AirX400 Divert Regulator - Where Can I Buy

[Deleted member 36384]

I am looking for the device in the pictures. Anyone know where I can buy it from, UK preferably? I understand that it gets rid of excess energy from the AirX in place of the AirX internal regulator. I believe I can turn on the internal regulator and do away with the gubbins below. However, I would like to wore it back in, like for like for the time being. The circuit board is duff.

 

[VicS]

I am looking for the device in the pictures. Anyone know where I can buy it from, UK preferably? I understand that it gets rid of excess energy from the AirX in place of the AirX internal regulator. I believe I can turn on the internal regulator and do away with the gubbins below. However, I would like to wore it back in, like for like for the time being. The circuit board is duff.

The manual for the AirX does not mention any specific external regulator only some advice on the type of external regulator that is suitable. This implies that AirX do not make or supply an external regulator with their own branding .

You don't say why you want to retain the external regulator. The advantage of using one seems to be that the excess power can be diverted to other uses, water heating for example otherwise it has to be diverted to a dump resistor. Its not clear how the unit in your picture dumps the excess as there are no obvious connections for a load or a dump resistor. I am left wondering if it really was the correct type anyway

I believe** the LVM Aerogen controllers divert the excess to a dump resistor. It may be worth looking at what is available......... I think LVM6TB12 may be the answer, assuming you have a 12 volt system, but its up to you to check it out properly

However If you do not want to divert the power to another use the simple solution is the just readjust the internal regulator to its original setting to bring it back into operation. You don't explain why you don't want to do that.



** I know they do 'cos I have downloaded the brochure

 

[coopec]

Superwind sell wind turbines in Australia (although they are made in Germany)

http://www.solenttech.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=69_108

http://upgradeboats.com/project/superwind350-installation-on-65′-sailboat/

If I have a choice I'll be using the power to heat water or cabin heating or desalination.....................?


Clive

 

[VicS]

Superwind sell wind turbines in Australia (although they are made in Germany)

http://www.solenttech.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=69_108

http://upgradeboats.com/project/superwind350-installation-on-65′-sailboat/

If I have a choice I'll be using the power to heat water or cabin heating or desalination.....................?

Solenttech is a UK company based in SW17 who sell the Air X wind turbines, in addition to the Superwind turbines to which you link. Maybe a good place for the OP to try for a suitable regulator if he really insists on using an external one.

 

[rogerthebodger]

If I have a choice I'll be using the power to heat water or cabin heating or desalination.....................?

Clive this had been discussed on the fora before including doing some calculations and found to be so small that its was considered to be not viable due to the little return for the cost involved.

I have a wind generator that is the predecessor to the AirX which has stopped charging due to the electrical brake not releasing. Stripped it down but found nothing wrong that I could see but I have enough solar panels as I don't really need it at the no but will have a look at building a regulator of some kind some time.

This is an interesting post with details of an external regulator for an AirX wind generator.

http://brianellul118.blogspot.co.za/2011/11/air-x-new-controller.html

http://brianellul118.blogspot.co.za/2011/08/air-x-modification.html

 

[VicS]

Clive this had been discussed on the fora before including doing some calculations and found to be so small that its was considered to be not viable due to the little return for the cost involved.

.

If you have 400 watts to dump using it for water heating makes sense.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

The picture below shows the complete set up (a 24V system), I guess the small finned device is the dump resistor. The items are located in an area below the cockpit locker sole where electrical connections, bus bars, shunts are located, perhaps a previously owner thought that the heat would keep this area warm.

The item in question appears in Nigel Caldwell's tome on boat maintenance, in the wind turbine section. The boat might very well have spent time on the west side of an Atlantic circuit as other items are of American origin.

Why? Really just to plug and play and keep the system as is at the moment. The whole charging system is planned for an upgrade sometime as it is all from 1974 and I want to replace double regulators, alternators, battery charging isolators with a modern single alternator system.

The boat is back in commission after a couple of years near my house but I have not erected the Air X yet. I will take a look at the manual and see what I can do to connect it up without these devices.

As a by the way, do you think it could supply enough heat to warm the wet locker? The failure of this device may be the reason why my batteries went dry very easily over a winter just before the boat came out the water.

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[rogerthebodger]

If you have 400 watts to dump using it for water heating makes sense.

Maybe if you get 400 watts for a longish time but I never got anywhere near that and at most it only worked for short periods of time when the wind flew.

Looking at the temperatures in the UK at the moment and summer is lower that where I am at 6000ft above sea level in mid winter the wind may blow a lot more.

I use a black hose on deck to heat my water and my deck is too hot to work on in summer.

 

[rogerthebodger]

That small finned device looks like a heat sink for a large diode and not a dump resistor. A dump resistor would be bigger than that device.

More like these

 

[coopec]

If you have 400 watts to dump using it for water heating makes sense.

Agreed. It would bring tears to my eyes to see that amount of power going to waste.

I just did a google and you can buy a 12V (300W) immersion heater for $15-20. Of course you'd have "drive" it so you would need a dump as well.

Clive

 

[coopec]

Roger

I had no idea Johannesburg was 6000ft above sea level. (Just had a look at the map). Dying to get back there................

Clive

 

[rogerthebodger]

Roger

I had no idea Johannesburg was 6000ft above sea level. (Just had a look at the map). Dying to get back there................

Clive

Not quite high enough to see you across the Indian Ocean.

 

[VicS]

The picture below shows the complete set up (a 24V system), I guess the small finned device is the dump resistor. The items are located in an area below the cockpit locker sole where electrical connections, bus bars, shunts are located, perhaps a previously owner thought that the heat would keep this area warm.

The item in question appears in Nigel Caldwell's tome on boat maintenance, in the wind turbine section. The boat might very well have spent time on the west side of an Atlantic circuit as other items are of American origin.

Why? Really just to plug and play and keep the system as is at the moment. The whole charging system is planned for an upgrade sometime as it is all from 1974 and I want to replace double regulators, alternators, battery charging isolators with a modern single alternator system.

The boat is back in commission after a couple of years near my house but I have not erected the Air X yet. I will take a look at the manual and see what I can do to connect it up without these devices.

As a by the way, do you think it could supply enough heat to warm the wet locker? The failure of this device may be the reason why my batteries went dry very easily over a winter just before the boat came out the water.

Without knowing what all the bits and pieces are or having a wiring diagram one is rather in the dark. My best guess is that the device pictured in your first post, combined with the plain black box is a shunt type of regulator although the wires to it look a little on the light side .... Just about Ok perhaps for a 24 volt system ???? If it is though it's not suitable according to what I understand from the AirX manual.

I agree with Roger regarding the small finned device.

There are only two things that I can identify in your pictures . One, at the bottom of the picture in #13, looks like a shunt for a battery monitor.
The thing at the top of the 2nd picture in #1 is a clothes peg!

If you are planning an upgrade in the future the the obvious way forward at the moment , IMO, is to simply return the AirX to operation from its internal regulator. I dont see any gain from using an external regulator unless use is made of the surplus energy. Water heating, wet locker heating etc can be things for the future upgrade.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Thanks everyone, sounds like a plan, reinstate with just the AirX internal regulator.