What happens when Richard has a dead HP laser printer, some scrap lumber and wire ... a wind generator.

Here it is, my wind generator expirments. I got ahold of an old HP Laserjet printer that just happens to have a 24 volt stepper motor in it. I rigged it up on a frame, got my brother and my dad to build me a hub and a yaw bearing/pivot point.
I got it all together, and to test it I rigged it up in the back of my truck and went to my super secret testing lab.

I had 2 100 amp hour batteries I salvaged from an old UPS, they were hooked up to my rectifiers, volt meter, and amp meter.

I am happy to report it worked. The bad news is it didn't work as well as I had hoped. Using my meters that I had rigged up, here is my output at 35 MPH

(Amps on left, Volts on right, totaling 2 watts)

Here was my speed

Unfortunately, I was hopeing for alot more output at lower speeds. It seemed under 20 MPH, I didn't get any output from the generator. Using the data from my weather station in my backyard, I don't think I am going to get any power out of this unless it was mounted on a mountain side like Pikes that sees alot of wind.

I am currently looking at some kits offered on Ebay that use a modified Delco 10SI altenator. They simply change out the rotor with magnets which changes it to DC generator that does not require any power to generate power. Looks like the kits go for about $150.