Lucky me ?

As the ol' saying goes, "If it was not for bad luck I would have no luck at all." This past week I came home and noticed the wind generator blades were running a bit choppy. There was plenty of wind and it looked as though the brake was on to a degree. I went in the shed and looked at the control box and the watt meter was at zero. Even after I shut it off the blades still were choppy. So fo sure I knew the brake was on. Now they say, "it is what you don't know that hurts you.

I got out the manual and started looking for clues. After spending a day trying this or that I went back to the manual. "If all else fails read the manual" right. I even tried to motor the generator by directly wiring power to it and by pass the control box. No luck. Then I went to the top of the tower and started investigating. Brake solenoid clicked so power was getting to it when but in test mode. Wiring in junction box was fine. Just as I was about to quit I saw the cover for the capacitors and thought maybe I should have a peek.

Yikes! Found "the" problem would later turn out to be "a" problem. Went to my local electrician and he had just the capacitors I needed. Now if you are following this blog you know that this past summer I spent several weeks going over this unit and making some major repairs. You would have thunk that I would have checked these while it was down and handy, but no.

Well after replacing the capacitors I thought all would be well again. Not to be. I could tell you all of the little tiny mistakes I made in the wiring but even after correcting no go. So back to the manual!

Now armed with a testing plan and trusty ohmmeter I mounted the tower. To make the tests required that ALL wire connections be dis-connected. So now with now fewer than 12 wires loose I began testing. Did not take long to determine one of the main windings was open.

I felt like jumping off the tower!

But instead I decided to unbolt the brake and generator and bring them down. So I tied up the blades and anchored them to the mast. Now I can trouble shoot this beast on the bench. What I won"t do for "free" electricity.