Introducing Team Flux Continued:

Who We Are:

 

 

 

 

Team Flux consists of five members:

 

 

Team Leader: Nicholas Hopkinson

 

Team Member: Madison Sales 

 

Team Member: Zak Francis 

 

Team Member: Marty Taylor

 

Team Member: Brendon Karamba



Photo time take 1 Petrol engine

Trial and error to get it started to run some light bulbs



The full wave bridge rectifier from AC to sweet sweet DC


Time to see how added modifications work


Fully kitted out for a variable output


Hocked up to a dummy load


Even now still hard at work

Problems we had with the engine so far that we have overcome

• Bad preformance - the engine spluttered and spattered so had to be tune
• 3 phase out put - what was needed is a dc output so we rectified it
• Little or no output - simple problem simple answer an exciter
• The amount of output - to make it a variable output a exciter was installed
• The output dropped - charge the exciter aka the battery
• Unsure at what output we want - put the real load on it and fine tune

WhisperGen
We started off by opening up the whisper gen and discovered what was inside it as well as what is going to be connected to it.

The whisper gen has 3 main services that will be connected to the machine the first is the gas which will be used to run engine inside it next is the heating which will be used for cooling the whisper gen while also being used for heating so it will need to be connected to a radiator and finally the electrical because it needs power to start and then will start feeding into the grid when it gets up and running.

Since we are electrical based workers in training we aren't well versed in plumbing and needed the help of two tutors from the plumbing department Ritchie and Damon who have taken time out of there busy schedule to help make this project possible cause a major part of getting the whisper Gen going is the plumbing.

So for the moment we are just playing the waiting game and when the plumbers come along and smash the work out of the way we will hopefully have another generator up and running.



What we had to do for the petrol engine

Well what would you do if you give a small mounted engine with an alternator that has a 3 phase output, well you get the engine running by a proven method of trial and error and it also helps if you have a bunnings expert who sells lawn mowers and bam you should end up with a spluttering engine.

Next we see what kind of power we can get out of our little red engine a dummy load is the requirement hooked up in a star connection we chuck on the leads for our multi meter and we got what could be compared to left over scraps in other words hardly any voltage.

After a bit of head scratching we worked out the alternator needed an exciter to get the output we dreamed of. So that means putting a 12V battery in to the alternator and now the dummy loads are getting 19V each.

We were finally getting an alight output out of the engine but all agreed it could be better so came up with a plan. Get someone better than us at using motors to make the good better and so Marty and Nick set of to the automotive workshop and grabbed a tutor. After he cleaned the oil filter and replaced the expired petrol we now had 26V output on each phase.

Feeling pretty good about how things were going we decided to make for the summit and tackle the next problem changing the 3phase AC output into a single phase DC output so we could feed a DC busbar now change can be easy especially with six diodes hocked up strategically we managed to get that sweet DC output.

With the finish line in sight and unexpected issue came up the output was to high a decent 60V. Now we can usually agree bigger is better but not in this case as the busbar requires 24V the solution a variable resister hooked up in series along side the exciter (the battery) to change how much current the exciter gives to the alternator which affects the output of our circuit.

The end product we ended up with is a variable single phase DC generator.

Whisper Gen

People generally don't know what a whisper gen looks like so maybe this will reveal some light on the matter

Week 2 Check list

Well since week 1 got a check list week 2 got a check list

Second check list of things to do
X	Organise heater plumbing
X	Connect to radiator
X	Sort out wiring
X	Sort out gas
X	Plan for the wiring
X	Plan for space to put whisper gen
X	Get the engine running efficiently
X	Connect the load
X	Plan to connect to bus bar
X	Update blog
X	Add photos and other personal info to blog
X	Team meetings

Week 1 check list

To keep deadlines and manage how much time we have,a check list was born.

Week 1 What to do
X	Get a blog running and write a brief overview
X	Write the teams goals for the project on the blog
X	Add images to blog using the camera
X	Regular updates for the blog during the week
X	Get the information books off tutor
X	Research the whisper gen
X	Work out what work needs to be done e.g. parts needed
X	Organise parts from qualified plumber
X	Research petrol engine
X	Work out parts needed and other requirements needed for the engine
X	Team meeting with the Mr Andrew Massie

Team Flux Project Planning

Part of the project involves creating a project plan. To the team doing this sort of big project is a new experience and everything at this point is a challenge.
With so much work to do in not so long a time we created a brief project plan with realistic expectations on what we can acheive in the time we have been given. It was a challenge to try an visualise taking these steps throughout the week in a practical order. This is just a quick plan of what we need to do and could change at any time throughout the project period as priorities can change and problems can occur.

 



Whispergen Video

One of the things we are working on is called a whispergen.
We didnt know anything about it at all.
So we had to do some research.

Heres a video we found roughly describing how a whispergen works.

Introducing Team Flux



What We Are About:

 

We are students of CPIT,based in Christchurch all taking part in the High Voltage Electrical Supply Pre Trade course.

The idea of the course is to educate and prepare us for an apprenticeship and eventually to become competent qualified people in the high voltage industry in New Zealand.

At the start of the year our class of 14 students were selected and split into different teams for various exercises and projects. It is approaching the end of our course and we have been given the biggest project of the year, Generation .The aim of the game is to generate electricity through various means and run the classroom we work from for a day and if possible feed the greater Christchurch grid with electricity if we can generate enough.


Team Flux was issued a  4 Stroke Petrol Engine and Whisper Gen  to generate from.
 





High Voltage Group 2013