Tesup Atlas 4.0 Wind Turbine Update - December 2022

[@Sdm5054]

Excited for your next update, I’m still waiting for my inverter to arrive!!

[@tinrobot1746]

Many thanks and sorry to see you've hit a problem. That does look very wobbly ! Look forward to your next update. Tesup should be sponsoring these videos (assuming it actually works in the end)

[@sustainableorange]

Busy day today taking it down to reveal what’s happened and work out how to fix it!

[@brentmcknight5344]

@@sustainableorange surely you are able to claim warranty?

[@sustainableorange]

Yes, Tesup replied within 1 business day to my support email & I have already received a replacement unit.

[@hanzol102]

I saw a reaction of you somewhere it went wobbly because of a bolt of the shaft. That's a common problem it happened to my atlas too. The bolt has no lock tight or washers. The same with the blades without the washers all bolts vibrated loose I lost 1 blade also. With my packet the washers weren't included. Also after a year everything is rusted and the paint is going because of using no rvs bolts and bad coating. Also the bearings ate bad i have to replace all my bearings But still I believe in tesup. I trust in tesup also to handle my enquiry good. The followup is in my opinion bad I can sell as electrician company 1000snds of them. But I need a good support otherwise I will be bankrupt of the support costs myself. Secure all bolts with lock tight

[@SeanMoore2008]

Im assuming this never produced a single kWh ?

[@sustainableorange]

Correct. Not a single kWh. I have another to try which I plan to get up before winter.

[@SeanMoore2008]

@sustainableorange I wouldn't bother, we had one of those up here in Orkney for an evaluation and it simply isn't fit for purpose.

[@sustainableorange]

@SeanMoore2008 yeah I’m not holding my breath. Looking at possibly also getting the SkyWind 1kw turbine.

[@richardmarkham8369]

No sign of any watts, before the main shaft went kaput?

[@sustainableorange]

I had peak voltage of about 50v from the charge controller however it was for less than 1 minute so the inverter never kicked in. :(

[@richardmarkham8369]

@@sustainableorange Toys for Watts has a lot to say about Tesup! Looking forward to seeing the Mangum 5 making some current and volts!

[@sustainableorange]

Me too! Still waiting on the mounting solution though unfortunately. Build video due this month though!

[@SuperNemesis12345]

Excided to see your next update :)

[@sustainableorange]

Thank you! I’ll keep the wind turbine updates monthly for now. However would you be interested to see some info on my set up of my solar PV and batteries or a review of my energy usage over 2022 maybe?

[@PeterTurnbull-z2g]

Wishing you good luck with the Horizontal Turbine. Can you please provide more details with the Atlas4.0 such as start-up windspeed and if possible power generated at specific windspeed? Thx.

[@sustainableorange]

Hi Peter, I had some issues with my atlas 4.0, however the start up speed seemed to be about 5-6m/s and it would generate about 40v at this speed. Unfortunately I’m still yet to see any energy out of it and have been sent a replacement unit from Tesup which is a Magnum 5 instead, im waiting for mounting hardware to arrive on a custom order before I can install that.

[@jeremylast2464]

Tesup don't show an earthing cable is needed but you connect one. Where does it go to?

[@sustainableorange]

It’s connected to the housing and the tower in the event of lightning I need to make sure it has an easy way to ground even if it destroys the turbine it will save the tower, charger controller & inverter.

[@jeremylast2464]

@@sustainableorange thank you very much. I get low v shock from Atlas 2.0 and Atlas X. Not lightning.

[@davidpotter9462]

Haven't seen a Tesup that works yet. I bought a Chinese wind generator, it works, but they sent a 12 volts instead of a 24. I just put it up yesterday. Charging half of my battery bank with it. Turn it horizontal and put some blades on the Tesup, and see if the generator is any good. The tinkertoy blades aren't going to work.

[@DarrenEbay]

Great series. Nice to seen somebody doing an in depth series on the Tesup equipment, and in the UK. I am looking at getting a vertical system and the Tesup equipment looks good but all the reviews I can find online are not good at all! Any reason why you went for the Atlas 4 rather than the Atlas X?

[@sustainableorange]

Purely generation level. That said the frost seems to have killed my atlas. I’ve just been sent a Magnum which I will be trying next. Stay tuned for that!

[@DarrenEbay]

@@sustainableorange Interesting. I checked the manual for the Atlas X and it has no mention of operating temperature. I see the Magnum can work down to -50C! I will certainly stay tuned for the next update. Good luck.

[@normanmcdermid1951]

Are these turbines avaiable in South Africa. Where can I buy one.

[@Runawaygeekchannel]

What’s the setup you have for measuring windspeed?

[@sustainableorange]

I use a weather station I got on Amazon: Ecowitt Weather Stations WS2910,... www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0991GVBYK?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

[@Runawaygeekchannel]

@@sustainableorange Thanks bud

[@craigwhitfield5462]

I will be interested to see if the grub screws holding the sail assembly on to the turbine drive shaft have come loose, resulting in the sails spinning on the shaft. It is apparent that this is not a suitable design to secure the sail assembly to the turbine with any reliability.

[@sustainableorange]

They had… we found some other issues too. I’m talking to Tesup Support about it.

[@craigwhitfield5462]

Thanks for the updates and the post!. I have had all similar issues with my install. BTW we did quite a bit of work in weather proofing the turbine as well as replacing every nut bolt and screw in stainless...

[@sustainableorange]

Care to share what you used to replace it all? I could use a pre-made shopping list to save me some time! The only extra weather proofing I did was adding a grommet to the output cable and a cap on the top of the shaft.

[@craigwhitfield5462]

@sustainableorange I took all the bolts screws and nuts that came in the bag plus we pulled the outer case of the turbine apart. Took all these items to 'the bolt bloke' and replaced them with stainless equivalent before assembling. Also changed the ''TEK' screws on the outer case for rivnuts and stainless screws. Mounted a small IP rated box and cable vane to the outer case for wiring egress. Quite a list of minor alterations to make it weatherproof to last (hopefully). Still bo output from it yet as I am still working on better option/design for the shaft issue. Advice so far is drill another hole and install a roll/shear pin in addition to the grub screws.

[@sustainableorange]

@@craigwhitfield5462 thanks. Yeah I was toying with the idea of an intermediary connector with a key between the motor shaft and the sail shaft. I really feel like it needs some sort of key-ing to reduce the forces on the grub screws.

[@stickyartur]

Hi, great upload… Can you tell me if inverter MIC 3300TL-X will work with Atlas 4.0?

[@sustainableorange]

It will depend on the initial start up voltage. The lower the better. TESUP ship a Delta 5kw H5a flex inverter which has a 30-35v startup level, even at that I’ve struggled to get the Atlas 4 to start up at this voltage as it needs it consistently for over 1 minute before it kicks in.

[@stickyartur]

@@sustainableorange thanks this inverter is recommended by tesup if I’m reading correctly I’ve got 80V Start voltage - so that’s bad ? drive.google.com/file/d/1O23F8SjCsArz_S7wtJTXR5zNhUKaPktf/view

[@sustainableorange]

It just means you will need a minimum of 80v before you can generate anything at all. The charge controller isn’t good at stepping up voltage. So it will just shrink the window in which you can generate power.

[@robertgoy9367]

hello i am thinking about a atasx turbine to add to my solar system will i need a inverter as well as a charge controller or can i use the spair feeds that i have on my solax inverter after the charge controller ?

[@sustainableorange]

It will depend on the spec of your inverter. For wind you need an inverter with a very low DC start up voltage. The Delta shipped with Tesup has just a 30-35vdc start up. However my solar-edge solar inverters require 120vdc before they will kick into life.

[@robertgoy9367]

@@sustainableorange thank,s for that i well look in to that and hope all go,s well with yours

[@1113562]

My mates Tesup Atlas 4 charge controller as supplied only has a voltmeter that goes up to 100V. I think I've seen you say yours goes to 150V. Even so my friend is having trouble getting more then 20 V out of his at strong wind conditions. Seems its needed to have a low voltage inverter input that can handle a lot of current like 30 to 40 Amps if the turbine/controller is not going to deliver voltage at the higher end of the range. Tesup fail to give a wind speed to voltage table or graph. They only state wind speed vs Power which is totally unhelpful when you are trying to sort out the inverter spec.

[@hkthaifrance384]

Super, excellent travail 👍

[@sustainableorange]

Thank you!

[@tecnopadre]

Does the inverter has a table where you can adjust the P=V*I ? Or does that inverter have the data inside of it? I'm dealing with a friend that we have to add this values manually based on wind and Atlas 4.0 power. Thnks for sharing such a great videos since the beginning. Cheers.

[@sustainableorange]

Not that I am aware of. The Delta has a very low start up voltage of 30v though. However it needs to detect 30v for about a minute before it kicks to life. The voltage should be adjusted by the charge controller which has a dial to turn (although when in inverter mode I think it may be bypassed as I think it just limits voltage for connected batteries). The charge controller in inverter mode should push from 0-170v dc out. Current will depend on the turbines speed. Although obviously at peak output (5kW) this should be about 30amp.

[@tecnopadre]

@@sustainableorange thank you for your fast response. In our case it kicks at 26v and we fill the cell based on the atlas 4.0 table and use the formula above mention to figure the I.

[@1113562]

170 V from the charge controller?? The one we were supplied only has a meter display that goes to 100V. So even if it did produce 100 V it needs to also kick out 40 Amps to achieve 4kW. I just can't see it ever doing that.

[@1113562]

Hi I know your turbine is under repair at the moment but when it is spinning have you been able to determine the rotating rpm by measuring the frequency of the AC input to the controller (say between two of the phases) and knowing the number of poles or pulses per revolution. Under no load (inverter disconnected or below start up voltage) the wind speed should be able to be determined from the turbine rotation speed assuming low friction effects. Under load the turbine is going to slow down and this may be predictable as a function of current loading.

[@sustainableorange]

Unfortunately I have not been able to as yet.

[@1113562]

It will be an interesting measurement. Its a pity the Tesup charge controller doesn't have a turbine rpm readout derived from the 3 phase input frequency.

[@PetervanHalteren-bp9sl]

Sorry to hear that turbine has a defect (damaged bearing?) What is the tool that u used to trick the powerwall? and dos it work on a 3 phase hooked up powerwall?

[@sustainableorange]

So I already had a solar PV system feeding the powerwall, so I combined the output of that with the output of the turbine inverter and I moved the CT-Clamp sensor that reads the solar PV output to after I joined the 2 together as per the diagram. Simple trick that hopefully should work.

[@1113562]

But adding solar panels to force the DC voltage up for the inverter is not a lot of use at night and short days in winter.

[@1113562]

Am I right in thinking that you joined the dc output from the turbine charge controller to the pv solar panels output so they were effectively in parallel and then connected this combined source to the inverter input?

[@sustainableorange]

I have not tried this, but I believe if you use another input it will start up the inverter and the other input will work with any input levels above the minimum value. It’s not a great work around, as you point out it’s not good when it’s not light enough or at night.

[@1113562]

Hi I've a lot of interest as a good friend has the same turbine from Tesup. He has a big problem as his generates hardly any Volts when its spinning like a top. 20 Volts is the most he has seen. You say yours peaked at 60 V at one point . How much load current would you expect to get from the turbine at that voltage. Even 20 Amps is only 1.2 kW. Anyway my friends other problem is Tesup supplied him with a Growatt PV inverter that has a DC input range of 65 to 550V so totally unsuitable for the Atlas 4 turbine and charge controller. Tesup are very bad at responding to questions, I don't know if you have found that. Do you have a wind speed vs voltage curve from Tesup or have you derived one from your measurements? J

[@sustainableorange]

I have not been able to get good data yet as my turbine shaft is no longer spinning freely. I did see 60v peak at about 5m/s wind speed when I initially installed it but it was not sustained long enough for the Delta inverter to kick in. Some people have added a couple of solar panels to their inverters to bring the input voltage up enough that the inverter starts up and then the wind just increases the voltage. Sadly I don’t have data on current but my inline meter was registering about 35w or 0.6amps @ 60v. We have had much greater and more consistent winds since but my turbine shaft detached from the sails, and then the temps dropped to -11cc and finally since then the motor has not turned freely. I’ve spoken to Tesup support and they have been quite responsive actually. I logged a support ticket, they responded the next day, and have been super helpful. That said I do believe they are familiar with this channel, so I’m not sure what effect that has.

[@richardhaiku]

Another great video, thank you. Do you think one of these wind turbines could be placed on top of a house chimney that is no longer used, or would the pressures/weight be too much for the chimney?

[@sustainableorange]

Tesup themselves actually recommend installing at the pitch of a roof for their Atlas X turbine. It would need some significant fixing but if it was secured sensibly I don’t see why not. I must say the greatest success of my project so far is that the tower is absolutely solid! Very pleased with that.

[@1113562]

Yes your tower system is excellent particularly the hinge and ability to lower the turbine to ground level. As you have already experienced you have needed it down to do some repairs.

[@MIA7Xthies]

What do you think caused the issue? I was interested in these turbines, but here in Saskatchewan Canada, -11 is a warm winter day haha

[@sustainableorange]

I think poor material quality hasn’t helped. It’s rusted really bad in just 6 weeks out in the elements.

[@henrikl9834]

@@sustainableorange what parts did rust?

[@sustainableorange]

All the screws/bolts around the main body housing & the motor bearing collars all heavily oxidised.

[@henrikl9834]

@@sustainableorange got any planed solution for the motor bearing collars? Guess they need som type of cover for protection?

[@wkinne1]

Today is June 8th, ordered and paid on Feb. 3rd. 2024, nothing, wont even answer my tickets. DO NOT ORDER FROM THESE PEOPLE!!!

[@sustainableorange]

Unfortunately they seem to take people’s money and vanish. Very poor quality components on the kits I’ve had that are just not fit for purpose and fail rapidly :(

[@michaelvanallen6400]

*All practical tests show that small wind turbines hardly generate any electricity! And only at very high costs!* Because there is hardly any wind close to the ground. It is also extremely gusty, which usually reduces the service life very much. Only if you need to be self-sufficient from the power grid, you should install the largest possible wind turbine on a high tower for the winter. *With solar panels, on the other hand, you can reliably generate green electricity for 25 years at approx. 3-10 cent/kWh!*

[@sustainableorange]

I am discovering this. 10m is not high enough imo.

[@michaelvanallen6400]

@@sustainableorange But even if you erect an even higher mast: With the same investment of time and money, you can generate at least 10 times more green electricity with more solar modules. This is because module prices have fallen dramatically (€45-85).

[@sustainableorange]

@michaelvanallen6400 100% this is why I have 38 solar panels :) But in the darker days we have wind and I only generated 1.4kwh of solar the whole day on Wednesday of this week!!!

[@michaelvanallen6400]

@@sustainableorange If you have to live off grid, you probably have to have a wind turbine for the winter. A large battery as well. But if you “only” want to generate as much green electricity as possible at low cost, then solar panels are simply unbeatable due to the extreme drop in price.

[@offgridamps]

I've heard some really bad things on Tesup, it shouldn't fail in minus 11 either It's not super extreme temps. Good luck !

[@sustainableorange]

Thanks! I don’t think anything failed (yet) but the temp changes caused screws to back out / loosen. Which caused the sail shaft to become decoupled from the motor spindle.

[@offgridamps]

@@sustainableorange maybe, could also be vibration too? Fingers crossed

[@sustainableorange]

Possibly, but we had almost no wind for 3-4 weeks after it went up but we had -11 to +8C temps repeatedly. Certainly looked like water ingress was part of the issue with the screw threads.

[@offgridamps]

@@sustainableorange id get some loctite or something to stop it happening again or lock nuts if its not just screwed in

[@sustainableorange]

Yep, the plan is swap all the fixings for stainless versions and loctite them in!

[@Thingssimplyfied]

Hello , I am not a spezialist, but for me, it is not a good idea to have all the time a blade with the wind and against the wind, even if it is curved. It is a loss of too much power you get with the wind draft. And another thing: Tesup delete the comments for you tube. Also this , a bad sign for me.

[@randymch]

That wobble is really REALLY worrying and hints of major Tesup product quality issues (as many were/are expecting). It goes without saying, even if the device is eventually capable of some sort of usable output, it'll need mechanically sorting and perfectly straightening/balancing. I've been waiting with bated breath on this one, as I really want this to work for you and I've found the videos extremely enjoyable to watch as I start my wind power journey. Have you reached out to Tesup as all the signs are they're an appalling company as far as support is concerned?

[@sustainableorange]

I have been in dialogue with Tesup, they are also aware of the channel. I’m working with them to see if we can fix this or if something has gone wrong enough for an RMA / replacement unit. I really want this to work too. There’s a lot of negativity online about Tesup but so far they have been in communication quickly and regularly. Next update at the end of this month.

[@nizarnabhan7573]

Thanks & sorry for your hard word & you get nothing you are no. 2 I saw on line had problems with it, you save time and money by seen your troubles I feel sorry for you.

[@Umski]

The claims of 5kW just don’t stack up - it has a blade area of 1m2 which means the theoretical power in the wind at 15m/s is just over 2kW and that’s before the Betz limit of 59.3% so the so-called power curve suggesting 4.2kW at 15m/s is impossible 🤦‍♂️ Seems their marketing folks are doing a pretty good job of scamming people 😕

[@vikrantmane7770]

Right. Power mentioned is not obeying formula which is= 0.5* 0.3 (efficiency ) * 1.05 (density)*area * velosity cube

[@rontuengel5849]

Electric leaf blowers are $30 at Walmart! Make your own wind!

[@deepsudeep]

This really sucks that there is such demand for such products and the company cannot provide a reliable rust free product SMH! And then they will scream when the Chinese come in and take the market

[@sustainableorange]

Agreed, it feels like the market would pay more for a more reliable option if someone could make one with high end premium materials. Price points seem to be either about £1000 or in excess of £5000 and nothing between.

[@davidwebber7733]

Sorry you are now finding out these Tesup turbines are useless

[@sustainableorange]

I’m hopeful that there is a way to getting it working. Don’t worry, I will keep going and sharing until I have a working wind turbine. Be that Tesup or another brand or a DIY one. I think it’s important to share the reality of turbines & how hard they actually are to leverage successfully.

[@goshasmartson]

💛💙🌻🌾🏵️🌺🌼💖👍

[@brendo3526]

Hearing lots of bad things about these Tesup's

[@sharkfinn6469]

This does not look like a sustainable setup from the go 😂

[@sustainableorange]

Can you advise what I can do to improve it?

[@jimthomas1989]

What's wrong is not the Turbine , it's YOU , You didn't balance it !

[@sustainableorange]

Is there a guide somewhere? It wasn’t mentioned in the Tesup documentation, which is what I’m following.

[@jimthomas1989]

@@sustainableorange , when you buy brand new tires and rims you get them balanced , WHY ? Because everything that spins needs balanced , Those blades spins and need balanced , Each one is a different weight no matter how slight , You just mounted car tires , put them on your car and drove off , now you are wondering why there is a vibration as you drive down the road , Those little weights are added to balance the tires and spin smooth , Those blades spins and are not balanced , WHY ? Because all you cared about was driving your car , I mean all you cared about was making electricity . Be sure to weigh each bracket and all nuts and bolts and make sure the same amount of washers and same size washers are on each blade , Then add or subtract washers until each one weighs the same . Remember anything that spins needs balanced or it will vibrate

[@sustainableorange]

Thanks, I was hoping you might have a guide or something to follow that uses a data based approach I could share? The initial purpose of this video series is to follow Tesups advice to the letter and see what the outcome is. There was no advice from them about balancing, although I totally understand why you would.

[@jimthomas1989]

@@sustainableorange , guide or data base ? You really are lost aren't you ? Vertical axis wind turbines and horizontal wind turbines all need balanced , Car tires need balanced , There is NO guide or data base , it's common sense ! And you don't have any ! EVERYTHING that spins needs to be Balanced , there's your guide ! Every Engine in the World is balanced Your car Engine Lawnmower Engine Weedeater Engine Chainsaw Engine Every ELECTRIC motor is Balanced Fan Mixer Drill Hair dryer There's your guide , it's COMMON SENSE !

[@sustainableorange]

Thanks, I understand the concept, I was just hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction. I want to try to maximise the chances of success with the project.

[@Themachinewon]

Tesup sucks, go figure it has a wobble. They use two concentric set screws instead of three on the shaft. Self-induced. The flange bearing is cheap Chinese, it’s so oversized. It’s not centering the shaft of the generator or giving it any type of support. The generator shaft is not cut to the exact size of the turbines center hole. The Turks didn’t size the generator shaft to the turbine shaft, they are depending on the two set screws to keep it from wobbling. Unfortunately, they are on the same axis.

[@sustainableorange]

Yeah this is my experience, the grub screws were not up to the task and the connection should have been keyed in my opinion.