914 wind generator fix?

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Majic

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The recent storm Ianos meant that, for once my 914 produced reasonable power, However one of the last gusts seems to have killed it.
The blades now just turn slowly.
I have tried connecting directly to the battery with no effect. It is producing electricity, but only about 0.5V which varies with wind speed.
Bringing it back to the UK to get Marlec to repair seems like more trouble than it's worth.
Any suggestions as to what may be wrong?

Thanks
Jon
 
If the blades and hub wont spin freely when the unit is disconnected electrically it suggests an internal short circuit.
One of the things I would do is to check the rectifiers as described in the fault finding guide ....... BUT I would use the "diode test" range on a digital multimeter. The ohms ranges do not always work on digital meters for diode testing.

Have you carried out the checks described in the Owners Manual and the Fault Finding Guide

See Rutland Windcharger Manuals - Windchargers, Regulators and Mounting. for both

also Troubleshooting your windcharger

If all else fails contact Marlec .
 
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I think Vic's on the ball as ever. The bridge rectifier diode went on 913 twice, the first time it was under warranty so I sent it back, the second time, looking at their spec (there are two) they were quite tight on tolerance. I replaced them with higher voltage rated ones which did the trick, that was in 2008.
 
VicS said:
If the blades and hub wont spin freely when the unit is disconnected electrically it suggests an internal short circuit.
One of the things I would do is to check the rectifiers as described in the fault finding guide ....... BUT I would use the "diode test" range on a digital multimeter. The ohms ranges do not always work on digital meters for diode testing.

Have you carried out the checks described in the Owners Manual and the Fault Finding Manual

See Rutland Windcharger Manuals - Windchargers, Regulators and Mounting. for both

also Troubleshooting your windcharger

If all else fails contact Marlec .
Click to expand...
As above, but have you checked the bearings?
 
Majic said:
The blades are turning, but as if the batteries are fully charged. Normally they spin fast to generate power. No resistance when I turn be hand so probably not the bearings.
Click to expand...
It is, as said before, almost certainly internal short circuit. Beside of the wiring, the prime suspect would (as said before) be the rectifier but I am not sure how easy it should be to replace. The gen is using the MPPT technology and the rectifier is a part of the quite complicated regulator. I fixed one of these before by getting out just the raw 3 phase output and using a MPPT regulator (that is also a rectifier) from E-Bay for $60. Works like a dream.
 
This video shows how to temporarily bypass and remove the MPPT PCB ( at £90 its a bit expensive if you don't have the know-how to repair)


You can see how accessible the rectifiers are . It would be very easy to disconnect them and test them (after recording the positions of all the wiring !)
They are 25amp 200V piv. I'd have thought that an adequate rating but no harm in uprating as suggested earlier if they have been toasted

Parts list and diagram here Rutland 914 Spares
 
Hi, thanks for all your responses and I'm sure that you have all been patiently waiting for an update!

After 2 years I finally got the time to take the 914i apart and go through the test process. Took a while, but I've sort off got it fixed. It was the MOSFETs on the PCB which I have now removed. I have a couple of follow on questions:
How temporary is this fix? Do I need to replace the PCB?
My PCB had 2black wires and 2 blue wires which don't appear on the video from marle , is this an older model (2010 on the PCB)
Is it worth keeping the PCB and just replacing the MOSFETs?
Thanks for your help!
 
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