June 2004

May Technical Group Meeting

The meeting began at 8.10pm with Robert welcoming everyone. Athol reported that there had been an article in the Messenger newspaper about an efficient electric motor designed by a local person. The first demonstration was myself with a Fisher and Paykel washing machine motor rewound for 12 volts output which will eventually become a wind generator. The motor has been setup to clamp into my lathe for testing various speeds and outputs. So far I have generated 30 amps at 14.4 volts at 600 RPM. Michael was next with an update on his water cell project. He brought along a modified cell and spoke about the "aperture effect" to access the "unknown" energy produced/gathered by these cells.

Ken was entertaining as usual with a floating power supply to feed an oxygen sensor and trick the car's computer into running the engine leaner. This is used when other fuels or vapour is used to decrease the amount of liquid fuel required to run the engine. George Wiseman has a design for this but Ken built one and found that it did not regulate very well under 12 volts and so he has redesigned the circuit. Also in Ken's box of tricks was a microwave oven transformer which had been suitably modified by removing the secondary windings and the magnetic shunts and then rewound to give 12 volts at 50 amps. This is rectified by two 35 amps bridge diodes on a rather large heatsink. This power supply will be used to drive the serpentine wound motor that was demonstrated at an earlier meeting. These transformers are very versatile and can be used in 12V/240V inverters or as a spot welder supply. Ken stressed the importance of grabbing any old microwaves to stockpile these transformers as they are so useful and because new microwaves do not have transformers like this any more.

Victor gave a brief overview of the area he is working on at the moment and hopes to bring something along to the group soon. Ron brought a sample of some etching he has been doing on old computer cases using a technique discussed at a previous meeting. Ron is also organising a speaker for the next meeting from Menzel Plastics to talk on the different types and uses of plastic. He is also aiming to get a speaker from the Pic Group to talk on Kellycam, a system to automatically drill printed circuit boards.

Lionel spoke about an interest in building a Stirling engine that ran from the heat of the sun, while his "bobbing bird" heat engine operated in the background. He also knew of someone who used acetone in one which worked until it evaporated. Ken suggested that Helium or even air in a closed engine would probably be good enough. He also gave Lionel a contact of someone who has built engines like Lionel was interested in.

Uli spoke about "Zone Alarm Pro" for protecting computers and also passed around a single sided monopole magnet to play with but unfortunately by the time it got around to me someone had broken it. Uli suggested that the backside of the magnet was in effect a magnetic shield and so could possibly be used in a magnet motor. Uli did demonstrate how this magnet could act as a "moderating" magnet and pull down an arm with a normal magnet on it. The interesting thing is that it does not matter whether the magnet on the arm is strong or weak, the moderating magnet requires the same force to pull the arm down.

The last speaker was Dennis with a box of F and P washing machine motors and other parts. For those interested, there are some cheap parts available: Tower Kits $40, F & P Motors $20, Housed Bearings $5, Swift Engineering windmill kits $128 and Swift Engineering blade mounting kits $140. The meeting then drifted into supper at about 10.15pm with another good night had by all.

This is possibly a waste of typing but the same people are making the effort each meeting to bring something along to show while the silent majority are just that......silent! As Mathew pointed out during the meeting, Lionel did not have a finished item, in fact he only had an idea of what he wanted to do, but because he shared that with us, courtesy of Ken he now has a contact experienced in the field that will save him from reinventing the wheel. Please think about this and bring something along to the next Technical Group meeting if you can.
.........Bruce.

Fisher and Paykel washing machine motor/generator 12 volt tests

I have decided to write a quick report on the tests I have been doing on a Fisher and Paykel washing machine motor/generator. This unit has been rewound for 12 volt operation and is what has been commonly known as the 80P unit. For testing, I have constructed a bracket that holds the bearing unit and bolts under the tool holder on my lathe so that I can run the generator at various speeds selectable on the lathe gearbox. To load the generator I use a large variable wire wound resistor so that for each speed I can load the output down to 14 volts and read the current to calculate the power output. As seen in the table below, I have used two types of rotors, one with 14 large magnets in it and the other with 56 smaller magnets. The large magnet version produced more power at higher revs and the smaller magnet version produced more power at lower revs, however it also had an increased cogging effect when trying to begin rotating it by hand.

F & P 80P Load Tests (wound for 12 volts)

RPM

Open circuit Volts

Load Current

Test #1
(rotor 14
large magnets)

Load Watts

70

3.6

200

10.8

220

11.8

270

14.3

2A

12V

360

20

11A

14V

24W

600

34.5

30A

14V

154W

800

45

34A

14V

476W

1000

57.4

36A

14V

504W

1400

RPM

Open circuit Volts

Load Current

Test #12
(rotor 56
small magnets)

Load Watts

70

200

220

270

16V

3A

12V

36W

360

22.5V

15A

14V

210W

600

38.6V

30A

14V

420W

1000

49.8V

30A

14V

420W

1400

This test setup allows for easy comparisons of various units as the RPM and electrical load is infinitely repeatable so I am offering to anyone who wants to test their rewound units to do it with/for them, just ask! I have noticed in the photographs of windmills with these units fitted that none I have seen have had any sort of protective cover over them and I was wondering the effects of ultraviolet light and rain in the long term. Any ideas?

........Bruce.

Dennis in action!

Again!

Ron wrecking ( dismantling) a F&P washing machine.

Close up of a motor rewire.

PETER'S PAGE ASTRO MEETING 16/4/04

RobertN...Opened the meeting at 8.12pm and welcomed all members and visitors.

Devashon...Briefly described a segment on "60 Minutes" about a "Water Powered Car". The proposed time frame was 2010 - 2020. He also had a DVD on Andrew Larkin describing vibrations & standing waves, Chaldini Plates and acoustics. He then gave a demonstration of ultrasonics in a jug of water.

Andrew...Presented a humidifier that he had made. It was in a large jar. It had two copper pipes protruding from it. He explained that air was bubbled through hot water and a rare earth catalyst to produce nitrous oxide, much the same way as the Archie Blue electrolyser, but without the electricity. This was used a fuel supplement for a car.

He also presented his latest water device, a mixer and integrator for chemical dosing of agricultural fertilisers. He called it an "Ecovortek Dosatron" He said the secret was the 300 to 400 milli volts that were produced in it (as measured from the case to the water). He said that this charged the molecules and caused them to repel each other without clumping, resulting in an equally mixed solution.

Andrew also related that Micro Mech (CSIRO) was testing his Ecovortek units with bore water which was turned on when it rained. The resulting mix of modified bore water and rain supplemented watering in very low rain areas, where the bore water was too mineralised to use directly.

MathewN...related that when he was in QLD the shire council tested all of the rain water tanks and none in the area passed microbial counts except his, which was recirculated through an Ecovortek unit. This had reduced the microbial count from a typical unacceptable 26,000 to a very acceptable 30 parts per million. He said that the unit also prevented bio slime and kept his swimming pool scum free.

RobertN...had a Bob Beck Brain Tuner. He described that it was originally invented as a pain reliever in Hong Kong and found by accident to effectively cure heroin addiction. He said that it was also effective to relieve anxiety and short term memory loss. They are now made in China for a Canadian company called Sota, and sell for about $250.00 each.

RonE...had spent about 160 hours into converting the diverse ASTRO Audio library into MP3 on 4 compact disks. They were available at the modest sum of $5.00 each ($20.00/set). The group thanked Ron for his effort and Ron in turn presented a CD set to Ashley for his original work in setting up the audio library on cassettes.

RobertN... then introduced Dennis Latham as the evening's Guest Speaker. His topic was " HOW TO TURN A FISHER & PAYKEL WASHING MACHINE MOTOR INTO A WIND GENERATOR"

Dennis gave a thorough and very interesting talk along with working demonstrations of his rewired Fisher & Paykel stepper motors as generators. He said that there were three types of F & P motors with 3 different gauges of wire, but the "Smart Drive" model motor was the best to convert into a generator.

He also gave a demonstration in the car park of how quick and easy it was to wreck an F & P washing machine to salvage the motor and bearing/shaft assembly. He had pre wrecked motors for sale at a bargain price of $25.00, along with a comprehensive set of instructions on what to do.

Dennis had also arranged a field day to visit home and industrial photo voltaic set ups as direct grid feed and also battery / inverter units. There were also two wind generator sites to be visited with multiple generators varying from home made to commercial units. Dennis was also to demonstrate his technique in making his own wooden propellers. For more information write to Dennis Latham, 32 Penzance Ave. Christies Beach, South Australia 5165, or phone (08) 8382 1658. We all thanked Dennis for his excellent presentation and then enjoyed a social supper.

Until next meeting

PeterP

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