Smart Drive wind generator

This site is from here in New Zealand but has anyone done this? Lots of wind here in the Wairarapa so most of the time this would work really well.

http://www.ecoinnovation.co.nz/pdf/What%20is%20a%20Smart%20Drive.pdf

http://youtu.be/phbF1uGRmpY

A Smart Drive is an easy to source permanent magnet alternator (PMA). I haven't seen them in wind applications but Powerspout uses them exclusively in their hydro turbines.

I work at an appliance store and have access to as many smart drive motors I could ever want. I have built several of these wind turbines and they work great. They are easy to build, in order to get the most out of them you have to rewire the 3 phases to produce higher amperage and lower voltage. you then have to build a bridge rectifier to convert the voltage to DC in order to charge batteries. The hardest part is finding something to use as the turbine hub in order to attach blades onto the motor shaft. I have heard that some car clutches have the right spline size to fit directly on the smart drive shaft but I have never tried this. you can then attach the blades to the clutch plate with bolts.

Steve Harvey wrote:I work at an appliance store and have access to as many smart drive motors I could ever want. I have built several of these wind turbines and they work great. They are easy to build, in order to get the most out of them you have to rewire the 3 phases to produce higher amperage and lower voltage. you then have to build a bridge rectifier to convert the voltage to DC in order to charge batteries. The hardest part is finding something to use as the turbine hub in order to attach blades onto the motor shaft. I have heard that some car clutches have the right spline size to fit directly on the smart drive shaft but I have never tried this. you can then attach the blades to the clutch plate with bolts.

Any chance we could get some? I'm working on a vertical and would love to get my hands on a couple of these. None of the appliance stores in this area seem to have any they will part with. Thanks!

Conrad Farmer wrote:

Steve Harvey wrote:I work at an appliance store and have access to as many smart drive motors I could ever want. I have built several of these wind turbines and they work great. They are easy to build, in order to get the most out of them you have to rewire the 3 phases to produce higher amperage and lower voltage. you then have to build a bridge rectifier to convert the voltage to DC in order to charge batteries. The hardest part is finding something to use as the turbine hub in order to attach blades onto the motor shaft. I have heard that some car clutches have the right spline size to fit directly on the smart drive shaft but I have never tried this. you can then attach the blades to the clutch plate with bolts.

Any chance we could get some? I'm working on a vertical and would love to get my hands on a couple of these. None of the appliance stores in this area seem to have any they will part with. Thanks!

Most Maytag and Whirlpool machines in the last 4 years have used these motors. Maytag and Whirlpool buy there motors from Fisher and Paykel. LG stole the design of the F&P smart drive motor, and all lg front load and top load washers will have these motors. If you go on a classified website like craigs list or kijiji you could surely find a busted front load or top load machine. The only thing is usually the bearings are shot on these found machines and you will want to spin the drum and listen for any grinding noises. If there are grinding noises you can just easily unbolt the direct drive stator and magnet and use them as spares. If you can come across a used Fisher and Paykel top load washer like a model GWL11, these are the easiest to take apart.

Keep the whole outer wash tub and motor and shaft after you take apart the machine. You will not need the inner tub or anything else. By cutting only the base off the outer tub which hold the bearing in the center. You can use this base to mount the wind turbine onto a stand or post.

If you are having trouble finding scrap machines you are probably asking people at big box stores, that is why you aren't having luck. Go to the self servicing dealers who have service departments and deliver and remove appliances. We keep all of our scrap out in the back yard of our shop and don't care if people take stuff so long as they ask. There is no market for used/refurbished appliances in a world of extended service plans, and self diagnosing circuit boards. Other than that you can ask where they take there scrap appliances, and see if any are salvageable from the scrap metal yards. the scrap yards would be more than happy if you pulled these tubs and motors for them, as they are usually mostly plastic.

Smart drive motors can be found in any of these washing machine models:

Maytag Bravos top load, Maytag Maxima front load

Whirlpool Cabrio top load, Whirlpool Duet (although not all duet machines have them)

Any LG, front Load or top Load ( Spin your LG front load washer drum by hand with the machine unplugged, and it will generate its own electricity and power itself on)

Any Fisher Paykel, top load

GE top loads are currently using them, but are too new to find in scrap piles, in my opinion.

If you can not find motors in your area I could get them for you, but they are big and heavy and shipping may be costly. The actual direct drive motors made by Fisher and Paykel are manufactured across the street from Whirlpool's factory in Ohio. I can see if I can find the address for you and maybe you could call and see if they have any old stock they want to get rid of.

Hope this helps,


Steve

Here is a video of when I first discovered Smart Drive free energy, That was a happy day.

I recently replaced a corroded spider arm from our front loader Samsung washer. It's a terrible cast aluminum mounting bracket that connects the drum to one of these motors. Since the new one came with a drive shaft attached I decided to remove the old one since it is a nice machined steel shaft with the correct spline end for the motor.

What a mission. When I eventually got it off it was apparent that they cast these brackets onto the shaft. On the bright side, the other end also has a spline and with a bit of modification it should be good for attaching a different bracket to it for things like turbine blades or a pelton wheel.

Nick Kitchener wrote:I recently replaced a corroded spider arm from our front loader Samsung washer. It's a terrible cast aluminum mounting bracket that connects the drum to one of these motors. Since the new one came with a drive shaft attached I decided to remove the old one since it is a nice machined steel shaft with the correct spline end for the motor.

What a mission. When I eventually got it off it was apparent that they cast these brackets onto the shaft. On the bright side, the other end also has a spline and with a bit of modification it should be good for attaching a different bracket to it for things like turbine blades or a pelton wheel.

I know the Fisher Paykel ones will fit some manual transmission clutch discs from cars, not sure which models. The Samsung looks a lot larger of a spline diameter. You can put the clutch disc on the washing machine motor shaft and drill holes in the clutch disc to mount the turbine blades or Pelton wheel. The other thing about these motors is they are wired to run on about 300v so you would need a high voltage input mppt controller to charge batteries with these motors. Or, you can rewire the motor to run low voltage high amperage, like say 24v max output and 1000w @ X? rpms. The problem is the high voltage controllers like the one below, are about $2000.

webpage

Here is my Fisher Paykel motor and shaft. I have one non-rewired so roughly 300v output and one rewired, 24v max output.

Nick Kitchener wrote:I recently replaced a corroded spider arm from our front loader Samsung washer. It's a terrible cast aluminum mounting bracket that connects the drum to one of these motors. Since the new one came with a drive shaft attached I decided to remove the old one since it is a nice machined steel shaft with the correct spline end for the motor.

What a mission. When I eventually got it off it was apparent that they cast these brackets onto the shaft. (...)

Couldn't help but LOL... I spent a good hour, swearing like a trucker, trying to separate the shaft from the spider (so I could reuse the nice shaft to attach a Pelton). When I finally considered they were cast together I gave up so kudos for your perseverance!

I might just bolt the pelton on the spider arm and call it a day!