and buy that. No. Not doing it. The problem with AGM batteries is that they're inherently a terrible design. I looked into Lithium batteries and found there were several major issues. First the ready built batteries are obscenely expensive. Secondly they're not well made.

I looked into lithium batteries and found the cheapest place to get the standard 18650 cell is from Aliexpress. The cheapest place to get holders for the cells is also Aliexpress. In fact the same that I'd paid for protected 18650 cells is less than I'd pay on eBay for unprotected unknown brand 18650s. Thus, I ordered some 18650s and holders.

The 18650s I ordered are button top which means they look just like an AA battery but bigger. There are no solder tabs. The holders I ordered are the kind of holder but bigger you'd expect to put AA cells into. The point is that in the event of a single cell failure, I can just pull that cell out and replace it without any soldering.

As far as capacity, the cells are reportedly 3400Mah. With the 5 holders holding 4 each that should be around 17AH though I'll regard it as a success if I have 10AH. The existing underbus battery holders should be fine. I'll have to make battery housings but that's no problem. I'll probably (since 18650s don't take up much space) use vinyl planking to build the housings. That's fairly swift and painless as well as well insulated against heat, cold and water. It also means I don't have to modify my existing battery holders. I might even add some thermal fuses or thermal cutouts. Maybe set them at 60C (150F) so if the battery compartment rises above that, it goes cold. I'm just having a Dickens of a job finding self-resetting thermal breakers that will cut off at 50 or 60C.

Aliexpress is one of those China inc websites. Alibaba is the wholesale version. Both are as sketchy as eBay and Amazon. Ages ago I used to live in a town in Britain called Swansea. There were several pubs there where you could go to buy your own stolen hubcaps back. All of these online places mentioned seem to be the kind of place where you can buy things cheap as long as you don't ask where they came from!

Buying from eBay can be fraught. Several times the bank has called me and asked to verify transactions. Sometimes the transaction has apparently been from a country not listed on the description. I've bought something advertised as being in the USA but it has been billed from China. In that instance there's dishonesty so I and the bank decline that transaction. I had one the other day. I bought a respirator due to the Coronavirus epidemic. The bank didn't even call me but declined the transaction. The seller tried to bully me into paying and I told them straight that the bank declined the transaction so they must be flagged as a crook. They sure did pester me until I finally had a note from eBay saying that I needed to remember to pay next time. Remember to pay, my arse - the transaction was declined by the bank twice!

Today on Aliexpress I had issues too. I got around them using Paypal and buying direct but I'll have to see what if anything arrives since the lead time is extraordinarily long. Two months in one instance. Thank heavens it's only two suppliers and one product per supplier.

I'm still not getting down to fixing the back door despite the leak is rotting some of my OSB flooring. I need to get down to that.

A vaguely mechanical kinda day

Today was one of those semi-mechanical kind of days. The trouble really started a few weeks ago when my car as I was leaving Lowe's (hiss, spit) parking lot decided to show me a "check engine" light combined with a traction control off light and a frenetically flashing cruise control light. My normal solution to that kind of situation is just to unplug the battery and replug it before continuing on. I didn't because I was tired and only ten miles from home. Thus I got home and thought no more of it. 

The next time I went out it was just the "check engine" light. I tried my engine code reader and it didn't show me a single error code. I've had that kind of thing before and the solution has always been to change the engine air filter. Well, I bought a new engine air filter yesterday on my day out. 

It wasn't truly a "day out" because it was really a work day. What with the Covid-19 outbreak, I'm down to a one day work week. That reminds me very much of the 1970s and the Arab oil crisis before Britain found North Sea oil. People had got down to a 3 day work week because there just wasn't the fuel to keep the power stations running. Trains ran on diesel and diesel was in short supply as was petrol/gasoline. Back then the power would be switched on for breakfast and would remain on until about 7pm or whenever most workers had got home then it would be switched off.  Need electricity at night? Sorry - there was none. Weekends there was even less power as the power would be switched on for breakfast then off then on for lunch then off then on for dinner then off. Some days nobody could get to work because the bus company had no fuel.

But having rambled about Britain in the 1970s, lets get back to America in 2020.  I did my 3 hours or so of driving a big yellow school bus and delivering 3 days worth of meals to around 70 children. Somebody else will do it on Monday next week and I'll do it again on Wednesday next week. Having done that, I was already out of the house so I went on a little shopping expedition. 

The first thing I did was to head to the gun store for more ammunition. They'd upped the allowance since the panic buying of guns and ammunition had ended so I could get four boxes of ammunition. An extra 200 rounds never hurt anybody (aside from evildoers that get shot). I have to say that Sportsman's Warehouse really impressed me. Not only had they got a count of how many people were in the store but also lines on the floor designed to ensure social distancing. There was plexiglass at the cash register that allowed only goods and money to be passed while blocking the path for bad breath and so on. Not only that but having used the card machine and pin pad, they swabbed it down with an alcohol wipe. That is far better than any other place I have ever seen so far.

So, four more boxes added to the haul from last time I was in the area. From there I hit the interstate intending to go to Harbor Freight. I'd forgotten my list so I'd forgotten what I wanted but as I'm so rarely on interstates, I missed the exit, thinking I was on a totally different interstate where several exits lead to Harbor Freight.

Not feeling like turning round I figured I'd next make landfall at Tractor Supply to get stuff that I wanted there and I sailed right past that exit too. I really wasn't doing to well at interstates that day! I got off the interstate and went backroads. I'm much more comfortable on backroads. Thus my next ports of call would be Walmart, Lowe's (hiss,spit) and Autozone. 

Walmart was pretty crowded with people not wearing face masks. That was a bit naughty of them! Walmart had announced they were not going to sell a wide range of things which was rather offputting. I picked up the food items I wanted, some seeds and noted there was still no sign of an end to the toilet paper drought. Needless to say, as the place was quite crowded I did not remember everything due to my not really wanting to stay in the same confined space as all the disease carriers.

Lowe's (hiss, spit) was the next port of call. I wanted 50 feet of 12/3 flexible cable. They were out of it. Had I remembered to go to Harbor Freight, they had it listed and ready made up as a 50 foot electrical cable with connectors. So boo to Lowe's (hiss, spit).

Following that I filled up my car fuel tank getting fuel at a very pleasant $1.49 a gallon. Not many years ago I could have paid $3.80 a gallon. In fact the highest I ever saw was $4.15 a gallon in Key West. But onwards and upwards, Autozone was next door and was where I bought an air filter for the engine.

Roll on to today and in an idle minute I installed the new air filter. The old one wasn't that dirty but I'm sure the car will now run an awful lot better. Having changed the filter it was time to start the engine to see if the "check engine" light had gone away. It had not.

Trying the code reader again, this time it listed a fault. I must be on the right stuff today!

Pressing the button, up came a really strange error code the like of which I have never seen before. Checking online (aren't smartphones useful) it seemed the error code of U1000 was a specific error code for Nissan and meant that there was a miscommunication between the engine control computer and "one of" the modules.

Computers usually work best with periodic reboots. Thus I went to unplug the negative side of the battery. Undoing the clip with a 10mm socket in my socket wrench, I pulled the connector off for a moment or so. For some unknown reason the battery terminal was covered in a red gunge. I figured it was some kind of conductive paste. I put the connector back on and tightened the nut as far as it would go. 

The connector was still loose and the connection could not be tightened further. My memory reminded me that Walmart had installed that battery. I'd paid for a 3 year battery and they told me they couldn't find the 3 year battery and had substituted with a 5 year battery at no extra cost. What they hadn't told me was that the connectors were undersized and that they'd bodged it together with red conductive paste. 

A while back I'd have problems with the positive side. It had been flapping loose and the car wouldn't start so I'd had to borrow a car to go to work. On investigation the problem had been the positive connector on the battery. I simply tightened it and had six months more use before this problem cropped up. 

Fortunately I had a thin piece of aluminium lying in the yard and remembered it and where it was. A piece of that eventually worked fine as a shim. I had nothing to cut it with - no tin snips so I just folded and unfolded and broke it due to work hardening where I needed a cut. That didn't take too long. Then it was a case of molding it round my 10mm socket and rolling it around to make it curved. I slipped that inside the battery connector as a sleeve, tightened the nut and had a perfect solution.

Checking, the "check engine" light had gone away but now the "traction control off" light was on. Maybe that'll clear itself up by next time I use the car. If not I'll have to disconnect and reconnect the battery again. Of this I am sure though - I shall never let Walmart change a battery. I only did it that time because I was feeling lazy.

My next task was nothing to do with any of my projects. This was a project to put down a new floor in a closet in the house. I had two pieces remaining from separate sheets of 8x10 plywood. After cutting one carefully into shape, I had to cut another equally carefully to shape. It was longer than my 3 foot ruler though and I needed a straight edge. Hence I pulled out a length of Lowes's (hiss, spit) 2x4 from the shed. Clearly Lowe's (hiss, spit) still get their wood from the great wiggly tree. I'm not really sure for what that piece of curvature is going to worthwhile. Perhaps a rocking chair?

Needless to say I got the floor into the closet and then sealed all around the edges with BlackJack Polyurethene caulk. That stuff is excellent and I need to put some under the bus around the edges of digital codepad.  It will also be a wonderful gasket underneath the new roof vent.

Finally I got to my wind turbine. The left handed bolt had arrived from China. It's a 4mm bolt that needs to be tightened with an Allen key. Needless to say the Allen key had to be Metric too. Fortunately I have Metric as well as SAE Allen keys.

I spent a positive age turning the Allen key clockwise to screw the thing into the axle for the wind generator with no success. It was only then that I remembered I had to turn the opposite way because it's a left handed thread! Once I remembered that, it wasn't long before it was fastened down. The only delay was having to cut a washer to fit the aluminium angle.

And that's what the completed wind turbine looks like. I had it set up all day but though there was wind, there wasn't apparently enough to turn the turbine. When I find my anemometer I'll be able to check the wind speeds that work and don't work. I still don't think this turbine generator is going to last too long. Having said that, my time right now is free so I can experiment.

Will this turbine be used to power the bus? Probably not. That's why I bought it but I think I'm probably going to get more power from solar power. I would like to build a portable water powered generator though. That would be really cool!

The pine pollen is deadly

The pine pollen has been appalling. I've been doing my best to stay out of it and have been suffering its effects. This year seems to have been far worse. I suspect a number of things are at play, all related to pollution. Normally there're a lot of planes overhead and a lot of traffic. With the Coronavirus panic going on, everybody is home. Pollution probably settles on the pollen, making it heavier and less airborne so there's not as much in the air. I breathe a lot of pollution, including diesel smoke from the busses I drive at work. This probably coats my olfactory nerves so I'm a little more protected from the pollen. Without either of those factors, it's like pollengeddon! Thus my bus time has been limited.

At the moment it looks like there aren't going to be any trips anywhere in the forseable future as everything is shut down - parks, interstates, airports and most stores. Those that are open are few and far between. Social distancing measures mean people have to stay 6 feet apart. I'm only working one day a week until likely August.

Today I got on and completed the welding part of my wind generator. As a tip to those wanting to weld, it's better to arrange welding rods so that several are sticking up out of the packet quite some distance from each other. That way they can be grabbed with gloved hands, quickly. One doesn't have to remove one's gloves - which takes time.

The green pole in the center of the old wheel hub I used for a base is not quite vertical. That was annoying so I tried to get the top straight to compensate. It's almost straight and was before I welded it. Afterwards though it seems to have thrown off a little. I'll have to compensate for that when I put it into use. That's easy enough - the inside of the wheel rim is filled with dirt and I'll just put an appropriately sided stone under one or more of the 5 legs protruding from the base to level it.

Next I bolted the turbine generator into place. That was pretty easy. I didn't have any number 6 locknuts so I am hoping there's not going to be too much vibration. The reason I've not put the turbine into use before is because I don't think it's going to be worthwhile. Having said that, I have all the free time due to Covid-19 shutdowns to experiment. Even on a cloudy day, solar panels make more sense for small electricity generation projects.

The bolt to secure the rotor arm to the generator arrived today. I've not installed it yet as it came from China but went through New York where it was repackaged by Connex. I have a policy of quarantining all mail for 10 days. One cannot be too careful with this virus thing. Also in the post from China are a pair of respirators, one with a full face visor and a spare set of filters.

I don't much care how I look when I go out. If people want to laugh then let them. If it was mandatory that everybody wore a bandana or cloth mask I wouldn't have to take such precautions.  The government is too short sighted to do that so every cough and every sneeze has the potential to become a cloud of death that will kill everybody that enters it without protection. It's almost to the point where a biological warfare suit is needed, not just a respirator then at the end of a mission outside, full decontamination procedures.

Needless to say, the police have already announced they will only come out for emergencies. Police in some areas are now only coming out if there's an active shooter on the premises. Thus there has been a run on guns and ammunition. Toilet paper is in short supply. In fact everybody is wondering just what the people hoarding supplies from the stores are going to hoard next.

Public gatherings and groups of more than 2 or 3 people have been banned. Reposessions and evictions have been banned. Today though, a sweaty, chubby woman came wandering down the driveway from a big pickup truck with a big trailer, asking about where another address was. I didn't know and told her what the addresses on site were but she still looked around, scoping out the place. She said she was looking for a Honda Civic that her "friend" had for her. Strange that she didn't know where her "friend" lived. A few minutes later the pickup tore down the road with a blue car that looked like it could have been a Honda Civic aboard. One wonders whether that was a robbery or an illegal repossession. One also wonders whether the people involved were planning to rob where I'm living.

When all this started, I thought about buying a carbine for personal protection. Pistols are well and good but it's hard to hit anything more than about 20 yards away, shooting quickly. Thus after consulting with my dad who advised that most of the "information" on shooting online was rubbish I got a nice 9mm carbine. Online the websites all claim 50 yard maximum range yet the figures say that the bullet will travel at least 3,000 yards. Indeed the Germans and the British used 9mm quite successfully at combat ranges of around 300 yards during WW2.

While an SKS in 7.62 is available, the problem with rifle rounds is over penetration and over range. If somebody is more than 300 yards away, I want to take cover rather than anything else. The whole point of a carbine is it's more of a defensive weapon. I'm not a hunter but if needed to a carbine will do the job nicely. I certainly don't want to have to walk more than 300 yards to pick up my game!

There was a .357 magnum carbine available but the magazine was tubular with bullets pressing on primers all the way along the barrel. Not an ideal situation. I'd have gone for a .357 magnum carbine over a 9mm but for the lack of a vertical magazine was a deal breaker.

So the upshot is I'm likely going to have to protect my base since there are clearly villains about as evidenced by the car theft/illegal repossession and the fact the police aren't willing to come out due to the virus. I'd rather be victorious than a victim.

Two reasonable days at the ranch

I worked some more on the wind turbine this last couple of days. One day I grabbed my welder and the steel I'd located the other day. 20 minutes or so later and indeed it felt like 20 minutes, I had the base and upright of the turbine stand together.

The center is indeed an old wheel rim. Since I used 6011 welding rod which doesn't care whether steel is rusty or not, I could weld with zero preparation. I like this very much.

Roll on a few days to today. I worked on the rotor arms and cut up a plastic paint bucket to be my turbine blades.

Initial tests, holding the blades up using gravity to hold them to the turbine were not promising. There was wind but while I could feel a gentle breeze, it was not enough to turn the blades. 

I have very much a feeling that this wind turbine experiment might be doomed because of the wind situation here. I very rarely notice any wind. This has to be the calmest most wind free place I've ever lived.

The goal for tomorrow is to put the turbine mount on top of the pole. I spent a while hunting for a suitable piece of steel to act as the turbine mount before finding something in my scrap pile. That had a piece of angle welded to it that I'll remove tomorrow before cutting the supports that go between the post and the new mount.

I had all sorts of fun drilling mounting holes in the mount for the turbine including getting metal splinters in my fingers. I looked at the mounting holes on the turbine itself and they are threaded but not to M4. They're plastic and it looks like they're threaded for a woodscrew.  I'll just pass a bolt straight through. As I have M3 bolts, I'll use them to fasten the two together. Perhaps even some number 8 bolts. 

Since this generator seems to be largely made of plastic where it should be metal, I do not envisage a long life for it. In fact I'll be surprised if it doesn't fall apart before it even gets any wind sufficient to turn the blades. This is largely why I didn't attempt before to use the thing, The only reason I'm spending time on it now (aside from it potentially being useful) is because due to the Covid-19 shutdown of everything, I have plenty time.

Normally at this time of the school year I'm out driving schoolbusses from 5:30AM  until 5PM daily, with little gaps and breaks. This year I've been out for 3 hours 2-3 times a week, delivering food to children in need with the work bus. That's getting cut back now to probably a day every other week then eventually it'll be likely to be a day a month and then it'll probably be phased out. So I've got plenty free time. Thus I can devote some to things that probably won't work just in case they actually do.