The Indian Air Powered Car

Posted on October 1, 2008 by George B.

An important and short study, information you MUST have before investing in AE of any kind. There has been a change in the “FORCE”, and it’s important you understand how profound it is!

If you are really interested in saving the planet, if you are truly Green in Heart and Mind, you will read to the end of the article. In my mind, our way of life depends on it.

There has been an interruption in the ‘force’, it doesn’t take a Jedi to learn and understand the power behind MDI, it is critical that you do!

The History Channel on the dish gave this car significant coverage, can you imagine driving everywhere you want on free air, that was their question to the audience.  I hope you can catch a rerun, it was all about innovations in Alternative Energy.

Here’s a link to a Popular Mechanics article about marketing.  This article alone is a good education in marketing content, and to whom it is being marketed to, you might think you understand it all, but your understanding might evolve over the next few days or weeks, ?why? keep reading, it’s only a page.

Understanding the ‘rift’ in the FORCE.

Best I give you just a few examples, once you consider them, you will find plenty more. When I visualize this shift in the force, the effect is very similar to a reversal of the poles on planet earth, I mean to say it is ‘profoundly disturbing’ and I think we must prepare for it.

Once you have read the Popular Mechanics article and especially the comments, (you don’t need read them all); we need to turn our attention to the media and consider their primary goals. If you have critical thinking skills, you may find what follows enlightening, your thinking may evolve, and you may be able to distill it down and realize that at the end of the day their principle mission is to sell content, and they’ll do near anything to achieve that goal. They must make a profit to stay in business. Now if we continue to use Popular Mechanics as our example, consider this article on the Indian Air Car and who it attracts? Take a moment and write down your thoughts, it may be the most important thing you do this week.

The answer? the article draws in a wide spectrum of readers.  One group is what I call the Whacko Greenies, these folks have no need for a pencil or paper, they allow their leaders to do their thinking for them, they are convinced that Big corporations are responsible for denying them a free lunch in transportation and all things related to energy. When they walk through the Grocery isle or news stand, they come face to face with the aritcle that validates their belief, right on the front page of Popular Mechanics! Drive for free!

More educated people see the same article and think, what are these idiots tellign peopel now?  they buy the article  out of disbelief, but ti’s another magazine sold!

Now we shift our focus for a moment onto the Career Politician and their first order of business, that is to remain viable and remain in office. When they receive 100 or 10,000 emails about the Air Car, how do they respond? Most often, their staff will reply with a form letter, something like this: “I’m working hard on your behalf to support all things as they relate to Alternative Energy, this is our future, and I hope we can work together to get this technology into the hands of the everyday citizens, I need your vote to make this possible!

Here’s where I see a possible key to understanding how things work today.  How many times have we heard that the Media and the Government are working together? Is it possible that they act independently BUT are using the same methods to attract loyal followers?

The internet has the potential to deliver content deep into the jungles or out onto the plains of Africa via the cell phone networks. The technology can be as cheap as it needs to be in order for people living in huts to afford it. At present, facts, history, science, and things we assumed would chart our course into the future have become eclipsed by the rift I see. There is a large and ever growing group of people who have little use for facts or reality, in fact they abhor it. As the Media works to remain relevant by catering to useful idiots, the career politicians struggle to chart a course out of dangerous waters and still remain in power. What they have discovered is they have helped to create an ever growing segment of the population that has no interest in reality, but is now so powerful and numerous they can’t be ignored. Some would say it was a lack of ethics, a lack of morals that created this huge voting block that believe in magic BECAUSE they have been promised magic all along. Let’s look back on that politician who got the email on the air car, had he replied that the air car was a joke, he would risk losing a vote, and many politicians would rather take us down the road to hell than give up their power.

MDI is a company who preys on useful idiots they make every effort to avoid the facts. If you return to PM article, you will see the posts of people who have totally ignored the many comments made by people who know and understand the overwhelming losses and efficiency problems associated with compressing air and using it as a means of propulsion! From an efficiency standpoint it’s a major loser, even the janitor that cleans the toilet at Popular Mechanics know it, but running the story sells magazines! I don’t think it’s much different than whoring, but it’s not much different that what politicians do every day either.  No way they’re going to tell you the air car is a joke, they want your vote no matter how gullible you are. MDI knows and understands that this belief in free energy is a religion and that the true believers abhor facts or anything that might interfere with the belief that they have lived under the thumb of those who have denied them free energy. Notice that MDI has no real products, note that the more mature part of their website is where investors (suckers) might contact them. Note that they are all set up to harvest the names of believers!

Here we see a post from one of the believers, make the time to parse his post!

880. RE: World’s First Air-Powered Car: Zero Emissions by Next Summer
Some of you really are as blind as bats aren’t you! an ex Formula 1 Engineer (the most technologically advanced racing in the WORLD) comes along and gives us all what we’ve been desperate for and all you can say is if it’s so good why didn’t gm do it? WHAT YOU SHOULD BE ASKING IS WHY HAS GM GONE DOWN! Because the Yanks never listen! We have the answers so come back to the real world! No it doesn’t make a big loud noise No it isn’t enormous, but that’s because we’re not trying to make up for a lack in any other department!! Get over yourselves and start doing something for the rest of the world and it’s kids!

Now let’s break it down:

The world has been given a gift (Air Car)

GM and Yanks never listen

We have the answers so come back to the real world   (this is really scary, does this mean he’s part of MDI?

Yanks ignored it because it wasn’t big or loud.

Get over yourselves and start doing something for the rest of the world.

This poster >is< at the heart of the Greenie world.  You must believe the laws of physics are rubbish to belong

Deep inside his message is the belief that his countrymen are not capable of building this simple car, “it is up to the Yanks”, and if it doesn’t get done, well it’s their fault.

Notice, no matter what the Yanks might do, if they don’t serve up a free lunch, it’s just not enough.

If there’s ever a day you are feeling real stupid, spend a day with the typical greenie, I promise you’ll feel better about yourself.

But at the end of the day, with the help of the media and career politicians, useful idiots have a larger voice than usual. Both the Media and the Politicians have ‘made a deal with the devil’, and neither has a clue as to what they can do to remain relevant while they chart a path away from the rocks. For those who have an interest in facts, there’s plenty of history that gives us clues as to where we are headed unless the public develops an appetite for facts, and holds those who attempt to deceive them in contempt.

At the end of the day, it takes eight grade math skills to study the insanity of the air car concept, but there are many who don’t want to know the truth. As you watch the so called “History channel” you’ll note they have no problem ‘whoring’ to attract viewers, it need not be true, it need not be anything to do with fact or History.

All the best,

George B.

Go back to the first website mentioned, popular mechanics, read the comments pages, start at the beginning, see if you can pick out the Greenies, they are easy to spot, they have zero interest in science, math, any facts. Their only goal is to feel good, and as Habshi says…. this journal of comments is a lesson on human behavior, remember half the people you know are below average, there are some comments made here by people who could enter and empty room, and it would still be empty.

As you digest all of this, revisit this green site..

http://www.twilightearth.com/2008/11/indian-air-powered-car-coming-to-us-in-2009/

As you read, you should ‘pick up’ on the fact that there is no one here than cares at all about useful facts and figures, there never seems to be any interest in thermal dynamics, losses, following the mechanics of compressing air, the mechanical device used to compress it, the energy required, the cost of the energy, etc. these people don’t care, and the people who would visit this site don’t much care about reality either, it likely bores them, the fix they are looking for is more evidence that the corporate world has denied them what they seek, (a free lunch).

What’s important to remember

The History Channel has decided to join the other Prostitutes in the Media,  and they are now no more than a tabloid, it is all too said, but in order to stay profitable, they have decided they run run this crap and a lot of pure Science fiction. there are decisions being made all the time as to what will appeal to readers and viewers, it is no longer about education, delivering useful facts and information, it is all about delivering content that will appeal to readers.

Are we doomed?

 

Posted in Vehicle Design | 4 Comments

Mad Max Washing Machine

Posted on July 27, 2008 by George B.

Have you ever looked at your wife’s washer and wondered if it would clean your shop rags if you poured in about four gallons of kerosene and canceled the cycle that fills it with water?  There are some technical problems to work out, I’m sure we could do it, drain fields, sewers, the EPA and all, but mostly you know better than to mess with your wife’s appliance.  If she finds a grease ring left from a shop rag left in your pocket, you’ll pay one way or the other. It’s just plain smart to leave her washer alone and build your own!  This way you can pour in kerosene, add your dirty shop rags, mix up all kinds of concoctions, heck, you can even use it to mix paint, make home brew, and more, because it’s yours!

I call it the Mad Max washing machine.  More refined folks might call it the gentlemen’s washing machine.

I’m writing this in late July, and we’re headed into Hurricane season, and I was thinking wives would claim the Mad Max washer about the third day the power was out, especially a young wife with toddlers.  There’s no way  you’d get it back till the power was back on.

For the guy who has a shop, there’s plenty of experimenting to do.   Women buy dryer sheets to make things smell pretty and I was thinking about making my own out of a rag full of Hoppes Gun Solvent, I love that smell! Drop that rag in with your shop clothes and maybe you’d walk around with your favorite smell all day. 🙂

Hey BASS! you following this??? Heard you’re headed for the deep piney woods, you might make one of these, and of course you could have Mark brush paint it!

Off grid, we look for certain creature comforts, we quickly understand that men and women have a different idea as to what’s a comfort and what’s a necessity. But if you stay long enough; it’s wash time, or maybe you’ll get too close to your favorite machine and wipe out those brand new shorts your wife just bought you? Just pull out the Gentlemen’s washer from under the car seat, and clean them up, use some of that great industrial soap she won’t let you pour into her washer.

The Gentlemen’s off grid washing machine, still under development, now it’s more compact and has shed a lot of parts over the one shown in the video, I priced a run of key parts I made in CAD at $47 each, that’s way  too expensive for us DIYer types I think, and it brings to mind another thing I need tell you, there’s a lot of work involved in making a REAL kiss design, we must consider material costs, and select the right materials and methods to manufacture same, I will get the cost down to dirt cheap.

We’ve learned to think KISS in our designs, and I instantly recall that visitor to my shop who was so proud to have invested in Serp Pulleys from an Industrial supply, twice the price as those we designed here to take the standard K Section Belts, and 10 times as hard to find when you need them. Since we have customers who have 10,000 hours of running on inexpensive automotive belts, what did he accomplish other than spend too much money, and limit his suppliers when hard times come? I believe it’s critical to keep these things in mind when you design anything, use parts and pieces as common and plentiful as possible. Finding the parts you need in the nearest upside down junk car can be mighty helpful in hard times or an emergency.

In a man’s world, the five gallon plastic bucket is a mighty handy tool, they’re everywhere, and sometimes you find a pile of free ones, think of the nearly unlimited uses, a seat by the camp fire, foot stool, end table, great place to store tools for a job, carry fresh water, brew beer, store food, and you can stack 20 of them in limited space! The third world has lots of them.

Now for the agitator and transmission, we need to get this bucket moving back and forth, and our mechanized method need be reliable, and easy to power, and all parts need be found cheap as dirt. Distill it all down, and being 12 volt powered is certainly an advantage for remote use, an inexpensive transformer and rectifier would work for on gird shop use. A single solar panel to drive it directly, that would be helpful.

I arrive at the windshield wiper motor, there’s a built in gear box, a bell crank, and most all the parts you need are right there.  I grabbed a unit off a car at Binford Salvage in Kent, WA. The reason I chose it was because I went there with no tools and saw that this brand had engineered their unit for a quick and easy placement AND pull, all bolts were 10mm, all were easy to access, and the entire unit came out with all the tie rods, and stuff I might use, it’s also known as a long life bullet proof car, and there’s a zillion of them!  The young guy taking off a part next to me loaned me a 10mm socket and his racket, it was off in my hand in three minutes!  David Binford is a friend, and his yard is one of my favorite haunts.

OK, you have the idea, we create a turn table, it is very compact, close to the ground, and rocks back and forth, we add one of the knuckle joints to the bottom of the turn table and we make an adjuster so we can move it in or out to get the action the way we want, we cut the tie rod in half, and take out a section in the middle to get it the right length, mount the motor and bell crank to a board or metal plate, and we’re done. Certainly ideas evolve, and my design has shed a lot of parts, and it’s far more compact than the one shown in the video clip.

Guys, with your imagination and vision, you realize you can wash some dirty grimy motorcycle parts in one bucket, and tomorrows wash in the next, don’t have the power to run it? raise the hood of the neighbors car,use alligator clips to the car battery. Need parts? Nearest junk yard. Need buckets? Make friends with an interior house painter, they throw out a life time supply every month, and the latex paint doesn’t stick to the inside for very long.

Want to polish some brass for reloading, a little media in the bottom, and pour in some brass.  What happens if you put some old rusty tools in a bucket and add some silica sand? I dunno. did I tell you mine was only drawing 24 watts when washing shop rags?

A note on washing shop rags

OK, you already know your wife will kill you if you dare load up your rags in her washer, but this is something I learned in my first load of rags in the MAD Max washer.

Those magnets in the bottom, the ones I use to make a quick connect between the turn table and the bucket. When I got through washing some incredibly dirty shop rags, I found the magnets heaped with with a thick Goo on the order of Gum. Of course the gum is chock full of metal filings and other ferrous material. We all pick up a shop rag now and then and wipe something off.. Opps! We might have scratched the fridge or paint on the truck as we don’t know all of what was in that rag did we??

There’s no guarantees these super strong magnets will get every thing that could scratch out of a rag, but more of anything out of the rag is better right?  Now, as we process this we are certain to ask ourselves, (us grubby junk yard dogs that can’t seem to keep oil grease, or iron filings off us). If we put a big ole Neo magnet in a zip lock lunch bag and stuck it to the bottom of the Wife’s washer, what would it look like in two weeks?

As for me, I’m going to continue washing shop rags with neo magnets in the bottom of the bucket. There’s something going on here I don’t understand, it’s like that little bit of ferrous material has a static attraction to grease and grime, and I can watch the oil slick at the top of the bucket move towards and become trapped by a neo magnet I placed at the water level, one inside the bucket, with a metal washer outside to trap it there. When you watch the magic, you’ll know that every washer should have a bed of Neos, and some way to remove them and quickly remove all this stuff.  I see something like the dryers lint trap.

There is that one problem, metal snaps and the likes in clothes, so maybe we need do it only in our washer ?? 🙂

 

Posted in Projects | Leave a comment

Voltage Regulars: Choose Your Vendor Carefully!

Posted on December 4, 2007 by George B.

There certainly are reasons to think about voltage regulators, but as many of us understand, 99% of the generators sold don’t have them, and if voltage droop is acceptable from no load to full load, there may be little reason for your generator to have one, arguably so!

I recommend that you NOT buy Generators with VRs  from Vendors who do not stock parts, and have no interest in the business of selling power products other than making the initial sale. I know how easy it is to get all excited about the low, low price, but if it’s not the KISS design I talk about on pages like the ST pages, how are you going to fix it when it fails?  The following are very typical emails, and I thought I might share as a warning. I selected these because they are newer, but I receive quite a few of these!  If your generator has a VR, you better know the vendor and where you will source a spare when you need it, or how to adapt an after market unit.

Email addresses and names withheld/changed as a matter of privacy, of course.

—–Original Message—–
From: ******************
To: GeorgeB
Sent: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 7:10 am
Subject: Voltage Regulator

I purchased aChinese DG10 with 20HP engine and 8.5KW Power head about a year ago. The Voltage regulator is burnt. I am having trouble finding this part to purchase. I don’t know if it is the same KZT-12D or JF 1401 or other. Do you know where I can purchase this part?

-Up a Creek W/o a VR

———————

Greetings Up a Creek,

There seem to be a lot of different designations out there, and I am unfamiliar with these units you mention. It is probably a good idea to go back to your vendor and see if he will source the part required. Sometimes a picture of the components inside the doghouse can tell me more about your particular unit, are you positive your unit has a voltage regulator?

I have devoted several pages on utterpower.com about voltage regulators and the fact that many of them are responsible for the failure of the unit.Your personal experience will add to our database, and I will appreciate any follow up email with what you eventually determine.

Sometimes a picture of the components inside the doghouse can tell me more about your particular unit, are you positive your unit has a voltage regulator??

George B.

—–Original Message—–
From: ******************
To: GeorgeB
Sent: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 8:56 am
Subject: Voltage Regulator Search

George,

My name is Tom. These pix aren’t very good taken with my cell phone,  but I think you can get the picture. The # on the Regulator is GFC9-1. One company here in Las Vegas NV, wants to try a different regulator in the unit($400.00), but I would like to get the same one if possible. The unit was purchased on E-bay through a dealer in CA, which has disappeared if you know what I mean.

Tom

———————

Hi Tom,

Getting  a lot of feedback from around the world about generator failures and what causes them is a great privilege, and as I tell folks, it is the power of ‘utterpower’.There are a lot of small Importers, and even some larger ones that buy a container load or two of these Chinese Gen sets, and never stock even one set of parts for them. The VR is often reported as the failure point.

If you can’t find your vendor, it may be a good idea to consider the better made VR, and your after market supplier will certainly need to know the field current stated on the generator head; (hope it’s there). You will want a VR that will have an upper limit for current, and will not fry the field during an anomaly.

$400 sounds like a lot, but totally in line with a lot of quotes I’ve had reported here. I have received word of quotes as high as $1000USD for parts an labor to replace a VR in a high end 6KW power plant.

Wishing you the best, but not much help here.

George

Posted in Buyer Beware, Voltage | Leave a comment

Mechanical Governors

Posted on October 5, 2005 by George B.

Understanding The Mechanical Governor

Copyrighted 10-05-2005

Before you attempt to ‘tune’ a governor for acceptable performance, it is best to make sure you understand how it works. But first, it may be a good ideal to share why you will care about the governor and its accuracy.

The Lister 6/1 ST5 at our Easton Washington location  is a prime example. When I first set it up, it ran the 220 volt 60HZ AC well pump in irrigation mode, the pump ran all the time, and excess water was used to irrigate, a pressure tank was filled for cabin use, and a check valve assured that the water was held for that use. In this situation, the principle load was fixed, and it was easy to tune in the governor to maintain the frequency to exactly 60 hz.

As you will learn on the CD, I learned how to ruin a well pump with a generator (any generator), so I am careful to turn off the power to the pump before I stop the engine. The switch and the Generator are about 10 or more feet apart, when the load is removed, the lazy governor paid no attention to the extra RPMs as they rapidly increased, since there is no load, and I was there to manually shut down the engine, there is no problem, this is probably the typical Indian example.

But now, it is time to evolve the system; why burn the fuel when the irrigation water is not needed?

We will  add a pressure switch as is normal for a well pump, when the cut out pressure is reached the contacts are opened, and the pump load is dropped from the generator automatically. Now we have a need for a well tuned and well functioning Governor, if it is sluggish, the frequency and the voltage will rise, and the engine can go into over speed depending on just how poorly made, and poorly tuned the governor is. If the governor functions well, it will regulate the frequency and voltage well within the typical requirement, and do so without the need for electronics that all too often fail.

It is typical that Generators are set up to produce 61HZ at no load, and we allow the voltage and frequency to ‘droop’ into the sweet spot as a load is applied.  This gives us a little room for the governor to sense a speed change and to react. The Lister type Governor Design is up to the task, but tuning is often necessary.

End of Example, Back to the mechanics and how it works…

When we look at the vast majority of work engines, we discover that the speed control is a lever attached to a spring. This lever is often set up where we can lock it into position with a knob or indexed lever and ‘set’ the engine to run at a certain speed regardless of load.  On the other side of that spring is a linkage attached to the ‘injector fuel rack’; or in the case of a gas engine, ‘the throttle plate’.  Off this fuel rack lever, we see another linkage to the governor.

What we have is a spring pulling the fuel rack open from one side, and a mechanical governor that attempts to pull the fuel rack closed from the other. When the load is constant, the spring and governor reach equilibrium, and the speed remains constant. Increase the spring pressure, and the governor and spring will work to equalize and maintain a new and higher RPM, decrease the spring pressure, and the two will equalize at a lower RPM.

WE can change out springs for longer, shorter, stronger or weaker to tune the sensitivity and response of the governor to our liking.  Some Indian machines arrive with an extra spring, this allows the engine to be run and optimized for 600 RPM, or with the stronger spring, it may be run at 1000 RPMs, and tuned for an adequate response at that speed range. As I write this, you should note that governors are designed and tuned to run in a certain RPM range. If we take a Briggs and Stratton gas engine designed to run at 3600 RPMs, and expect it to run at 1800 RPMs and properly govern there, we’d probably be disappointed.

Some folks build generators around automotive engines, and don’t give the lack of a governor much thought, after market solutions are available, but you should do some research before hand to figure out what it will cost. Of course understanding how the simple device works will allow you to build your own, and you might have a good deal of fun doing so.

The governor will generate a pulling force in direct relation to the RPM of the engine, as it is usually coupled to the crank or cam shaft of the engine either by belt or gear train. Mechanical governors usually rely on weights and centrifugal force, as the speed increases, the weights move outwards and a mechanical linkage couples the position of these weights via a linkage back to the fuel or throttle rack.

When we set the governor up properly, it responds to changes in speed at the RPM we wish to maintain. As we place more load on the engine, the crank shaft slows, the flyweights on the governor slow, and the force they apply via the linkage to the fuel rack becomes less. This allows the adjustment ‘set’spring on the other side to open the fuel rack to overcome this added load, the extra fuel delivered brings the RPM back up, when this is done, the flyweights exert a greater force, and the governor returns the engine to the ‘set’ speed.

When a heavy load is removed from the engine, it will attempt to over speed, as the engine adds RPMs, the pulling force of the governor fly weight will close the fuel rack and again the ‘set’ speed or governed speed will be reached.

The response of a governor has a great deal to do with how it was designed, how well it was made, and how well it was tuned.  If we use the typical Indian Governor on the Lister Type 6/1 for an example, we can typically find a number of easily corrected problems that typically produce sluggish and non linear responses. India often uses these engines for irrigation pumps; in this case, accuracy is not nearly as important.

When we take the time to think about it, it all makes sense, but all too many of us have too much on our plate to fully analyze the simplicity of the governor, and understand it before we attempt to adjust it or improve its response or performance.

If we follow the movement of the fly weight, and all the linkages back to the throttle or fuel rack; we can easily spot troubles.

Listeroid Longevity discusses a good many of these things, but you can quickly see that binding linkage, un lubricated linkage posts, and parts that were not fully machined can be sources of trouble. A company called Prakash sent over a number of engines to North America with internal governor pieces not fully machined, this added to the non-linear response of the governor; easily corrected, but pulling the governor stumps some folks, and the steps for doing so were also discussed in LL.

I have found that the average governor in the Lister Type will not govern better than about 5 cycles from 60 HZ in a generator application. Replacing one small external part, usually improves frequency response to a cycle or two, and a half hour of tweaking can give even better results. There is a simple and inexpensive kit that will dramatically improve the average Lister type governor response and accuracy.

I receive quite a bit of email from folks wanting to use auto engines to run generators. One of the larger problems is providing speed regulation.  Here are a few links to learn from:

http://www.thepiercecompany.com/html/pulley_driven.html

http://www.farmjeep.com/governor.html

Remember there are electronic solutions as well.

Posted in Mechanical Governors, UtterPower Articles | Leave a comment

Toyota Prius Review

Posted on July 28, 2005 by George B.

There are folks I trust to give good and accurate reviews, Brian K. is one of those DIYers who pays attention to details and does a goodly amount of research before he makes an investment.

So here it is…  a short review of Brian and Sue’s Prius, since they live in Maine where it gets plenty cold, I think they have a better chance to see potential short comings of the design.

————————————–

Hi George,

We’ve had the Prius for 2 1/2 months now and I’ve got a bunch of experience with it now. I thought you might like to read of it.

First, we LOVE the car. What a nice vehicle! It’s a real nice ride. Everyone who rides in it winds up loving the thing also. Toyota definitely did their job when they redesigned the Prius in ’04. Lots of passenger and stowage room, very quiet, nice sound system (standard), great lights (option).

There is all sorts of power, a really big amount of low end torque- it does push one into the seats (if desired) from a standing start. Cruising at 75 is no problem, I haven’t tried to go faster, 75 will get me a big enough ticket if there is a willing cop. At 75 mph on cruise control we got 48.x mpg on a 200 mile trip when the car was brand new. Naturally, the more speed the worse the mileage, that’s standard for any car. The best mpg we’ve gotten is 64.x for a 25-30 mile pizza run. Lots of uphill and downhill and in-town driving and the Prius thrives on both of those. Last week I was on vacation and took two trips into the “mountains” (hills really) of Maine. The first trip was 220+miles and I got 56.4 mpg. The second trip was 180+ miles and I got 55.x mpg. Folks on the ‘net tell me that the mileage will increase as the car breaks in. Too, I still have the break in oil in the engine, I haven’t gone to synthetic yet there should be a small increase when that’s in the engine.

Some things we now have with the new car that are firsts for us are Anti lock brakes, traction control, and electronic stability control. In early April we had a really nasty spring snow storm. I was out in it so decided to test the new stuff in an empty parking lot rather than being surprised among other cars on the road. First the ABS. Entering the lot I feathered the brakes, then heavier feathered braking, sure enough there was the ABS. No problem, feathering the brakes still alows the ABS to work, cool. Next up, traction control. Stop and take off with more power than I’d normally use. TC kicked in and I couldn’t spin a tire. Back off on the power and things return to normal or so it seemed. OK, now ESC , this one is freaky. I started to move in a tight circle, accelerating. I’d just begin to feel the tires losing traction and the vehicle heading into a skid and the ESC chime would sound and the car would correct the skid and put the car back on it’s original track. Faster than I ever could have reacted the correction was made and the ESC cut back out. On the way home all of these systems came on at least once. Always faster than I ever could have reacted they did their job and returned control to me. We live on an unpaved dirt road up a hill. Under terrible conditions it’s largely unclimbable w/o 4wd. This storm was a pretty big test. TC came on at least once, VSC came on 3x, but even with the OEM tires the car made it up the hill first try and without difficulty. Amazing! The question I have is if they work this good with OEM tires, how good will they work with a set of good studded snows?

The issue of the traction battery came up once so far that I’ve read on the ‘net. A woman was trying to sell her Prius with 100,000 some odd miles on it. A gent called and in the conversation mentioned that the battery pack would need replacing and that it’s out of warranty. Yup, on the out of warranty (8/80,000 Maine warranty), but no on the placement. It’s a “life of the car” battery and should never need replacement for upwards of 200,000 miles or 18 years, or so Toyota says. Folks just don’t know that. Lots of BS is generally believed about the car, I hear it all. Limited range of the “electric car”, lack of power, traction battery, plug it in for recharging, you name it. In time they’ll learn. I even had one guy at work tell me all about the car, he didn’t know we had one. Naturally all that the expert was telling me was pure BS, the typical BS. He nearly $hit when I told him we had one and he didn’t know squat about what he was talking about.

I’m on vacation next week, yes, yet again. If the weather cooperates I plan on taking it up Mt. Washington to see how some other items work. What happens when the battery is full and regeneration isn’t available for braking? Does the Jake brake take over? I’m told it does so automatically. How does the power plant work when lots of power is needed for a long period of time? If there are any surprises I’ll let you know.

Later,

Brian

An added bonus! Following is an overview of how this vehicle works by Brian K.

How doe the Prius work? The short answer is great! The long answer is what this text is all about.

To understand how it works we first need to understand what the designers were trying to accomplish. They WERE NOT trying to make a vehicle that gets great gas mileage, that comes as a by product of the design. Their primary design consideration was to produce a vehicle rated as SULEV (super ultra low emission vehicle) and PZEV (partial zero emission vehicle). They achieved both rather elegantly. The Prius has 90% fewer emissions than a ULEV. The Prius is a Gas/Electric hybrid only if the “electric” is silent. It’s a gas hybrid. Gas is the fuel that powers it. Where does it get plugged in to recharge? Nowhere. If you want to plug it in there is no provision for it so you’d be SOL.

What they did was to design an efficient powerplant that you wouldn’t want to drive if it was only driven by the ICE (internal combustion engine), frankly the ICE in the Prius is a dog. But it’s coupled to an electric motor. Both the ICE and motor can be providing power at the same time, or each can have it’s exclusive turn when the conditions are right for that. It’s easily possible (and common) to cruise down the highway at 80 mph on only electric. When a large amount of power is needed both are used and from a standing start the acceleration will push you into the seat. It’s an extremely fast car from a stop, and due to traction control won’t waste power on spinning wheels. The ICE is a relatively low RPM (4800 max) high compression engine (13:1) and produces 80 some odd hp. I told you you wouldn’t want it as the primary powerplant in a vehicle. It was designed for efficiency, not to power a sports car.

The best analogy I’ve come across for the basic design of the Prius powerplant and control system goes this way…. If you had one pair of socks to wash would you throw them in the washer and run it? Of course not, that’s not at all efficient. But that’s EXACTLY the way a typical ICE powered vehicle works. Prius waits until it has a whole load to wash before the ICE kicks in. When that happens it can send current to the motor to propel the car, send charge to the batteries and also use itself to propel the car. A typical ICE powered vehicle is lucky to achieve 27% efficiency. Prius achieves up to 37%, so I’ve read.

In addition to an efficiently utilized ICE there are other design aspects working to achieve the design parameters. The next most noticeable one from a driving aspect is the regenerative brakes. Unless one panic stops, pretty much the brake pads aren’t used. The motor is used to generate electricity to charge the NiMH traction battery. In an ICE powered car the brakes produce heat which is wasted to the atmosphere. Years ago my father taught me that braking was a waste of gas, meaning the heat thing. Prius recycles the kinetic energy into electricity so that it can be used to drive the car. The slower the charge rate the more efficient the charging of the battery and the recycling of the kinetic energy. Tests have been done by owners (the test I’m thinking of had sophisticated equipment monitoring “things”.) And they found what I found just by watching the
displays. This is one car that is OK to “ride” the brake on, well actually feathering the brake would be a better term. Basically, 2 mph/sec deceleration is most efficient use of resources. The actual test result was on level ground and showed that from 50 mph to zero should take 24 seconds for maximum battery charging efficiency.

This car really loves hilly terrain. Briskly climb the hill to use the ICE at best efficiency, then back off (or off entirely) the throttle going downhill. At times the battery will show a charge being sent to them, at times the motor may come on to drive the car. If one has to brake (feathering!), a high frequency whine will be heard very faintly (a good thing) indicating heavy charge going to the battery. At 50 mph, going down a moderate hill, it’s common for me to bring the battery from half charge to full charge just by feathering the brakes. On that charge one can ride for quite a distance without the ICE coming on, but one has to use the throttle light to moderately. Calling for too much power kicks in the ICE. So far the longest I’ve gone without using gas is cruising around town on a pizza run. We were in electric mode all the time, probably 10 minutes total driving time at the speed limit of 25mph. On that 25-30 mile trip we got 64+mpg. Oh, the way we know this is ’cause the Prius has an LCD screen that shows just what the car is doing (if you desire), MPG is one of the readouts. It’s common to gently accelerate to cruising speed under electric as long as one isn’t in a hurry. I’ve never been able to get above 46 mph without the ICE kicking in. Then after it does it’s thing I can go back on electric as much as circumstances allow.

On the mpg readout… There is no dashboard as such. There is a HUD just under the windshield with important info, like speed, fuel, what’s turned on, important stuff, you get the idea. Then there is the LCD screen that controls everything else. Climate, sound, energy display for the drivers knowledge. The computers do the rest.

All of what goes on in the Prius might sound just a bit daunting, but the engineers did their job here also. It’s totally seamless to the driver, just get behind the wheel and drive after a short explanation of how to start it etc.. It has no ignition. It has a power button. It’s extremely difficult for a casual thief to steal. Let me digress. The driver only has direct control of the steering, everything else is controlled by computers. It’s definitely “drive by wire”. Back to theft…. With either key option the car detects a proper digital code telling it that a proper key is in the car. At that point the computers in the car allow the operator to drive it. Without the proper digital code the computers simply won’t cooperate- and there is nothing to hot wire.

Sounds like a whole bunch of stuff just waiting to break down. I know, that was one of the things I thought of also. I did research on the ‘net. The Prius has been out since ’97. I couldn’t find any major problem from owners, none. I found it very suspicious and continued to dig. What I did find was that Prius is one of the most reliable cars on the road. It has no weak link that I was able to discover. The dealer did tell me that every once in a while they find a software glitch. The early Prius wouldn’t have worked for us, it was a sedan and too small. The redesigned ’04 and ’05 is larger, more powerful, is a 5 door and gets, get this, better mileage while still being a green car (SULEV and PZEV). One gent called it ugly, but we’ve always thought of it as “cute”. The interior is well thought out and there is a huge amount of storage. People room is more than ample, folks riding in both front and back have commented on the large amount of space. One compared it to his brothers early version Prius and said the ’05 had much more interior room. The amenities are very nice, climate control, everyone has a reading light, area lights both front and rear, 2 drink holders both front and rear, the standard stereo is a premium unit- nice, since the vehicle is so quiet. When folks experience the vehicle they always fall in love with it.

Everything I’ve discussed so far is standard on all Prii. The options we got were side curtain airbags, HID lighting, vehicle stability control and smart key. George should have posted my much smaller review which covers the VSC, I’ll never have another car without it. The lights are a must have for over 40 eyes. They aren’t the early “blue lights” that have blinded many folks. The new ones are self leveling and don’t have that problem. Smart Key hasn’t been discussed.

With smart key, one just possesses the key to gain entrance to the vehicle. Don’t put it in the “key slot”, just possess it to get the computers to start the car. If one should get car jacked, just leave and the car shuts down after a few seconds. In practice just keep smart key in your pocket and everything gets handled. The car can’t be locked from the outside without smart key outside or with the smart key inside. Neat stuff. There are provisions for a dead battery in smart key. There is a normal key built into the unit that gains access to the interior, then smart key acts as the standard electronic Prius key. Insert it into the electronic key slot and the car starts.

Ok. Driving sensation. Get behind the wheel, put your foot on the brake, push the power button. The car powers up and within 2 seconds tells you it’s OK. Push the joystick to D and release it. The car is designed to imitate an ICE car with an automatic transmission and without the foot on the brake will inch forward; it also has hill hold if you don’t want to keep the foot on the brake, but that uses electricity. Ok, take your foot off the brake and put it on the throttle. Slightly depressing it on level ground or downhill won’t kick in the ICE, you’re in stealth mode. The only sound is the noise of the tires and any airstream. Depress the throttle some more and the ICE kicks in to get you to speed. When the ICE isn’t needed it shuts down, that’s perfectly normal. It happens all the time, get to a red light and the ICE shuts down. Panic in an ICE powered car, normal in a Prius. You’ll notice there are no shift points. It has a constant velocity transmission- it has a very smooth ride. At times, under heavy load, the engine noise is discernable, most times
it’s not.

Some folks ask, “How is cabin heat?”. Great. We live in Maine and have never had a problem. Engine heat comes up quickly and is one of the design parameters. Remember it’s primarily a SULEV/PZEV? In order for low emissions the engine must be up to temperature. When the engine is shut down the hot coolant is pumped into a thermos bottle where it stays hot for up to 3 days. Start the car up and the hot coolant is pumped into the engine to heat it up quicker. If that wasn’t enough, the engine will run to further warm it and to heat the catalytic converters. The engineers have done a great job with heat management with Prius, you won’t be cold. In fact that is the only way I’ve found to get the ICE to come on when the car isn’t moving. Cabin heat comes from the ICE so when the cabin needs heat the ICE will come on to provide it. At this point (I know I’m crazy- I did this) go outside and sniff the exhaust. Notice that distinct lack of any odor? It’ll kill you from CO2 and CO, but way fewer emissions than you’d expect.

Some other questions that are typically asked are:

What is the range before recharging? I already touched on this, it doesn’t get recharged and one can’t plug it in even if one desires it. The range on a tank of gas is … It has a 11.9 gallon gas tank, using 50 mpg as the mileage close to 600 miles if you want to chance running out. THBS, that is the summer figure. The Prius has a bladder to reduce evaporative emissions (remember it’s primarily a SULEV) and in cold weather it can take 1 gallon less. The wise Prius driver sets one of the trip odo’s and gases up at 450 miles in the summer and 400 in the winter. The gas gauge isn’t to be trusted because of the bladder. THBS, I’ve found the gauge to be right on, though other owners report it to be “off”. I’ll continue to trust the trip odo’. The gauge is just a rough idea.

“I couldn’t drive a vehicle without power.”… Already touched on. It isn’t a race car, but has all sorts of get up for everyday driving. From a standing start it’s incredibly fast, and has all sorts of power for passing. Toyota claims 110hp even though if you add the ICE and motor specs it comes to 130+ hp. It doesn’t lack for power. THBS, Prius now claims the land speed record for a hybrid vehicle. The souped up version that got 130 mph on the salt flats. The version you and I can buy is claimed to have a top end of 105mph (Or is it 110?). Who cares? It’ll still get you a ticket.

Why do “electric vehicles” always look that way? I won’t touch the “electric vehicle” misnomer. It looks the way it does for aerodynamics. I’m a shooter and aerodynamic projectiles look sexy to me, the higher the BC the better the projectile looks, so the Prius is incredibly good looking to my eye. To my eye it looks something like the top half of a boattail bullet (sliced down the length). The wife calls it cute and I don’t disagree, it has a very high BC for a car. I’m working from a notoriously bad memory for specifics, but I seem to remember .24 as the number. It can coast for an incredible distance because it looks the way it does. I like that too. Note: there is a very fine throttle point where the regenerative “braking” (coasting really) isn’t active and electric mode isn’t active either. At that very fine throttle point the car coasts even though it isn’t in “N” on the “transmission”. On even a moderate hill the car picks up speed for free which can later be
turned into electricity (feather the brakes!). I love the aerodynamically clean looks! I love free!

Where can I test drive one? I have no idea. At our local dealer we placed our order and hadn’t test drove one. All Prii are pre bought (now spring ’05) before they hit the dealer. I did let my dealer know that if there was a way to test drive one to let me know. We were VERY lucky. Due to circumstances, he had one that could be test driven- we were the exception, definitely not the rule. Don’t expect a test drive. We placed our order in November, test drove one in late December and someone elses with the same option package we wanted (they deferred delivery) became available for purchase in early March we pre-purchased it then. We took delivery in late March. What we got as far as color wasn’t what we ordered (seacoast blue- think brushed denim) but color wasn’t important as long as it wasn’t black or white- we live on a gravel road.

When I was doing research before buying I read,”It will change the way you drive.”. I thought to myself, “Yah, sure, what a load of BS. These folks are nuts.”. I’m here to tell you, “It will change the way you drive.”. Sure, I still get ticked off when every car is spaced out just far enough apart to inhibit entering traffic. I still have a vehicle that allows me to enter between those vehicles when I get frustrated. Other than those times my eye is on the LCD display to see how I’m doing. Understand I still have a lead foot at times, but other than those few times I now drive for mileage and it isn’t at all painful. Does it bother me when someone cuts me off? Or drives aggressively? Not really, I’m getting 50+ mpg and driving a really nice car. We absolutely love our Prius! I’ve had many new cars but none have ever captured my heart as this car has. I know my wife feels the same way. Cars are cars, but the Prius is somehow more. It’ll do until fuel cell
technology and H2 filling stations come along.

Anyone having questions I didn’t cover might find answers at this site. John is the sole reason the site exists, he has no corporate support. Lots of photos, lots of info and there are links to other sites. It’ll be quite clear that John is definitely “a believer”. Long before we were , I might add.

FWIW, He’s way too busy to answer emails but his links lead to sites where one can ask
questions.

John’s Toyota Prius Information

Thanks for the information, Brian!

Posted in Vehicle Design | Leave a comment

Voltage Excitation

Posted on November 1, 2003 by George B.

Keep in mind, there are a good many manufacturers in China that make ST heads. There is always a possibility that your head has different lead designations! One must also note that the  manufacturer often includes wiring information with lead designations your generator might not have! A good example of this is the 50hz wiring configurations on some generator plates. The leads are often NOT there, because the manufacturer assumes you’ll have little use for 50HZ in North America, and has deleted same.

It seems there are a good number of us who are concerned about voltage regulation, voltage droop, etc. Many of us want to know what the ST design deliverers and we don’t have a clue what the majority of consumer Generators deliver. I strongly advise that you buy a Kill A WATT, these simple and inexpensive devices plug in anywhere and give you frequency, voltage, power factor, and will even allow you to track KWH usage of an appliance. This is a great product for a generator owner, a device sold for less than $30 with a very nice LCD readout.

For those of you that have Kill A Watts, please consider plugging it into your consumer generator head, and noting the voltage and frequency and sending it to me.

It is a common practice to set a small generator up for 61 HZ no load, when the load is applied the governor often takes a bit to react, and 60 Hz ends up being the number in mid load range.

When we get into this subject, remember the power company has no problem with plus or minus 10% in the voltage they deliver you. It’s nice to set your machine up so the no load voltage is near the high acceptable limit, this way any droop between no load and your heavy loads will be acceptable. some people are worried that they are running at 62hz when they set up to run maybe 128 volts no load, from my experience, this works well.

I plugged my Kill a WATT into my Neighbor’s Briggs and Stratton 5KW gen set. At 61HZ,  I observed 134 volts no load, At 60HZ, I saw 125 volts no load. If you experiment with what’s out there, you will develop a baseline, and you will not be prey to marketing hype about how you need 60.0000hz and 115.000000 volts.

George,

I have a Generac 5500XL. Using a Kill a Watt I observed 128 volts at 61 HZ no load and 126 volts at 60 HZ no load (It was bouncing back and forth.) At Approx 1000 watts load the voltage falls to 119 and 59 HZ. At approx 2400 watts, the voltage falls to 114  and 57 to 58 HZ. This is approx. 125 feet from the generator to the load with 8 gage wire used to
carry the current. ( I couldn’t figure out how to keep it at 60 hz under load). The genset is 3 years old with approx 500 hrs service. Hope this data helps out.

David Robert

I think David’s machine has a lazy governor, but his readings give us some comparative figures. We need more readings, keep them coming!  Thanks, David!

Alternators that provide access to the field winding allow an end user to control the voltage INDEPENDENT of the frequency. The ST head provides this kind of access.   ST’s come from the factory with “harmonic excitation”, this is a simple self exciting system that uses the Z winding in the stator for a supply voltage. This winding is connected to a full wave bridge, ( a group of diodes) that ‘rectifies’ or converts this AC voltage into a DC voltage. The DC voltage is then connected to the field (rotating winding) providing the force that will ‘excite’ the generator. The higher the current in this field, the higher the output voltage at any given frequency.

When the head is at 1800 RPMs, the “Z” winding is producing around 53 volts AC. at 2.1 amps, or only 111 watts. This AC is connected to a full wave bridge array of diodes that converts the excitation voltage to DC. At this point you will read 69 volts DC at the output of the diode bridge. these measurements were made with simple FLUKE multi meter and may not represent true voltages or power. But.. it is most likely what you will have to test with, and it is what I had…

Drawing Above: (ST Heads). This system is simple to trouble shoot, and you could replace their diode bridge with one from radio shack or a hundred other places if something were to go wrong with it. What you have is three windings, a diode bridge, and some slip rings, that’s it! The volt meter, light bulb, and switch are typically wired across the output of the generator for quick reference. I got an email suggesting that the switch and light bulb were a little misleading since they really didn’t do anything. I guess the light tells you that voltage is present, and if the light bothers you, the switch turns it off….so if you’re expecting something more than this, you’ll be disappointed.

If your generator fails to make juice, simply remove the cover to gain access to the diode bridge, the leads to the field winding and the harmonic winding can be accessed here. The screw terminals allow you to lift the leads and properly isolate them for testing. Use an ohm meter to verify that both the Field winding F1—–F2, and the harmonic winding (Z1——Z2 read properly. It might be a good idea to read these windings with your meter when you are installing the head and write down their resistance values on the inside of the cover.  The actual stator windings that provide the power for your load come off of windings U1—–U3 and U2—–U4. The ST heads I have allow the end user to quickly wire the head for either 120 volt only loads, or 120, and 240 loads. Some generators are set up for both 120 & 240 only, this means that you can only use 1/2 of the generator’s rated output to get your ‘hard to start’ 120 load going, this can be a problem, know what you’re buying!

The Following comments regard Generators in general, not just the ST units.

If you look at the field winding above, you’ll notice a strap and two terminals not designated. Following is an example why you might mess with this strap and how to do it.

Lets’ say you bought a ‘Kill A Watt’ (do a web search if you don’t know what this is), and you are measuring a little higher voltage than you are comfortable with at 60 or 61 HZ.  I mention 61 Hz because lots of us set up Gen sets at this frequency (no load) with the expectation that the load will pull the genset down to 60hz and that we will get some advantage with the expected voltage droop. To help you figure your voltage, I’ll mention that the power company typically regards plus or minus 10% to be in compliance.

The above part is a ceramic 5ohm, 50 watt resistor, the center tap can be used to adjust the resistance downward. This is a good example of a part you can use to adjust voltage, but there are many.

Above are drawings of the same part. Note that this device gets hot and requires a mount. The lower drawing attempts to demonstrate a typical mounting for OHMITE D50K5R0,  Blue represents the side of the dog house or other suitable mounting place where the part can get some air for cooling. Gray represents a piece of metal strap bent at the ends with holes drilled to act as a mount. Red represents a bolt and bolt head, and nut inserted in the ceramic resistor to mount it. DIYers recognize that ceramic materials crack and break if you reef on them, so treat it like a glass part, and make sure the connections are clear of any metal near the mount.

Once you have properly mounted the resistor, place it in series with your field winding. Use washers, and loc-tite, or other means to assure things don’t come undone. Fire up your Gen set and adjust to 61HZ, adjust the voltage to the highest voltage setting you’ll want to see. Measure this voltage at your load, not at the head. If your loads are 300 feet from the generator head, measure the voltage there and adjust this part to provide that voltage. Once the center tap is adjusted, tighten it firmly.

It may be helpful to note that a generator’s output voltage is in relation to the current in the field winding. Since this is a series circuit, the voltage drop created by this resistor will lower the current. Current is common throughout the circuit in a series circuit.

With all this said, here’s how you hook it up.

If you look at the drawing above, you’ll note that there is a strap between one end of the resistor and the center tap. How you hook things up can make a difference.  If you do it as I have drawn it, the lead between the tap and the end effectively ‘masks’ part of the resistor, should the center tap loosen or if the centertap wire breaks, the resistor will be fully inserted into the circuit. Other configurations could generate severe swings in voltage if the tap loosened or a wire broke.

Please note that the wire used should be very fine stranded and flexible.

Although the stock Voltage excitation will serve my needs entirely (and most likely yours too) you could add more components or a complete sophisticated voltage regulator if you like. To date, I don’t know the best way to do it.

At this point, I have found nothing that doesn’t work fine when it’s powered by a stock ST.  I’ve had one gas generator that had a carb problem and surged, the speed would vary widely and the voltage along with it. You could see the size of the picture get bigger and smaller, lighter and darker with each surge on the color TV. But you can’t blame the generator head for that.

Load… (This may be a worst case example) A friend of mine recently bought an expensive Onan autostart   generator. What kind of voltage regulation it had, I don’t know, but it’s a natural gas unit in a box and is rated at 8Kw. This particular unit was installed to support a glass blowing shop. The critical load was a blower motor rated at 2 horse power. This induction motor is a 3750 RPM unit; attached to the motor shaft is a fairly high mass blower fan, which means it takes a bit of time for the motor to come up to speed. After the glass blowing shop replaced the blower motor for the second time, they became concerned and hired an electrical shop to investigate. They found that the motor starting windings were being ‘cooked’ and burning up! Further investigation proved that this Onan 8KW generator was actually too small to start this motor! The high mass of the blower, and the fact that this is a higher RPM induction motor means that it requires more of a generator to start it and get it up to speed fast before the start winding overheats and cooks!  After calling the Onan Rep, the glass shop learned that the generator was clearly too small to handle such a load. Thanks to the Salesman and the assumption that an 8KW Generator would start any 2HP induction motor, they bought the wrong thing and have to buy it over again. The root problem was the generator is too small.

The important lesson is: Induction motors are demanding loads to start, and can take up to 3 to 5 times the POWER (watts) to start than it takes to run! When the shaft is at zero rpm, the motor windings have little impedance (opposition to current flow). Some Designers count on the motor to ‘spin up’ in a certain amount of time to keep from burning up the motor start windings.  As the motor picks up speed, it generates a force called ‘counter electromotive force’ this opposes the incoming current and quickly reduces the amount of current the motor draws.  Now consider this blower motor in the glass shop, it has a huge blower fan made of cast, it weighs a bunch an acts as a flywheel when starting, AND it is trying to push air as well. The motor has to lug all this along as it tries to come up to speed. It would be my bet, that the start windings are only good for a few hundred starts when power is adequate!  Add an under sized generator set, and you have a recipe for fried motor in just one or two starts.

With this in mind, you can look at the motor you want to run and see what kind of load it carries with it when it tries to start. A big motor with no load is going to be easier for a smaller generator to bring up to speed. If you can load it after it’s brought up to speed, you have the better situation.

Don’t confuse skill saws, chop saws, vacuum cleaners, and all the other universal motors with induction motors. Universal motors are MUCH easier to start and don’t have start windings, but they have more ‘wear parts’ and won’t last nearly as long in continuous service.

Understanding the Salient Rotor used in the ST design.

If you look at the above sketch, it somewhat represents the Salient rotor design found in the ST design. Here you can clearly see the ‘four poles’ in the rotor. Each winding is like a wound bobbin of copper wire. The standard rotor has all four bobbins connected in series. The winding above and to the right is a representation of each bobbin. If you were to take a reading with your ohm meter and divide by four, you should have the value of each winding’s resistance.

If we look at the above drawing, we see the coils connected as it is stock.

Above we see the same bobbins on the salient rotor wired series parallel, in this configuration, you could use a source of DC at 1/2 the voltage and produce the same output voltage of your generator.

Above is the same four bobbins on the salient rotor wired is parallel, if you use 1/4 of the voltage to power the salient rotor (Field), wired as you see it here, you will produce the same output voltage as stock.

So why do you care?

Knowing more about the design will allow you fix it, or ‘rig up’ something to make power when you need it most.

Some folks use an external source for their field excitation. If you have a battery bank, you have a source of field current. Consider this.. 48 volt battery strings are becoming more popular. The telephone company has been using this voltage for about a Century, so it isn’t anything new. The higher voltage allows a designer to reduce wire size and eliminate some pretty heavy resistive losses in an off grid power design. More and more off grid designs use this voltage, versus 12volts or 24 volts.  if you decide to invest in solar, or a battery string and inverter, look into the advantages of the 48 volt system. Lets make note of the float voltage of a 48 volt battery plant, it’s around 52.2 volts depending on the type of batteries and other design criteria. You will note that this is pretty darned close to what we saw when the stock harmonic winding was powering the field in this ST head.

So why do I care?

Lets’ say Ted Kennedy was messing with your stuff (drunk as usual), and messed up your generator. You do some basic trouble shooting and find that the rectifier is shot, or maybe he’s managed to spill some Brandy into your generator head and smoked the harmonic winding. If you were to pull out the rectifier, and tape up the harmonic winding leads, you could use your battery string voltage to power the field by attaching it to the slip rings or to the same wires marked (plus and minus) that you pulled off your rectifier.

Also note, you could drop a cell and lower your field voltage by approx. 2 volts, this could give you some voltage adjustment, and most likely an even better sine wave.

But I don’t have a 48 volt battery plant!

Well, take a look at the alternate ways one can wire the bobbins on the rotor, do you have 24 volts? Do you have 12 volts? these voltages could be used to power the field as well in an emergency. Note as you wire the field to drop the voltage, current goes up, this will have an effect on brush wear, but it may get you running in an emergency, like after the EMP 🙂

If you’re off grid, or if you’re on grid house is cold and dark, it’s always nice to know how you could Jerry rig your Gen set into making some juice if some component failed.

One more thing that might be handy to know, if you cut off two rotor tips and just had two tips with their bobbins spinning around, you’d have a two pole generator. You would need to spin the rotor double speed to make 60HZ, and I would imagine the bobbins would come flying off and grind your generator to shreds at that speed. 3600 RPM generators use a turbine design versus the heavy salient design, don’t try tuning it faster than it’s rated speed.

Please email me with your hands on experience or ideas. I have provided this gallery so all images are in one place so you can click through them.

All the Best,

George

A mouse in the House?
The simple ST Head

Posted in Voltage | Tagged , | 17 Comments

Water Supply

Posted on July 27, 2003 by George B.

Over 20 years ago, my friend, Kathie Costanich, discovered a plant growing about 100 paces from our high mountain cabin. She came over to the construction site (we were setting rafters on the cabin) and explained that there was a plant down there that was a known indicator of water close to the surface, “George.. you need to get a shovel and start digging”.  I remember telling Her that we had work to do, and I thought she was nuts.  I pointed out the shovel and told Her to start digging!

Wouldn’t  you know, She dug down about 14 inches and hit water. This is dry country, plenty of pines, and an occasional spring, and Kathie finds it  just down from the cabin. As you might guess, I ate crow for a few meals.

Since then, I have dug down about four feet and put a cover over the water supply.   I remember one rare day when the temperature hit 100 degrees, the spring water was 40 degrees and the Pepsi and other refreshments submerged in the water felt so cool. In fact, sticking your hand in the spring was almost painful.

It seems like things evolve over the years, as I’ve said elsewhere, when you’re younger, running up the hill with 5 gallon pails of water is no big deal. Then you get the idea to siphon water down hill to a shower, and finally you start thinking about pumping the water uphill to the cabin.

The first set up was a 12 volt shurflow pump. I’d charge up a 12volt deep cycle and lug it and the pump down to the spring, I’d hook up two garden hoses and pump water up hill to three 55 gallon plastic drums. then I’d reset the pump and battery at the barrels and pump the rest of the way to the cabin.

The next step was to add on to the cabin and have a real in door shower and a utility sink to wash dishes, wow! what an improvement.

The biggest problem I had with the shurflow and the garden hoses was leaks at the couplings and priming the darned thing.  I should have bothered to place a foot valve but I never remembered to buy one and take it to the cabin. The Shurflow pump cost me about $50, I think they are a good buy for the money.  I was lucky enough to get a nice large pressure tank with an air bladder (for free) when a nearby house was moved and the well casing pulled. I used the Shurflow to pump about 40 gallons into this tank. You can wash plenty of dishes and take a number of showers before you need to supply power to the pump for recharging the tank.

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m planning to place a generator for the heavier loads and  battery charging. I’ll also use the inverter for the smaller loads and a home made controller to manage the system. With AC available, I will test a number of cost effective products to see what works well, and what doesn’t.

To my surprise, the inexpensive inverter I purchased from donrowe.com has no problem starting an apartment sized fridge, and an intermediate sized sump pump. Is it possible that I have now  found an inexpensive, compact water system that will run off a low dollar Inverter?

Water supply gets a major upgrade in 2003.  Stay tuned.

Posted in Cowiche Cabin, Wells | Leave a comment

Mike's 4 Cylinder Kubota/ST20

Posted on February 1, 2003 by George B.

You’ll work hard to top this effort!  Here is what Mike shared with me:

Hello George,

This is my generator project using a 20KW ST head. First I found and old boat trailer and cut the tongue down to the length I needed. I then found a 50-gallon fuel tank that had been used on one of those forced air torpedo type, shop heaters. Then I went to my local steel supply and ordered a light I-beam with a height that would allow me to drop the fuel tank inside. I welded the I-beam together creating the base, the fuel tank fit like a glove. I power the unit with a Kubota V1902 Diesel engine, about 39 H.P. I used a new radiator (electric cooling fan) designed for a Massey Ferguson 135-farm tractor, this since I have a tractor like this to spec. from. The drive couplings are made from “off the shelf” agriculture end yokes, the shaft for the generator measures out at 1-5/8 with a 3/8 key, I just had to hunt around till I found someone who carried them. I had a machine shop make my flywheel plate, which I welded one of the end yokes too. Other items, oil bath breather, remote mounted oil filter, fuel filters, and battery. Full engine gauges with tachometer from Kubota. Large 5-1/2″ panel meters, amp and volt, still trying to find a frequency. Breaker box with 2-50amp 220volt and 2-20amp 110volt breakers, Eight-110volt plugs and Two-220volt 50 Amp plugs. Full metal enclosure with some help from my local fabricator.

Mike, Nashville TN

Somewhere along the line, I misplaced the above modification to Mike’s gen set, I would imagine this is the L150 love joy coupler; the same one I use for theChinese 1115.

I think the enclosure is an amazing transformation… but notice that Mike has put larger wheels and fenders on his rig as well. I’d like to see a nicer looking rig, something tells me it’ll be a while.

AS of FEB 2003, Mike shared he’s had a 100 amp load on the set and it carries it with no problem.

Thanks for sharing your handy work with us Mike!

Posted in Utterpower's Friends | 3 Comments

How to Make and Manage Power Off Grid

Posted on August 7, 2002 by George B.

No matter what you come up with, someone has probably already thought of it or done it. With that said, I don’t claim any of this as original thinking,  but it all makes perfect sense to me. The following is written in a random way and will be added to and changed as time goes on.

Some DIY people don’t want anything to do with micro controllers. NOTE,  if they are deployed properly, you have all the manual functionality remaining if they fail, you have little to lose and much to gain by building them into your design. Furthermore, some electronic stuff is junk, it casts a shadow on all electronic equipment when it fails. I know a guy who has replaced the controller for his gen set (motor home) twice already, that’s because it’s a junk design …. not because electronics is unreliable.

I start by assuming that there will be loads that are not economical to run off batteries, I also assume that the wind won’t always blow, and the sun will not always shine, or at least that the associated equipment will not always be on line to make it. I offer arc welding as an example of an occasional load that doesn’t make sense to run off batteries, but if one lives off grid, it’s nice to have. There will also be times when you have  company and the demands exceed all rational design parameters, they’ll come just to see what living off grid is all about!

The main power source is the diesel generator, it is diesel for several reasons, one being the greater efficiency. The engine is water cooled providing a longer life, quieter running, and a noteworthy by product, hot water; which provides an effective means of storing otherwise wasted energy.  The diesel used is simple to work on and has an advanced fuel and oil filter system that helps the engine live a longer and more trouble free life. Of course the controller has duties here as well, monitoring  and alerting you to any abnormal conditions.

There are all types of diesels, the ones I’m interested in are heavy cast iron units with proven reliability and long lives. Their massive flywheels help provide a smooth constant speed. The stored energy within them allows a load to be added without the lights dimming like that of a hardware store generator. Many stationary diesels are designed to be repaired in the field, large access covers allow you to get at the guts of the machine in minutes if necessary.  The down side, is the weight, some 6hp engines weigh 800 pounds! You won’t ship one of these via UPS.

Other important factors are loading, pre lubing, and running the engine within design parameters. Diesels don’t appreciate light loading long term, a controller can monitor for under loading and apply additional loads to assure the power plant is happy and running efficiently.

The study of Marine diesels could provide some clues to longevity. Some suggest that the light weight diesels being sold to the boat building industry do not last any longer than a gas engine. They claim that time kills these new diesels as rapidly as their gas counterparts.  Their examples include boats of the same class needing overhauls at the same time interval regardless of hours. We can wonder just how dry an engine gets after it has set for 3 months and is started without a pre lube system? How much damage is done? How much moisture lays in the crank case? How much moisture is brought into the engine during the heating and cooling cycle of a 24 hour day?  Have you ever seen a water tight light fixture half full of water? One small pin hole leak will allow moist air to be sucked in during the night and condensed inside the fixture when the sun hits it. Sooner or later, it is filled with water. I am certain that a power plant left outside where the sun can shine directly on it will experience some of this, and it is noteworthy that this moisture can become acidic. Dissimilar metals within the engine can create a current flow and damage important  metallic surfaces within the engine. Where you place your Generator Set, and even the color you paint it can have some bearing on it’s operating life. any efforts to keep moisture out of fuel tanks and the crank case can pay big dividends.

I figure about  3kW continious will be enough to meet my needs when there is a lot of flywheel mass to help start loads. There are some small Diesels that really are efficient and long life. I once read about a big one cylinder diesel that made electricity for a small town. It was in service for SIXTY years with no bearing changes! The only reason they quit using it was power came to town and the Government subsidies made it way too attractive to ignore.

Some folks will say that we should be kinder to Mother Earth and not pollute the planet with a stinky diesel. My adopted reply…. “If Mr. Diesel were still alive, he might agree with you in part”. His engine was designed to burn vegetable oil; a renewable resource and a clean burning one at that. If you wish to run your stationary diesel on veggie oil, it could work fine. (There’s info all over the WEB on this subject)…but the trick is to heat the veggie oil before it enters the injector, here’s another place the controller comes to play, it could start the diesel on diesel fuel, and transfer to veggie when the temp is right. It can also transfer back to diesel and purge the lines of veggie before a shut down occurs. This is critical but easy to do with a controller.

Oh yes, this system has batteries too, the generator doesn’t roll 24×7, wind power and solar power are Plug In options.

Imagine having the time to watch every gauge, and listen to every noise in your power shed. That’s the controller’s job, and she’ll do it night and day with no pay and take appropriate action should anything go wrong.

The basic plan

If you’re going to deploy artificial intelligence, you need a way of communicating information and requests from one place to another. How about using a one wire bus between major appliances and the controller?, a  relay would isolate the appliance from the AC bus. Lets use a Fridge as an example, the resistance across the appliance side of the relay would be interpreted as a (request to run). The controller would receive this request and make a decision based on a number of factors.

Is the generator currently running? When is it scheduled to run next? What is the float voltage of the batteries? Could the Inverter handle this appliance? Depending on the current conditions and the set of rules given to the controller, the mission is carried out. And example might be… The current loads are being handled by the inverter running off batteries, that load might be a few compact fluorescent lights and the 19 inch TV running off the satellite dish.

This time, the controller decides it’s worth running the generator, the controller prepares the diesel to start, it sets the compression release and engages the starter, once up to cranking speed, it dumps the compression release and monitors the set for a start. Once running, the starter is disengaged and the set is allowed to warm up at a reduced speed until it comes up to temp, (This is done to extend the life of the diesel and to cut down on emissions). Once the gen set has reached operating parameters, the controller sets the speed to 1800 RPMs and  transfers all loads to the diesel except the satellite receiver. The controller pumps water, fills the cistern, recharges batteries, captures waste heat for domestic hot water as well as granting the fridge the RTR, (request to run). Once the controller thinks there’s nothing left to be gained by running the generator, it transfers the loads back to the inverter and shuts down the diesel.

If you wish to add solar or wind power, their outputs feed the batteries. The controller factors these sources of energy and may choose to run more loads off the inverter automatically.

This system is being assembled and tested now. The engine under test is a Chinese made German designed 195 diesel. There is a documented case of this engine running for 50,000 hours before being overhauled, there are other engines like some of the Listers that ran 100,000 hours before they need an overhaul. Adding good filters, making sure that the fuel is high quality, operating your diesel at the right temp, and carrying loads only when the temp is optimum, is a necessity if you are trying for longevity like this.

The controller is being designed around the ATMEL Mega8 processor,   it’s loaded with built in goodies that will lower the parts count. Their are lots of electronic equipment designs out there that are missing components that protect the circuits from over voltage and current.  Equipment often operates for years without it, but when you’re off grid, and you are depending on a controller to do a job, it should be well protected from the hostile world that it watches over. Inputs should be idiot proof, you should be able to hook up the battery and ground backwards without causing smoke.

One thing that is essential in any installation is a plan to handle fault current and lightning. Basically you want to create a path that routes the current away from, versus through you or your equipment. There are week long schools that address nothing but this subject. The one I attended was most interesting. One example of (interesting) is the inspection of grounding, bonding, and ground cable routing in communications centers. Inspectors often find serious errors that would have rendered the grounding plan far less effective or even dangerous. I have personally found a number of ground fault cables that pass through a short piece of metal conduit cast into a concrete wall. Few of us would suspect that this piece of conduit would be a problem, in reality, it acts as a choke and makes it difficult for the fault current in a lighting strike to pass through the conductor. This could cause the lightning to find a better path through your controller, or worse yet… you!

Mechanicals

Picture yourself snowed in,  it’s light an fluffy, and the trip to the main road via the snow mobile may not be possible for a few days. You have plenty of fire wood and there’s 100 gallons of fuel in the generator tank. You can stay here till spring if you have to, and be comfortable doing it…. “if nothing breaks you can’t fix”.

Then it happens, the snow load on the roof pushes on your chimney pipe and the last joint  is pushed apart;  your cabin fills with smoke. You think about the summer days you spent looking up and wondering if you should re do that sloppy installation up there before winter; now you get to mess with it at a far less desirable time.

Your generator is no different; do it right and you’ll have less trouble. The more things you anticipate the better, but all of them will cost you time, money, or both to address up front.  where do you draw the line when it comes to prepping a gen set for an isolated off grid setting? I think it’s a personal thing, but if you look at environments where reliability is a concern, you can get some ideas.

I think aircraft is a great place to pick up knowledge of how mechanical systems are made more reliable. In their world, they have scheduled inspections where potential problems can be found before they interfere with the operation of the aircraft. Safety wire is used everywhere, fasteners are literally wired in place. Parts that are ‘certified for service’ are used; you don’t find a piece of bailing wire tying the throttle cable to the carb; or at least you shouldn’t

I got an email from a good mechanic that just had a serious engine failure. I expect we’ll exchange a number of emails in an attempt to figure how we could have prevented the problem from becoming as large as it was. It appears that something in (or around) the valve train broke off and found it’s way to the sump. At this point we think it was sucked up through the inlet screen into the pump. Once this metallic piece entered the pump, it jammed the meshing gears and  the drive tab sheared.

With no oil pressure, things went from bad to worse….

I think this is a good example of a typical problem. Had he taken some preventative steps, this could have been found before it did the serious damage. He knows it, we all know it…”There’s only so much time to deploy these things”.

Here’s a few ideas: Place a neo magnet in the pan where steel parts would cling before they could get to the inlet of the pump. Place a neo magnet in the oil return path of the rocker box to intercept and hold any loose steel pieces headed for the sump. Equip your diesel with an oil pressure switch and figure out how to shut down the set when the pressure goes away. This could be done with a solenoid, spring, and latch that would override the connection between the governor and fuel rack, and close the fuel rack when the oil pressure is not present.

Modify the sump where it is  deep around the pump pickup, where the suction action wouldn’t suck up small metallic stuff in the sump. Make a bigger pickup, with a fine mesh screen.

It’s all easy stuff to do, but you have to do it before the need.

August 7, 2002 Putting more of your BTUs to work ????

For the last few weeks, I’ve been thinking of all this waste heat rolling out of the diesel, the cooling tank does a fine job of storing it. The heat exchanger I’m building for the exhaust will capture even more. In the winter, I could find a use for all of it. In the summer it would be nice to use this waste energy to heat a refrigerant and to provide cooling… maybe to run an ice box or freezer?

I started thinking about an air dryer we had at work. It would run on one side, absorb water in a canister until it was no longer effective and then switch to the second canister. The wet side (off line) would be heated driving out the water; when dry, the canisters would be switched and the process would go back and forth.  I discussed the idea with my neighbor and friend who works at Boeing. Use two canisters with coils in them to charge with a refrigerant, then heat it via a coil with hot water from waste heat.   We talked about Ammonia, ether, and a number of potential refrigerants that might be compatible with the temperatures I thought we’d have to work with. Ether might do real work at 180 degrees, especially if you have an abundance of cooler water to cool down the canister after charging it with waste heat?

Using a micro controller, a few thermistors, a couple valves, a condenser, and two canisters with coils, you could put some more of this wasted energy to work off grid! Come to think of it, you might just conduct the waste heat off the exhaust system to run the heat pump section in a typical RV Ammonia fridge! There’s no reason you couldn’t put some distance between the heat driven pump section and the fridge itself!

About 3 days after Brian and I talked, he rushed across the street with the latest copy of the “Boeing Frontiers” magazine. He had it folded back to page 35, an article titled “Hot idea to cool down”.

Here in the magazine is Craig Christy extracting  the heat from a diesel exhaust and using it to potentially cool one of those refrigerated Vans without a compressor!     DIYer ‘Bill Levitt’ sends a link to the article on line!  http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2002/august/i_people1.html

People can curse diesels, but if you could capture 75 percent of the BTUs in diesel fuel and put them to work, you’d have something really significant!

Posted in How Tos, Projects | 4 Comments

Wiring Trouble

Posted on April 2, 2002 by George B.

Manufacturers might change their wiring at any time, consider this an example only.

Some manufacturers have changed their wiring! Newer heads have what they think is a handy terminal strip on the side of the dog house.

The first step in trouble shooting is to assume nothing. Verify that your head is indeed wired as above. If you find it is wired different, you might consider making a note of how it is wired now and then wire it as above for the purpose of testing. Note:   if you have a center tapped head, it will be just like the drawing above.

There is a piece of test equipment called a ‘megger’, it’s nice to have for testing electrical appliances. The one I had experience with in the NAVY had a hand crank, you’d hook it to the windings and then to the case or the ground terminal on a gen set and crank it up. This performed a high voltage test between the windings and ground. If the insulation was failing or breaking down, you’d see it. If you can get your hands on such a tester, do so , if not use the good ole multi meter like most of us, and proceed.

Use these test procedures at your own risk, this information is for educational purposes only! We’ll assume your generator head is dry and clean and that you have grounded the head to earth ground to protect yourself. We’ll also assume that it’s hooked to the engine and that you can spin it up to 1800 RPMs. We also must assume that you have a good idea where 1800 RPMs is, or that you have a device like a mechanical tachometer to verify that the speed is correct.  (It’s a lot of assumptions!) If all this is true, proceed to step one. Remember! the following readings were taken off the 10KW head.

1.  Remove the slip ring cover, lift both sets of brushes off the slip rings, a little messing around and you’ll see they stay up on their own when lifted up far enough. Make a tool out of a paper clip to pull the spring back over the top of the brush when you wish to seat them again.

Place your ohm meter across the slip rings and take a reading on the R times 1 scale, you should see around 17 ohms.  If true, go to step2.   If you find a different resistance, the field is suspect, consider pulling the rotor, you’ll find four windings in series, inspect the solder joints, and connections to the slip rings. Open the individual windings and compare them using the ohm meter. Check the field to the shaft,  you should read  infinite (OPEN). Once you have corrected problems here or have proven it good, go to step two.

2. Place the meter on the ohms times one scale, and place it across the Z1 and Z2 leads when they are removed from the diode bridge. g. The reading should be around 5 ohms, if true go to step 3. If not, Investigate the harmonic winding in the stator, and replace it if bad.

3. connect the volt meter across the Z1 and Z2 leads. Set the meter for AC volts, 100 volt scale.  Start the engine and bring the set to 1800 RPMs. You should read approx 53 volts AC, if true go to step 4. If your reading was different, verify you are turning 1800 RPMs, if true,  investigate stop the unit, take a 12 volt battery and FLASH the field with the brushes lifted on one ring, put the brushes back on the rings and repeat step three.

4. With the set stopped, re connect the Z1 and Z2 leads to the diode bridge. Start the engine and verify the set is running at 1800 RPMs connect your meter to the two screws that normally connect the two leads going to the slip rings, and note the DC voltage. It should be around 69 volts DC. If this reading is good go to step 5. If it is off, replace the diode bridge and retest.

5. If you got this far, you’ve proved you have a correct voltage from the Z winding, that it is being converted to DC by the diode bridge, and that you have a proper resistance in the field winding. If you have an amp meter that can accurately measure 2 amps AC , place the meter in series between the lead Z1 and the diode bridge terminal screw. Check all the brushes, slip rings and connections. Start the set and run it up to 1800 RPMs. The meter should read approx 2.1 amps if true, go to step 6.   If you’re reading was different, verify your meter, the RPMs, and the field excitation circuit, also look at the diode bridge for a flaw. read out the diodes with the ohm meter and prove it good.

6. You’ve proved that everything is working on the excitation side. The only thing left is the output side. Continue to step 7.

7. Verify that all test leads are removed and all the leads in the field excitation circuit are tight. Set the ohm meter on the R times one scale, place one test lead on the U1 terminal and the other on U2, you should see a very low resistance, .02 thru .06 ohms. If not verify that the strap is in between U3 and U4. Using the ohm meter, measure between u1 and ground, the reading should be infinite, if true go to step 8. If there is any reading other than infinite (open) to ground look at both windings further, replace if necessary.

7.5 NOTE: It doesn’t matter which slip ring the plus and minus side of the rectifier are connected to, as long as you flash it in the proper direction, use a 12 volt battery, and ‘flash’ the field according to the plus and minus markings of the rectifier. The smart DIYer will make one of the brush rigs with a plus for quick reference later. If you take things apart and swap the leads, you only need flash the field accordingly! Some have found the output of the rectifier opposite of the drawing provided with their generator, or opposite of above, this is not a problem, as long as you note the polarity before you attempt to flash, and as long as you know that rolling these leads will kill the excitation voltage till you flash again!

8. Place your voltmeter across leads U1 and U2, set on a scale to read 230 volts AC. Start the engine and set at 1800 RPMs, if you’re reading is not close to 230 volts AC, you most likely have a problem with your RPMs, your meter, or your U windings or associated leads. Get a MEGGER and test all the windings with it. If you got here and didn’t clear your problem, you are one unlucky person.

Please report any errors or omissions you might find in this text.

Update 05/2006: To date, the leading troubles in the ST design are noisy bearings, and rectifier failures. The old Chinese designed rectifier appears to be a first generation solid state rectifier that immediately followed the ancient and bulky selenium design, this first generation unit is air cooled, made of too many parts screwed together and far more prone to failure. Utterpower is consulting on this, and hopefully PS heads will have the better rectifiers stock, until then, there is a retrofit kit called the ST-Mod kit that eliminates the dog house all together and provides a far better rectifier.

As for bearings, leading causes of  bearing failures is the assembler used cheap bearings, attempted to ship the bearings with little or no grease, or packed them in Yak fat instead of a proper grease. There are other problems, some assemblers will cheat the importer out of a shielded bearing on the fan side, this means the bearing and grease is open to pick up all the grit and dirt blown into it by the fan, and soon, you’ll have a grinding compound in there working to take that bearing out in record time.

Regardless of what the importer ordered, you will only know it’s right if you check. Don’t have time to check? Buy something else.

These comments are are about all Chinese ST heads.

Posted in How Tos | Tagged | Leave a comment