Yesterday, my husband noticed that it was windy but the wind turbine was not moving. He called Rodney and he came out today. They found three things that were wrong:
1) The Yaw break was burned up. Apparently it had been permanently on for the last two months, but this break will not be used until we get the new controller card.
2) There were some loose connections on the Yaw relays.
3) The a power supply needed to be moved in order to get more ventilation in the head.
It was impressive that Rodney came the next day after we called him. We are about 3 hours away from him. Hopefully, fixing these things will also help to reduce the power needed to run the turbine.
I am not a bit suppressed that your turbine has the problems you are describing. I received a 20kW controller which had never been tested by ReDriven. The reason I know it had never been tested is it tripped the circuit breaker on first power up. I connected AC power to the controller per the instructions in the manual. I set the circuit breaker to on and it tripped the first time. Reset the circuit breaker and the same thing again. I found the controller AC input terminal block had the neutral and 120VAC power leads wired to the same terminal from the YAW motor bridge rectifier. I moved the neutral to another open terminal and it then powered on.
ReplyDeleteI also found seven other wiring mistakes in the controller. The only way I found these is during trial tests of the controller it was not responding to input from the touch screen as the manual stated.
I finally pulled the controller off the wall and took it all apart, essentially reverse engineering all that I could with out any schematics from the factory. There is a relay used to energize the E-Stop shutdown contactors. Both of these were miss-wired. One contactor did not have a 12VDC lead to the contactor coil so the turbine was always in a shunt mode by the one miss-wired contactor.
Our controller display screen is defective in that it does not show the Manual YAW control input neither touch line nor the firmware revision line while in the configuration menu. Both of these lines are not lit up. You can touch the area where the line should be and it will change menus. Very poor quality if you ask me.
Once we had the controller functioning somewhat, we tested the anemometer and wind vane. The anemometer did not show any wind speed. Traced for wiring defects in the controller, none found there, checked the wiring between the turbine head and controller (883 ft), wiring checked good. Checked 5VDC to the unit at the turbine head, voltage was low so I put a 12VDC to 5VDC regulator at the base of the tower so 5VDC was to specifications per the manual. I determined the anemometer was defective from the factory.
Installed a spare anemometer on a 30 ft mast away from the turbine and tower, finally got the turbine up and producing DC at the controller screen.
Two days later the wind vane quit working. I installed a temporary one on the pole with the anemometer. I called ReDriven about the problem with the anemometer and wind vane. Chris Grant response was they sent us a prototype unit since it did not have any markings on the outside of the unit. By the way, the anemometer and wind vane are 6o feet in the air on the turbine nacelle.
A hand written sheet was included in the box when we opened it with wire color and voltage call out and nothing else. The unit did not have a serial number or model number much less the manufacturers name on it.
After all of this event, I met Harper at a 10kW installation about an hours drive for the 20kW site. I found Harper to be a very nice young man. We discussed his 10kW installation and the issues he was having during his two week stay.
I specifically ask Harper about his skills as an electrical/electronic technician. He indicated all he had learned was basically on the job. He was a prior salesman who was interested in the wind turbine industry. I might add he is also a private pilot.
I mention private pilot because that was the skill ReDriven was looking for in their field support personnel and not specifically engineering technical skills.
In my next posting I will describe what I found at the 10kW site. Ed Goodman (prior ReDriven Dealer)
I am not a bit suppressed that your turbine has the problems you are describing. I received a 20kW controller which had never been tested by ReDriven. The reason I know it had never been tested is it tripped the circuit breaker on first power up. I connected AC power to the controller per the instructions in the manual. I set the circuit breaker to on and it tripped the first time. Reset the circuit breaker and the same thing again. I found the controller AC input terminal block had the neutral and 120VAC power leads wired to the same terminal from the YAW motor bridge rectifier. I moved the neutral to another open terminal and it then powered on.
ReplyDeleteI also found seven other wiring mistakes in the controller. The only way I found these is during trial tests of the controller it was not responding to input from the touch screen as the manual stated.
I finally pulled the controller off the wall and took it all apart, essentially reverse engineering all that I could with out any schematics from the factory. There is a relay used to energize the E-Stop shutdown contactors. Both of these were miss-wired. One contactor did not have a 12VDC lead to the contactor coil so the turbine was always in a shunt mode by the one miss-wired contactor.
Our controller display screen is defective in that it does not show the Manual YAW control input neither touch line nor the firmware revision line while in the configuration menu. Both of these lines are not lit up. You can touch the area where the line should be and it will change menus. Very poor quality if you ask me.
Once we had the controller functioning somewhat, we tested the anemometer and wind vane. The anemometer did not show any wind speed. Traced for wiring defects in the controller, none found there, checked the wiring between the turbine head and controller (883 ft), wiring checked good. Checked 5VDC to the unit at the turbine head, voltage was low so I put a 12VDC to 5VDC regulator at the base of the tower so 5VDC was to specifications per the manual. I determined the anemometer was defective from the factory.
Installed a spare anemometer on a 30 ft mast away from the turbine and tower, finally got the turbine up and producing DC at the controller screen.
Two days later the wind vane quit working. I installed a temporary one on the pole with the anemometer. I called ReDriven about the problem with the anemometer and wind vane. Chris Grant response was they sent us a prototype unit since it did not have any markings on the outside of the unit. By the way, the anemometer and wind vane are 60 feet in the air on the turbine nacelle.
A hand written sheet was included in the box when we opened it with wire color and voltage call out and nothing else. The unit did not have a serial number or model number much less the manufacturers name on it.
After all of these events, I met Harper at a 10kW installation about an hours drive from the 20kW site. I found Harper to be a very nice young man. We discussed his 10kW installation and the issues he was having during his two week stay.
I specifically ask Harper about his skills as an electrical/electronic technician. He indicated all he had learned was basically on the job. He was a prior salesman who was interested in the wind turbine industry. I might add he is also a private pilot.
I mention private pilot because that was the skill ReDriven was looking for in their field support personnel and not specifically engineering technical skills.
In my next posting I will describe what I found at the 10kW site. Ed Goodman (prior ReDriven Dealer)
I have been following your blog for awhile and I think I am finally getting ready to take the plunge! Is there anyway possible to stop out for a visit? I am the the type that needs to touch and feel something like this to get a full understanding of what I may be getting myself into! Thanks for all your dedication to this blog it has been very helpful.
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