Recently i have been tring to make a working wind turbine like you see in the big wind farms. I built a tower and put a rotating top on it via motor. Also I have weather vane on it being measured by a potentiometer. the rotaing top is also being meastred by a potentiometer.
What i want to know is how do you program it to get a position from the weather vane and then make the motor turn until the second potentiometer equals the first.
Any help is appreciated
are you planning this to be a real, actual electricity generating turbine?
yea i mounted a 12 volt dc motor/generator to my rotor
please help with the programing
Well I’m not 100% sure, but I think you can make a variable for the potentiometer and then drive a servo from the reading on it. They’re both in bytes and they both have 120 degrees of turn right? I might be wrong.
Hope this helps!:^D
Happy new year!:^)
Can we get a picture of your set up? I’m guessing you will need something similar to the pseudo code below:
pot 1= value of potentiometer on wind vain
pot 2= Value of potentiometer on tower
if( pot 1 < pot 2) If the tower is to one side
while( pot 1 < pot 2)
motor on
]
motor off
if( pot 2 < pot 1) If the tower is to the other side
while( pot 2 < pot 1)
motor on
]
motor off
That is exactly what i thought of but i dont know how to put it in code
Do you put it in an if/else statement or do you put it in something i dont even know about
I will try to get a picture uploaded of it so far
tb12 - Creating a Wind Turbine is a fun and challenging project; but I am worried that if you have Vex parts attached to something designed to extract power from the wind, they will either rust up and stop turning pretty quickly (and then snap off in a moderately strong wind), or bend into spaghetti in the first strong gust of wind that hits them, or both.
Have you protected all of the vex parts (mild steel?, delrin, etc.) from stress that will exceed their strengths and from corrosion, wind-blown debris/dust/grit, bugs, bird droppings, etc.? or have you planned a benign environment in which to operate the turbine?
I would hate to hear that your hours of labor, expensive parts and completed system had become ruined if they are used in a (too) hostile environment.
Blake
Nice project, are you actually gonna put it outside?
It is more like a home science project. I will just put it out side and see if it will turn and make a light bulb light up I will not just leave it out there and forget about it. Like i said the motor I am using for the generator is only a 12 volt one like that could really power any thing but a single light bulb. If the wind becomes strong while i have it out side i will bring it in side.
Right know I just trying to figure out how to program the controller to turn it into the wind. I am a very novice programer. The only programing projects I am able to finish right know are bumper bots that avoid objects.
So if any one could help me figure out a code for the turbine it would be very much appreciated.
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The code in the attachment is what i have gotten so far but it doesnt work can any one give me any guidence in what i should do to make it work The Pot one is the weather vane and Pot 2 is the tower i also think that i should make the motors stop at Pot 2’s values of 1023 and 0
Code wt.pdf (117 KB)
I think i some how figured out the code it jitterly turns untill the potentiometers match how ever out in the wind they wont ever be able to match POT 1 will change also when the top of the turbine swiches direction i guess i will have to a better code for out side with wind
I have a question:
What happens if the wind forces to do a full rotation?
i have it geared so it can do a full rotation but it will not go around and around continuously
Oh. You could use an optical shaft encoder, but I think this is more accurate. Just be careful because the wind could try to push it over its limit and push it down or break something.