I've had a KISS wind generator for almost 20 years, and I now have a problem that I've never seen, nor has S/V Hotwire, who sells them.
During Covid, BlueJacket was stored on the hard in the Rio Dulce in Guatemala with the generator blades removed. When we were able to come down this year, I discovered that one of the rotor magnets had detached and it wouldn't rotate. This has happened before, but during a high wind event. I disassembled the generator and re-attached the magnet to the rotor using JB Weld. The bearings were replaced a few years ago and the rotor spins freely.
When I remounted the generator, the blades would slowly spin in 15+kts, similar to what they do when the switch is set to OFF. It does this even with all of the wires disconnected from the diode block. The is no physical contact between the rotor and the stator.
I spoke with S/V Hotwire, and he had me check the resistance on each of the 3 phases, and they all came back at about 0.5 ohms. When I short 2 of the 3 wires together, it slows the blades even more. This happens with all combinations. If all 3 are shorted, it stops the blades completely. And yes, the blades are mounted in the correct orientation.
What is interesting is that when I manually turn the rotor, you can feel it become harder to turn every 45 degrees, and then it gets easier. If you very slowly turn the rotor, it is fairly easy to rotate. If you turn it faster, it is much more difficult at 45-degree intervals.
I'm just lost as to what is causing this. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated as we rely on the wind generator for lots of our power generation.
-- Geoff
During Covid, BlueJacket was stored on the hard in the Rio Dulce in Guatemala with the generator blades removed. When we were able to come down this year, I discovered that one of the rotor magnets had detached and it wouldn't rotate. This has happened before, but during a high wind event. I disassembled the generator and re-attached the magnet to the rotor using JB Weld. The bearings were replaced a few years ago and the rotor spins freely.
When I remounted the generator, the blades would slowly spin in 15+kts, similar to what they do when the switch is set to OFF. It does this even with all of the wires disconnected from the diode block. The is no physical contact between the rotor and the stator.
I spoke with S/V Hotwire, and he had me check the resistance on each of the 3 phases, and they all came back at about 0.5 ohms. When I short 2 of the 3 wires together, it slows the blades even more. This happens with all combinations. If all 3 are shorted, it stops the blades completely. And yes, the blades are mounted in the correct orientation.
What is interesting is that when I manually turn the rotor, you can feel it become harder to turn every 45 degrees, and then it gets easier. If you very slowly turn the rotor, it is fairly easy to rotate. If you turn it faster, it is much more difficult at 45-degree intervals.
I'm just lost as to what is causing this. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated as we rely on the wind generator for lots of our power generation.
-- Geoff
