I was thinking along the lines of a Bicycle wheel with fan blades attached using the large sprocket to drive a small sprocket attached to an alternator to charge the batteries in my Disco, which sometimes sits for 2 weeks without being started.
Something along the lines of Scrapheap Challenge (ABC2 Mon./Sat. 6:30pm), see who can build a workable wind Generator out of whatever is lying around, Regards Frank.

you want to look into fisher and pikel direct drive washing machine motors....

also naff the alterntator off and use the drive motors out of reel to reel tape decks and very high end vcrs and cassette players they only put out an amp or 2 but should work with the kind of setup your looking at..

Ive heard rumour control of using turntable motors and drives as well but not sure how good that would be.

__________________
Dave

"In a Landrover the other vehicle is your crumple zone."

Big Red '03 D110 Extreme (TD5manual chipped)
Fozzy, 2.25D SIII Ex Telecom Highside Ute (bye Kermit)
T4 Diagnostics (sorta)

For spelling call Rogets, for mechanicing call me.

I'll have to take a look at the local tip, but the missus will kill me if I bring home anymore junk, I was trying to justify what I have laying around, so I can say "see dearest how useful that bit of crap was that has been laying there for years", Regards Frank.

There was an article in "Silicon Chip" a couple of years about describing how to make a wind generator using a Fisher & Paykel washing machine motor.

John

__________________
JDNSW
1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
1970 2a 109 2.25 petrol

Will Google it and see what I can find, do you get ABC 2 John, good fun this Scrapheap Challenge, Regards Frank.

you get me a pick of your junk pile and I'll help ya come out of ways of doing it...

alternators generally work best with water wheels (squirrel cage fans are particulalry good for that) and if youve got an old tape deck or dvd/cd player you can take the drive motor out of that and remount it on a desk fan and in about a 7 knot wind it will start generating, couple them together with a planetry gearset from jaycar then set up a spring balance to and a wind vane to tilt the thing out of the wind as the wind speed picks ups to prevent it from over spinning and your laughing, regulation of the voltage is as simple as a 1a bridge diode and a cheap variable voltage regulator kit. or you could pull the regulator pack off of an alternator

__________________
Dave

"In a Landrover the other vehicle is your crumple zone."

Big Red '03 D110 Extreme (TD5manual chipped)
Fozzy, 2.25D SIII Ex Telecom Highside Ute (bye Kermit)
T4 Diagnostics (sorta)

For spelling call Rogets, for mechanicing call me.

Dave get your eyes off my spare F&P smartdrive motor.

They can produce upto 300W

Thats another project on the to do list.

Many years ago when I use to fly a volkswagen powered Gyrocopter the norm was not to use a altenator as it was too heavy.
As the power requirement was only to run the ignition only a few amps was required.
A Davis Craig themofan motor will put out up to 4amps and is small.
The bearings have no trouble in handling the loads , but the motor must be spun hard......about 6000rpm.
The drive was usually a large O ring or sewing machine O type belt on a home homemade alloy pulley fitted to the end of the thermofan motor.
A 10 dollar bridge rectifier from dicksmiths was used to ac/dc and stop battery fed back.
I think the out put is dc,but the rectifier module was a handy way of bolting up a diode.
If you want to get fancy a rectifier from a Jap motor bike will ac to dc and have built in current control and the motor bike wreckers sell them chip as chips

don't forget two important sources of 12volt generators - early series landies used generators, not alternators (bit of sacrilege to pilfer one for this though) and windscreen wiper motors in reverse... both work well but don't generate huge wattage. I built both in high school using and old windmill to drive... efficient? no... cheap? yes!

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pHear the m0n0treme

88 110 4BD1T poptop

Saw a grey nomad with a homemade wind generator.Largish truck fan running a pulley to an 80amp alternator.All was easily disassembled/packed/unpacked at each camp.His point was if its windy,its usually overcast and his solar panels arent much good.
Andrew

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LandyAndy

FAT BAZ,REST IN PEACE MATE!!!!!

Black Betty 1999 TD5 Disco and matching DIY off-road trailer
Classic Rangie(her ride) warm4.6,LPG,Wolf management,F/R ARB lockers
The Toy Series3 109 302V8 Auto(Project)
Stage1 V8 Van