Some ideas and pictures
7 views
Skip to first unread message
Grant
May 4, 2010, 1:49:15 AM5/4/10
to kitebot
Hi Jeremy,
Looks like you might be down in Seattle area. I am up in Friday Harbor
kind on close. Our project is SkyMill Energy. We are currently
working on a ground gen autogyro kite concept. I started up with a
bike system a bit like yours. I have attached a few pictures in your
file section. I used up to 12 small pocket parafoil kites. (Cheap)
and attached them to a bicycle wheel ground gen setup. Using three
bicycle wheels and some narrow (sliced lengthwise) serpentine belts
(20' wheel rim to hub then 27'? wheel to alternator) it would ramp up
12 rpm to about 2000 at the alternator. The kites got it spinning no
problem. (turns out the junk yard sold me a dud alternator though so
no power.) The belts were not perfect at they like to ride on a
convex surface and the inner part of the wheel is concave. It worked
ok when tensioned up. Less fussy then chains and cheap way to gear
way up.
I had two lines on the train of kites. It was a drag system and did
not use crosswind power yet. One line depowered all twelve kites and
one main line was used to bring the tension down. Turning the bike
crank arm rewound the depower line one half turn (16") more then the
mainline which would automatically depower all twelve kites. (16" was
enough to flip the paraoils over by pulling down at the back. They
would still fly but with much less power) ) after turning the first
half turn (16") on the 20' brake line spool the mainline would start
reeling on a separate 20" rim spool in sync with the break line. You
could then wind down all the kites in the depowered position. When
you wanted to start another power stroke you just stopped winding in
and let the coaster brake off. The kites would inflate and pull the
brake line back out 1/2 turn (16") to get it to the full power
setting. The alternator spins up and away you go, hand free untill you
want to start cranking in again.
Problem areas. --Spectra line is great when under some tension. When
it is slack for a moment is fluffs right off of the spool and get
tangled/cut in the hub. I had some pulleys to pretension the line as
it fed in the worked some of the time.
--The brake line and main line stretched differently so control was
an issue with my system. The bottom kites would fully depowered but
the top one might still be powered up.
--It was hard to imagine geting real practical power out of my system.
It was very labor intensive and then the wind dies. Cross wind power
is essential and I would add single line conrol is important. Multiple
lines are a mess and limit your altitude.
I was going to add left and right controls for a surf kite by adding
two pulleys on two lever arms that would simple change the length of
the line., Never got that far as I got distracted by rotary power.
Grant Calverley
360-378-6186
Looks like you might be down in Seattle area. I am up in Friday Harbor
kind on close. Our project is SkyMill Energy. We are currently
working on a ground gen autogyro kite concept. I started up with a
bike system a bit like yours. I have attached a few pictures in your
file section. I used up to 12 small pocket parafoil kites. (Cheap)
and attached them to a bicycle wheel ground gen setup. Using three
bicycle wheels and some narrow (sliced lengthwise) serpentine belts
(20' wheel rim to hub then 27'? wheel to alternator) it would ramp up
12 rpm to about 2000 at the alternator. The kites got it spinning no
problem. (turns out the junk yard sold me a dud alternator though so
no power.) The belts were not perfect at they like to ride on a
convex surface and the inner part of the wheel is concave. It worked
ok when tensioned up. Less fussy then chains and cheap way to gear
way up.
I had two lines on the train of kites. It was a drag system and did
not use crosswind power yet. One line depowered all twelve kites and
one main line was used to bring the tension down. Turning the bike
crank arm rewound the depower line one half turn (16") more then the
mainline which would automatically depower all twelve kites. (16" was
enough to flip the paraoils over by pulling down at the back. They
would still fly but with much less power) ) after turning the first
half turn (16") on the 20' brake line spool the mainline would start
reeling on a separate 20" rim spool in sync with the break line. You
could then wind down all the kites in the depowered position. When
you wanted to start another power stroke you just stopped winding in
and let the coaster brake off. The kites would inflate and pull the
brake line back out 1/2 turn (16") to get it to the full power
setting. The alternator spins up and away you go, hand free untill you
want to start cranking in again.
Problem areas. --Spectra line is great when under some tension. When
it is slack for a moment is fluffs right off of the spool and get
tangled/cut in the hub. I had some pulleys to pretension the line as
it fed in the worked some of the time.
--The brake line and main line stretched differently so control was
an issue with my system. The bottom kites would fully depowered but
the top one might still be powered up.
--It was hard to imagine geting real practical power out of my system.
It was very labor intensive and then the wind dies. Cross wind power
is essential and I would add single line conrol is important. Multiple
lines are a mess and limit your altitude.
I was going to add left and right controls for a surf kite by adding
two pulleys on two lever arms that would simple change the length of
the line., Never got that far as I got distracted by rotary power.
Grant Calverley
360-378-6186
Grant
May 4, 2010, 1:54:17 AM5/4/10
to kitebot
Sorry can't seem to upload pictures.
Grant
Grant
Joe Faust
May 4, 2010, 9:18:52 AM5/4/10
to kit...@googlegroups.com
Grant,
... I'll be glad to host the pictures in
and then the abosolute URLs can be stated or called.
JoeF
JoeF
May 30, 2010, 7:28:14 PM5/30/10
to kitebot
http://www.energykitesystems.net/Kitebot/index.html
Link correction effort.
Link correction effort.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages