Wind Power B/C

[0ddrenaline]

Riddle me this: a competitive team had a curious experience with this event recently. Their rotor caught no wind at our fan's low speed but recorded extremely high values (we're talking an order of magnitude higher mV than nearly everyone else) at our high speed. Clearly, their practice fan is more powerful than ours, but what I want to know is what the effectiveness of their design is, then. Is this something I want my teams to attempt to emulate? Anyway, if anyone was curious, they did not recover from losing so many points.

I've been afraid of this happening with our fan. I don't think we have met a team that comes close to our current blade. However, on the low speed, our blade has a very low acceleration. It pays off when the blade gets up to speed, but it's possible that the fan won't be powerful enough to move the blade.

So here's my analysis. Our pitch is very low. If we raise the pitch, we can ensure that the blade will move on low speed. However, this will sacrifice our high top speed. I think this is the problem for the team you're speaking of. This blade can be very effective, but your decision will rely on your own philosophy of risk vs reward.

As for emulating the design, I recommend at least trying. Although, a design can only go so far. At the top level, success often comes from the intricate hidden choices made in the build. Anyone who's emulated a successful tower can attest to this.

[ashmmohan]

Riddle me this: a competitive team had a curious experience with this event recently. Their rotor caught no wind at our fan's low speed but recorded extremely high values (we're talking an order of magnitude higher mV than nearly everyone else) at our high speed. Clearly, their practice fan is more powerful than ours, but what I want to know is what the effectiveness of their design is, then. Is this something I want my teams to attempt to emulate? Anyway, if anyone was curious, they did not recover from losing so many points.

I've been afraid of this happening with our fan. I don't think we have met a team that comes close to our current blade. However, on the low speed, our blade has a very low acceleration. It pays off when the blade gets up to speed, but it's possible that the fan won't be powerful enough to move the blade.

So here's my analysis. Our pitch is very low. If we raise the pitch, we can ensure that the blade will move on low speed. However, this will sacrifice our high top speed. I think this is the problem for the team you're speaking of. This blade can be very effective, but your decision will rely on your own philosophy of risk vs reward.

As for emulating the design, I recommend at least trying. Although, a design can only go so far. At the top level, success often comes from the intricate hidden choices made in the build. Anyone who's emulated a successful tower can attest to this.

Ours gets high values at low and high speed. At competition, you are allowed to give the turbine a "kick, as long as it is not within the 30 second scoring interval. I have had experiences where I have had to kick the turbine in order to start spinning on low speed, but it always gets up there.

[0ddrenaline]

Ours gets high values at low and high speed. At competition, you are allowed to give the turbine a "kick, as long as it is not within the 30 second scoring interval. I have had experiences where I have had to kick the turbine in order to start spinning on low speed, but it always gets up there.

Oh yeah, it's been a while since I read the rules. So the design might work as long as you spin it with your hand. Sorry about the wrong information and thank you for the correction.

[shadowoof]

For Wind Power, does the voltage output created by the spinning blade have to positive, or can it be negative?

[Alex-RCHS]

In our team's experience, the negative and positive doesn't matter. It is the result of the direction that your blade spins, or how the multimeter is set up.

[chalker]

For Wind Power, does the voltage output created by the spinning blade have to positive, or can it be negative?

Only the absolute magnitude matters.

[Sasstiel]

Would anyone say that making the blade assembly using paper is helpful? I want to try...

[0ddrenaline]

Would anyone say that making the blade assembly using paper is helpful? I want to try...

A paper blade definitely can be quite good. It's possible to place at most competitions using a paper blade.

[JonB]

Would anyone say that making the blade assembly using paper is helpful? I want to try...

Our blades last year were a built from a paper product and did very, very well at the National Tournament.

[Sasstiel]

Thank you JonB and 0ddrenaline! I will try paper and see how it goes.