Hello my new best friend .

They are, indeed! It started life out on a Sasketechewan farm in the sixties, I understand. Then got transplanted here for a few years with an aquaintance of mine, and now I have it. I got the bearings changed, got it re-wound, dipped, baked, megged, new brushes, a new paint job, new rings, and we're off to the races again.



Mine is a Long case model 60, rated at 40v DC, 70 amps max, 2400 watts, according to the plate (and yes, I know the math doesn't work out .

Now, these TC-40s, who makes those? Are those Trace C-40s?

Talking to Michigan, for mine, since it's only 70 amps max, and with about two hundred and fifty feet of line from turbine to batteries to have some line loss, we figured one C60 would do it.
Including a rectifier, which they're quoting me on, and some load diversion, also, they're getting me a quote on.

It came with the old Jacobs load sensor gear, but it looked pretty sad, and probably would be cheaper, I figured, to start fresh.
It did come with two Enermaxers for load diversion; they're even the good ones that do 12-24-32-36V.
If I do have to go with a C60, I may sell them to pay for it... one of them, anyway.

I was wondering if I should throw a blocking diode in there anyway... Schotky, eh? Yeah, having my Jake turn into a Cessna would be a bad thing .

A thousand amp hours in a day?!?! Man, that would be sweet . Not likely here, except in mid-winter. Here, wind is hit and miss. I think I'll be ok with it, but this part of Canada isn't exactly a wind tunnel. That's actually why I went with a Jake when the chance came along; they have a nice low cut-in speed; better even than the H80s.

Oh, and mine's flyball governed. As you said, Deux ex machina .

Oh, and Kev! Do you have the manual for your new toy? If you don't, I have one, and I've even scanned it to an adobe document if you want it!

DJ

DJ,

sounds like you have a sweet generator, re-wound......

Ya', the tags on the generator don't make sense.

A friend, Peter, in Oklahoma who has long cases flying with similiar wire runs as you, peaks at about 60 amps @ the 24V DC bus @ about 25mph. I believe he's using a dbl up run of 2/0. What gauge wire did you use?


My wife and are building a home in a off-grid area in the Colorado Rockies. It's about a 75 sq mile area with about 50 homes up there. I've met many of the off-grid veterans, some 20yrs or more off-grid. One point they all drive home, is have a back-up for everything. Thats my reason for using 2 Trace TC40's, and a Schotky diode. In the scheme of things, they're cheap. The surpluscenter.com will usually have big schotky diodes as well.

I'll take you up the manual file. I have two different manuals myself, but I know of another guy here in Colorado who just picked up a Jake in need of a manual. Would be much easier to e-mail him one, he's a ways away.

I have a couple of the sad looking control boxes as well. The old meters on them are cool, I plan on using them somewhere.

What kind of tower do you have?

Kevin

Kevin

Well, re-wound, possibly, but re-wound by Jacobs themselves... it's a Jacobs tag! Go figure .

Wire size? I'm using what came with it, what the other guy used sucessfully for a while; I think it's 2 I have going up the tower, but then it goes with a much heavier line (have to measure, but I think it's near 0000) from the tower to the house.
The guy who had it before me, he was EASILY two hundred and fifty feet from the tower, and in the end, got about 34 volts.

We're in an off grid home in south west Quebec, on the "old" mountains, the Laurentian Shield . We just moved in this past winter (yes, we moved in in the middle of a Canadian Winter, and yes, we're nuts .
We own 120 acres, two lakes, lots of deer, bears, wolves. The wolves get a bit annoying occasionally, gloating when they get a kill two hundred yards from the house... at two o'clock in the morning . But they're fun to chat with in the late evenings sometimes when they're bored.

Well, all righty sir! Pdf'd, the manual is about three meg, so just send me an email off-list, and we'll arrange a time for me to put it up on my web page, and let you download it from there!

The tower I'm using is a ninety five footer, 18" square, lattice construction. Guy wires to four directions, two heights. EACH guy wire is tied to a one-ton concrete block, and the tower base is bolted down to a five ton concrete pad. I'd rather it not go anywhere .

Yep, one thing I understand is redundancy .

So, to make sure I understand the procedure, the lines come down from the Jake. They go into a rectifier? You didn't mention one, but Michigan did.
Then into the blocking diode, rated for probaby 100 amps, then into either your two C40s, or one C60, then the output of the C60 goes to the batteries, and the diversion load goes to something that can really take a serious diversion load, like hot water heating?

Sound about right?

If it was possible, I'd really like to exchange a couple of emails with your buddy that has one running right now!

Thanks Kevin,

DJ

Ok, called John over at Michigan to get clairification on the procedure:
The lines come down from the Jake. Then it goes into a "rectifier", ALSO called a "blocking diode", rated for 100 amps.
After that, yep, then into either your two C40s, or one C60, then the output of the C60 goes to the batteries, and the diversion load goes to something that can really take a serious diversion load, and they usually suggest hot water heating coils.

Sadly, talking to the good folks at Outback, it seems i'm fated to buy a Xantrex product, vis a vis, the C60.

Sounds like a plan.

I'd still like to talk to your buddies, though, Kev, if I could, and shoot me a line and I'll put the Jake manual on my homepage for download.

DJ

120 acres with two lakes, sounds like heaven.

You are on the right track. Generator, blocking diode, DC bus, TC40's, dump load. Don't forget a disconnect, 100 amp should do.


How you doing with climbing the tower?, 95 ft is up there.

Have a rock climbing friend who is going to teach me how to rappel, that'll be a blast rappeling down the tower.

Kevin

120 acres, two lakes, and not a telephone or electricity pole for almost two miles... that was that catch .
And then, of course, my lovely wife, upon seeing the property, said, "Gee, you know what would fit here *perfectly*? I've always wanted a real log home..."

So I had to learn how to do that, too . It went well; we moved in over the Christmas holidays.

Something I was wondering, and I'll call your buddy and ask him; about the TC40s... with the actual blocking diode there (I bought two of them last night), do you need the charge controllers for anything else but organizing the load diversion? If that is the case, then I should be able to use the two Enermaxers I've got instead; it's what they're for, after all.

And yep, I'm not forgetting the disconnect. I'll probably have two, actually. One at the bottom of the tower, and a second one by the bank. From my industrial mechanic days, when working with "decent" amps, I like to be able to physically SEE the disconnect before playing with any wires .
I've played with some gear that actually had that cool sign on it "USE LEFT HAND; TURN FACE AWAY" (in case the breaker explodes, it minimizes your loss...).

One thing I've wondered, though; the location of the load diversion with reagards to the blocking diode. If you want to protect the turbine, you would want diversion to take place on the turbine side of the diode, so if it blew, you wouldn't "deadend" the turbine; it could still produce amperage and have it diverted. I don't know how the C40s are configured, but when you install the *actual* physical blocking diode, as I said, you'd probably want it downstream from the diverter. I'll ask your buddy what he thinks!

And actually, the tower, the first time I went up, when I decommissioned the tower at it's previous location, yeah, it was a bit wild . Up there, just this "little safety rope" (rated for 3000 pounds attached to my five point harness) to save me from falling...
The big moment is when you let go with both hands to bolt or unbolt something. That's *trust* .
When I decom'd it, I took the genny off the stub tower, and took the stub down with the rest of the tower. When I put it back up, I had the genny attached to the stub, and lifted it *by the top of the stub tower*, and it was much easier, I think. No need to thread the shaft in, just mating two big, flat square surfaces! A thought for you, anyway.

The problem with rapelling down the tower is that it isn't a smooth surface, like a rock face. If your foot got caught in the lattice, you'd find yourself upside down in a hurry .

Now, though, if you wanted to play, having a wire roller with you, so you could slide down one of the guy wires... JUST KIDDING!

I'll reply to your off-list message right now, with the location of the manual on my web page, and link some pics of my tower!

Thanks Kevin!

DJ