wind turbines

[cteno4]

Hey,

just ran across these at deal extreme:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.52725#open%20full%20view

nice little wind turbine model that looks pretty good and size is about 16" high, bigger than the model power one at like 11" high. would translate to a smaller wind turbine maybe a 0.5-1 mw unit about 200' tall.

not bad for $19 shipped. can even have a solar array next to it to power the rotor!

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

I broke down and ordered one along with a couple of small solar flashlights to see if i can power the wind mill under normal room light. also got me thinking that could do a couple of buildings with solar panels and small led interior lights for fun. they would need to be accent lights only, just to make just inside the window detail stand out better under normal lighting. thinking the tiny smds will be low enough current to work perhaps.

ill post picts when it comes in compared to the modelpower version.

jeff

[FFISKIV]

I was wondering what happened with the wind turbine.  Are you happy with your purchase?

[keitaro]

i saw that you can get these for 4.95 if you purchase 1000 on some site...

not sure i want 1000

was also wondering if good or not personally i'd like it to be able to controll the speed as i'd want it spinning very very slowly not some random fast speed

[cteno4]

hasnt shown up yet, but usually these things from singapore or hong kong or china take 2-4 weeks to show up.

should be able to slow it up with a small pot to knock the voltage down a little.

ill post picts and video once i have it!

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

well it appears these are on backorder... may not be an option after all. i put in an email to try and find out what the status is.

jeff

[Webskipper]

Let us know how it works out for you because I want one to keep Old Glory flying proud.

[scott]

I'm working on some ideas for much smaller-scale wind generators for use in town settings. I have a lot of problems with the real-world versions of the big ones, but I like the idea of local-scale distributed generation (<--- fake technical term). I know I'm imposing my own ideas in a way that probably isn't very accurate for Japan, but I'm guessing that Japanese tech firms could get a grip on small-scale generators pretty quickly.

There may also be some photovoltaic cells on some of our buildings, if my idea works out. (Panels with transparent dark-blue or black paint over silver paint, with some grids scratched through to the silver.)

[cteno4]

scott,

interesting, i didnt see much in the way of small scale wind turbines when i was looking around google to see what big ones were around there to see how well the models matched, but that does not mean its not there! these are super easy to model, in fact for the small ones i bet there are some cast metal props out there for 1/144 scale planes you could use! motorizing them would be a bit harder due to size, but possible with the motor in the base and would allow slower gearing. will be great to see what you come up with!

i just got 5 little led flashlights that have solar cells and nimh batteries with them for $1 ea. they are scale 10' x 18' solar panels. was thinking of ganging them up to power a wind generator and having the little solar farm next to the turbine. not sure if inside lighting will get sustainable power or not.

aaron actually made up some N scale solar panels to print out. then just face with a piece of acetate. at any distance the silver lines go away (even on the real little ones i have and gray lines are fine between the dark blue/purple cells and all you really see is the shiny surface which the acetate will take care of (get this from all the view ports on your kato and tomix building boxes!)

cheers

jeff

[Shashinka]

I remember I made those when I was still working at bp solar to or three years ago. The engineering department loved them, as we used some of them for scale mark ups of our plant expansion (that was subsequently torn down midway through construction prior to relocation to China) I made them in T-scale, Z-scale, N-scale, and HO-scale. from images I took of actual solar modules. At the time, I had discussed with engineering about making functioning N-scale and HO-scale mini modules from scarp polycrystalline solar cells with the intent of powering n-scale or ho-scale model houses with roof mounted model scaled modules.  .

[scott]

At the time, I had discussed with engineering about making functioning N-scale and HO-scale mini modules from scarp polycrystalline solar cells with the intent of powering n-scale or ho-scale model houses with roof mounted model scaled modules.  .

That's a very cool  idea--it'd be interesting to see how that worked.

This all reminds me of some TV segment I saw severeal years ago about some company that had made photovoltaic roof tiles in the shape of traditional Japanese roof tiles. I'll have to see if I can dig up some info on that.

[Shashinka]

I had seen those while in Japan on a few homes. bp solar had mocks ups of such cells in technology along with a solar sun roof. I recall the cost of trouble of making arched roof tiles was three to four times more expensive as it was nearly impossible to make a polycrystalline solar cell do that without breaking. I believe any such mass-produced solar cell made would be thin film.

[cteno4]

these little lights will stay on for about an hour or two when fully charged with the little button nimh cell with 3 3mm leds lit. probably a lot longer on one led, ill experiment. perfect sized cell for a house roof 20mm x 38mm. the look great on the little tomytec row houses.

the $1 solar flashlights were the cheapest way to get all the components. i got them on a daily deal, but i think they are only like $1.70 regularly. would just need to unsolder the battery, switch and leds to reconfigure on a roof.

one thing is it does look like the recharge on these is pretty bad. its been under room light for the last couple of days (partilly near the mag lamp on some of the time with extra light) and since i just started up a turn on test a few minutes ago it looks to be falling off fast!

the solar cell does look cool though!

cheers

jeff

[Webskipper]

Try a pathway solar light. They are about $6.00 on sale.

I has one of those cells in a 6ft light house I bought for the pond I built years ago. It was outfitted with 2 weak 500ma AA nicad batteries. I soldered up 6 surplus 2000ma nimh AA batteries (3X3) and voila. I had a light on even in the dark Winter months. Maybe not on all night like in the Summer but, it looked cool.

[cteno4]

the idea was to keep the components small to fit in little tomytec houses. on further experimentation they really require full sunlight to recharge so not an option there really. but they do look very realistic for a solar cell for the roof of a building! but it would be easy to print something that looked like cells to what ever size you wanted and just face with a bit of acetate to give them a tad of depth.

cheers

jeff

Try a pathway solar light. They are about $6.00 on sale.

I has one of those cells in a 6ft light house I bought for the pond I built years ago. It was outfitted with 2 weak 500ma AA nicad batteries. I soldered up 6 surplus 2000ma nimh AA batteries (3X3) and voila. I had a light on even in the dark Winter months. Maybe not on all night like in the Summer but, it looked cool.

[cteno4]

Just got notification that the little solar powered wind turbine is shipping!

im not holding my breath that the solar aspect will work with indoor lighting, for $20 it looks like it might be a nice motorized kit.

jeff

[keitaro]

You could easily rewire it as an accessory though and add a low voltage resistor to slow it's spin ? 

Either way I want to see this.

[rpierce000]

Distributed wind turbines may not be prototype for Japan, but they do put 1-5Kw, usually 1, fuel cells and run them off of Natural Gas. They use the waste heat for hot water and heat, the power, of course, is to run the N layout in the house. We all need at LEAST 1KW to run out layouts, right?

Bob

[cteno4]

You could easily rewire it as an accessory though and add a low voltage resistor to slow it's spin ? 

Either way I want to see this.

that was my hope/intention that these should work at slower (more prototypical) speeds due to having to run off a photocell, so hopefully can be run at low voltage slowly.

we shall see, should be here in a week or two.

jeff

[cteno4]

ok got the wind turbine finally! its a very nice model. ill take a video of it and post it. would love to get a few more, but unfortunately they dont have that one anymore! a silver one at a much higher price or a smaller one that is probably too small. oh well i guess the faller is the main option still.

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

ha just going through some of the picts at rainbowten from the shizuoka hobby show may 12-15 and noticed they had soem wind turbine models behind a full diorama of the upcoming tomytec refinery models.

since i would only guess tomytec would have any of these models yet i assume its from the tomytec display so perhaps the wind turbines are coming later this year?!

http://www.rainbowten.co.jp/hobbyshow/CIMG1907.jpg

unfortunately there is no text with the pictures and they seem a bit jumbled...

cheers

jeff

[Webskipper]

That will be really sending a statement when we someday power a model railroad event with solar or wind technology. I wonder what the actual cost is to invest and power our clubhouse? Then we can sell back the excess.

Those model turbines sure look good in the background.

[rankodd]

ok got the wind turbine finally! its a very nice model. ill take a video of it and post it. would love to get a few more, but unfortunately they dont have that one anymore! a silver one at a much higher price or a smaller one that is probably too small. oh well i guess the faller is the main option still.

cheers

jeff

You still owe us pics! :)

[Mudkip Orange]

That will be really sending a statement when we someday power a model railroad event with solar or wind technology. I wonder what the actual cost is to invest and power our clubhouse? Then we can sell back the excess.

Those model turbines sure look good in the background.

Model trains aren't particularly big power hogs, this should be no trouble at all.

[cteno4]

i think aaron actually had a 12v solar panel that he had from his days with bp solar that he was talking about doing something like this!

would not take a lot of power for most model rr layouts! room lighting would take up more amps than the trains.

ill work on picts tonight.

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

ok here is a video of the little dealextreme.com turbine i got. took the video sideways to keep the wind mill maxed in the frame. spins well in good light, but not much inside at all unless you put it right under and incandescent desk lamp, so that part is not much use! comes in a nice cardboard case with foam inserts like a japanese train!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/hzk9dG27qZM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/hzk9dG27qZM</a>

picture below is the dealextreme one and the faller/model power side by side. its a bit beefier and a bit larger radius than the faller/model power model and the blades are much thicker. motor is in the turbine housing so a bit bigger housing than the faller/model power where the motor is under the foundation and driven thru a drive shaft up the support column.

its back in stock for $19.70 with free shipping at dealextreme.com

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/plastic-solar-power-windmills-52725

they also have a smaller one

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/plastic-solar-power-windmills-53317

i have one of the faller and two of the model power kits (they are the same kits except for packaging) so someday want to do a little wind farm.

would be fun to make some humpback whale fluke blades which are due to be the new rage in prop design for wind turbines as they have less drag and better air flow and better at low speeds. rough leading edge may look counter intuitive, but work!

cheers

jeff

[rankodd]

Nice! Height wise, they look very close. I'm sorely tempted to get some, but I don't think I'd have layout space for them...

[cteno4]

im looking at a sort of mountain against the wall on one end of my planned layout with shinkansen tunnels going in and out of it. then maybe 3 of the turbines on the ridge line in the back, bit of forced perspective.

cheers

jeff

[Webskipper]

i think aaron actually had a 12v solar panel that he had from his days with bp solar that he was talking about doing something like this!

would not take a lot of power for most model rr layouts! room lighting would take up more amps than the trains.

ill work on picts tonight.

cheers

jeff

Local Electric company is coming to our club to talk solar. Imagine that, our club will be feeding the city. I know long time to break even but, we don't use hot water so it's the AC that's eating the energy. Maybe I'll convert my hybrid to a plugin. LOL.

[cteno4]

video of some smaller japanese turbines.

the smaller dealextreme is probably about this size. turbine housing is larger than it would be in real life (due to the motor being in there), but passable!

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheJapanChannelDcom#p/search/17/yUYuSdSvZdU

cheers

jeff

[Webskipper]

Coming to a Wind Farm near you.  1 mile of just Wind Blades.

[cteno4]

Doh! i had the idea of having a wind turbine under construction as im always trying to come up with ideas to use all the cool tomytec cranes, but this is cool addition as i didnt think about having some blades delivered by truck somewhere else! there is the set of special load trucks (the one with the pipe and separate rear bogies comes to mind) which would be perfect! the truck can be off a ways coming to the site and tying together two different scenes!

awesome sauce, thanks!

jeff

[Webskipper]

That's a very good idea Jeff.

I'm sure you can find props of the right size for model airplanes. Any color will do.

[cteno4]

actually i will just use the blades from one of the models. maybe one blade mounted on one under construction and the other being lifted by a crane then the last on the truck on delivery. wasnt thinking of a convoy! the blades are pretty big and a bit different shaped than most model plane blades ive seen, but being stretched out and covered some on a transport you probably would never tell the difference. you could also make one easily from some 040 styrene cut to shape then twisted under some heat and then shaped. again if you had a few tarps over some sections it would never be noticeable. the big thing is will any of the crane extension be large enough. i think the large crane in the last kato batch will probably do it, should dig one out and make sure of the vertical reach.

jeff

[clarkkshin]

actually i will just use the blades from one of the models. maybe one blade mounted on one under construction and the other being lifted by a crane then the last on the truck on delivery. wasnt thinking of a convoy! the blades are pretty big and a bit different shaped than most model plane blades ive seen, but being stretched out and covered some on a transport you probably would never tell the difference. you could also make one easily from some 040 styrene cut to shape then twisted under some heat and then shaped. again if you had a few tarps over some sections it would never be noticeable. the big thing is will any of the crane extension be large enough. i think the large crane in the last kato batch will probably do it, should dig one out and make sure of the vertical reach.

jeff

Good suggestions! I was thinking of using medium size crane but large one will do it better.

[cteno4]

just noticed that the solar wind turbines are no longer on the dealextreme site. but did run across this model

http://www.kidwind.org/xcart/product.php?productid=112

does not run, but could probably be easily powered with a shaft and gears with a motor in the foundation.

not bad for $20 shipped

its about the size of a 0.75mw unit.

tomytec is a bit of an ouch at $34 but is powered, but is smaller at about 10" in dia.

jeff