tomytec windturbine

[cteno4]

tomytec is releasing a wind turbine model thats solar powered. due for march release. interesting hs has put it in the Layout Materials category with trees and ground foam...

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10170074

looks to be pretty similar to the little models that we discussed earlier this year in another thread

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,3909.0.html

dealextreme.com still has some of these guys

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/plastic-solar-power-windmills-52725
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/plastic-solar-power-windmills-53317

then if you want to power your tomytec bus system with wind power perhaps you could adapt this neat toy (i was tempted to get one!)

http://www.amazon.com/Eco-Racers-Powered-Remote-Control-Micro/dp/B0045EOFCQ/ref=sr_1_3?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1322846155&sr=1-3

or a clock
http://www.amazon.com/Solar-Powered-Spinning-Turbine-Clock/dp/B00465TWRC/ref=pd_sim_sbs_t_1

or another model
http://www.amazon.com/FatCat-FCP1006-White-Desktop-Turbine/dp/B0043WKBAU/ref=pd_sbs_misc_8

of course if you want to get your name printed on them and give them out to everyone you know...

http://www.ideastage.com/Products/Solar-windmill-made-from-ABS-material-9160523.aspx

cheers

jeff

[Webskipper]

Or this one for your desk:

River City Clocks Aluminum Solar-Powered Wind Turbine, 19-Inch Tall
http://www.amazon.com/River-City-Clocks-Aluminum-Solar-Powered/dp/B004SI9N1W/ref=pd_sim_sbs_misc_20

Faller 232251 Very nice!

http://faller.de/App/WebObjects/XSeMIPS.woa/cms/page/pid./agid.1116.1123.1210/atid.1469/ecm.at/Nordex-wind-generator.html

http://faller.de/xs_db/BILD_DB/2/232/www/750/232251_fg_01.jpg

[cteno4]

You can see a comparison of the dealexreme to the faller parts on the other thread.

Jeff

[rpierce000]

The TomyTec solar powered unit is listed as "no scale" so he called the factory and got the specs. It measures out to scale for N, so it should look right.

There is something very wrong with solar powered wind, but a couple hundred of these on a layout on a hot day in a crowded convention hall might be VERY nice except for the sun lamps to run them. 

BT Trains will have these in stock in April.

Bob
bob@bttrains.com

[cteno4]

unfortunately i kind of doubt these will work well in most indoor conditions. you need really strong sunlight to get the umph needed for this kind of thing or under a very strong direct light like a desk lamp. fluorescent wont cut it either. the good news is it does look like it has a rather large solar cell on it, so maybe it can work under bright indoor light.

it really does look like they made this for another purpose or one of the factories they used made them for someone else and someone said, hey thats about n scale! why would we want a big base with a solar cell in it for a layout if you were designing this as a model for the layout?

only thing with scale on these really is like the door or hatch on the pole near the ground. the rest is just having it all in proportion (blades, generator housing, pole.) actually these are all sort of under scale these days as the average wind turbine size has greatly increased.

they need to come out with the humpback pectoral fin shaped blades!

jeff

[keitaro]

it will work easy. The TGW motor on the deki can be powered by one of my mini solar cells i bought. 90 MA cell indoors with just the light on and i know it definately ain't getting 90 MA.

A tiny motor very similar would be in that solar cell.

[cteno4]

was there any bright sunlight coming the window? all will all depend on how good the solar cell is in this thing. ive had a wide range of little solar toys over the years and few rarely worked with interior lighting unless you had a desk lamp a couple of feet or less from it. light intensity drops with the inverse square of the distance so room lighting will loose its intensity fast with distance to get much out of solar cells.

i have the windmill that looks almost identical as this with about the same sized cell on it and it doesnt works with normal interior lighting.

we shall see it all depends on how good a solar cell they put on it.

jeff

[keitaro]

was there any bright sunlight coming the window?

no i have the blind closed most of the time.

The motor runs on under 10% from the power pack and at 20% flies.

[cteno4]

so you are powering the powerpack (like a battery tomytec one) from the solar cell? or you were you just referring to the power pack to mean it does not take much power to run the tgw motor? they are pretty low amperage motors.

jeff

[keitaro]

nah i just connected wire to the cell then touch the wires to the wheel.

What i was saying is the deki motor runs on incredibly low power output.

[cteno4]

ok getya.

i was surprised that the windmill i have wont event turn the motor w/o the blades under room light. guess there is just a minimum to get it going that this solar cell on the base cant provide under room lighting.

jeff

[keitaro]

jeff just wondering but maybe you could make a mini solar farm right next to it??

I have some 1cm x 3cm panels maybe wiring 4 of them then wire into the wind farm would do the trick?

[cteno4]

yes have thought of that as an eventual scene somewhere. usually dont see the two together much though. ill just supply the windmill with power was the plan. have to with the fallers as well. this one was just a gimic (like i think the tomytec was meant to be) as a desk toy to self power like this. happy to have it powered via the power bus for other accessory stuff. one interesting thing with powering the turbines via solar cells is that you would get a prototypical varying of speed as the light in the room change to simulate wind changing.

i did pick up some little led flash lights that have a solar cell recharge last year with the idea of putting them on some house roofs as solar collectors and power the lighting in the house via the small rechargeable batteries in them. problem is the leds run the battery down pretty quickly and they take forever to recharge and really dont recharge much at all under room lighting, they really need strong lighting or sunlight to recharge. really more trouble than it was worth.

do plan on doing some solar rooftops here and there but will just do model ones to get them more to scale. aaron actually did some little paper models in a pdf at n scale when he was working at bp solar!

cheers

jeff

[rpierce000]

I have always wanted to do live water on a layout but never had a "reason".

Now I have one!  Hydro power. Anything from a simple waterwheel to a full dam...

(When I got married I found out that my Grandpa in law helped design the Grand Coulee. Now THAT is a dam...)

No, it is a green energy demonstration, we use it for educational purposes. We can write that off, right?

[The_Ghan]

Live water never looks that good in a small scale model and I'll tell you why: take a flight!  When you look out of an airplane window the water appears to be very still, even the ocean, even the beach.  Waves appear to be rolling in in slow motion.  Waterfalls appear to cascade slowly from a distance.  The ebb and flow of tides in indecernable from more than 5000 feet.

You just can't scale these kinds of events with a model.  Even on G scale I think I'd want a static, fake, waterfall.

Cheers

The_Ghan

[Martijn Meerts]

Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg has a large real water area on their layout including moving ships that navigate using some local GPS system etc. Very impressive system and all, but it looks terrible.. The only scale that real water looks nice in, is 1:1 =)

[cteno4]

yeah, water does not scale well! i think its also one of those things that may be too much motion over a larger area that conflicts with the static model/diorama scene. other than the obvious clarity, color and wave height/length/shape issues theres something else that just does not work in the minds eye with live water on small scales.

jeff

[linkey]

Has anyone thought what it would look like with one of these wind turbines on fire? I know in NSW Australia there was one that did catch on fire but there was nothing that could be done to save it.

[cteno4]

its released now. looks about the same as the faller/model power and the desk ones i have.

jeff