Comments

• 

  Ron Howarth October 25, 2009 at 7:46pm

  Thank you for accepting me into your group.
  I will admit I am new to this computer networking.
  I have recently sold my manuafcturing business and wish to keep involved in machine design. I have began designing several wood handling machines which I will plan to offer to shops and agents interested to sell them.
  I am also interested in networking with others in similar fields.
  Over these past 25 years I have been so busy with the shop, I did not have time to look too far outside my business.
  I have posted some of my initial designs on my site, and hopefully I will be able to add to these as time passes.
  During my business I became aware, that not too many shops invest in first every custom projects. I did this, and it is what allowed me to build up a product line . Appreciate it can be risky if you are not sure it will work. I was very fortunite not to accumulate a large bone yard.
  I am looking for interested sales agents, and or shops willing to pay a royality back to me for the use of the drawings on each sale made from them, or because of them.
  Risky on it's own I expect. Do you get one royalty check?
  Thank you again for providing an avenue to experiment with my skill.
  Ron Howarth
• Yuval Lior October 25, 2009 at 12:54am

  Hi Marshall,
  Thank you very much!
  Yuval
• Yuval Lior October 22, 2009 at 3:27am

  Dear sir,
  I think that it might be usefull if you will arrange the Videos and Images according to Application types or Fields so everyone who wish to find a video on specific field can find it much more easy than now. In the close future might be hundreds of movies!
  Regards,
  Yuval Lior
• 

  Maziar Salehi October 1, 2009 at 10:55am

  Hello Marshall,
  
  Thanks for the friend request. Are you in the SB area also? Nice to get to know you on EE.
• 

  laura carrabine September 3, 2009 at 12:45pm

  Hi Marshall,
  I got your message re: the wind expo in Detroit in November. I'd love to go and see what's new with wind engineering. However, I'll have to check with John and Leslie to see if that's okay with them and if we can schedule it in. Thanks and I"ll be in touch w/ you next week.
• 

  Phillip Marsh September 2, 2009 at 1:48pm

  I am glad you took my comment so well. It takes the wind out of a lot of windmill sales.
  Since there just is not a lot one can do about windmill power or lack of, I am looking around in other directions. At one time I was very interested in "Anything Into Oil" and worked a little on building my own cooker. It lost steam (pun there) because I would have to use so much energy (like Nat. gas) to cycle the process. Then lately, I have been thinking about putting a pressure tank in the focal point of a solar cooker. I have to calculate the size of reflector I'll need to heat the mass I want to cook.
  I have a lot of windmill parts I will sell at cost if anyone wants to build one. The CAD design and most of the work is done, ie. machining, welding, coil winding, and know how. I spent 3 years and $10 K learning windmill design.
• 

  Phillip Marsh September 2, 2009 at 12:56pm

  The typical urban windmill is sold to reduce your dependance on the utility grid. These windmills are advertized as producing 1 KW in a 30 MPH wind.
  
  A typical 1 KW PMA (permanent magnet alternator) will loose 50% of its produced power as heat in its coils. This efficiency cannot be improved. So a 1KW windmill actually produces 500 watts of useful power in a 30 MPH wind.
  
  To sell your wind power to a utility you need a line tied inverter. These will convert your 3 phase, variable voltage and frequency AC power to 60 Hz, 120 VAC, after it has been rectified to DC. These inverters are at most, 80% efficient and the rectifiers are maybe 90% efficient, so that the total power going on the grid could be at most 350 watts. Also these inverters lose more efficiency as the input voltage drops below 48 VDC when the windmill slows down.
  
  So, here is the problem with this concept: A utility charges you about 12 cents for using 1000 Watts per hour. Your windmill can only produce a maximum of 350 W per hour in a 30 MPH wind which is only 4.2 cents worth of power per hour.
  
  So, if you have 30 MPH hurricane wind 24 hours per day you could produce $1.00 of power per day. Assuming your system cost $3000 to buy and install, not counting builting permits, it will take you 8.3 years to pay off your system. Duh! Is this a good plan?
  
  The only practical application for a small 1KW size windmill is for charging batteries in a remote area where utility power is not available. You can make a PMA for charging batteries your self. Go to http://www.windstuffnow.com/main/ for plans, or we will sell you one built and tested for $480.
• 

  Eduardo Cunha Lopes August 14, 2009 at 3:34am

  Hi Marshall Matheson!
  Congratulations for creating this Engineering Exchange Network.
  I also created a Ning Network just for European Engineers.
  However, this network, undoubtedly, had a great success.
  Best Regards,
  Eduardo Lopes
• A.Aghajanian June 7, 2009 at 7:31pm

  I think adding a Communication Engineering or Digital Signal Processing group will be a good idea.
  Thanks.
• 

  Jared Lee Davis June 7, 2009 at 1:46pm

  I was just thinking that we would be lacking without an "HVAC" (or similar named) group.