Maybe some higher winds can be used. Probably depends on power loss in light wire.
I’ve got a few carbon rods lying around for the vane lever and the turbine. Blades will either be rigid 3d printed or just fabric in a frame.
Not planning to calculate much. Just make it and see if it works. Might take some time until I get around to it.
Another idea: Kite-light.
Three tethers from ground form a high pyramid. Airgen where they connect, producing energy for light there. Light shines below. Super fast errection of a lit workspace.
Probably unsuitable for things like the scene of a traffic accident, but there might be applications… ice fishing?
Very superficial comparison. Luke’s concept is a flygen VAWT, not a groundgen looping-foil HAWT. Tether tripods is a rich subject best distinguished carefully.
“Least useful AWES” would be those that do not work well, at great expense and complexity. If AWE is an urgent quest, this is a “Least useful” topic.
What this AWES rig teaches is COTS TRL9 crosswind power kite use by short-line proportions and “staked-out” geometry. These elements combine in topological stability. The kite cannot then find a formally mathematical braid or knot state to fail in. On the EV side, the single wheel itself is a historic advance, if less is truly more. The fact that we have two small kite EVs going (skateboard and unicycle), with regen braking, and so little fuss, confirms the Revolution is here.
Let the Philistines laugh, these two hacks are incredibly educational of future AWE practice. Wind, kite, traction, motor/battery load, and EV capability all come together cheaply and simply. Children do it, right off the bat. The avid pilot soon learns essentials not found in any AWE text that can be cited, like secrets of thermal management, ESC/ABS parameters, and countless operational research discoveries.
A post has just been censored here suggesting the M600/AP3 class of early AWES may prove more truly “least useful” than the little kite EVs.
Free technical speech is being harmed. Both author and readers are cheated.
It should quialify well in the «least useful AWE» category. I’m impressed that you were able to balance that thing in those winds. Still sermed like you had a lot of fun.
The thing missing from a unicycle or a skateboard would be the ability to slide downwind before getting up to speed. A twintip board or a snowboard would have this ability, also I guess skis (though I dont use those).
I believe the lack of sliding ability and the inherent difficulty of balancing a unicycle puts this out of reach for most humans…
If you want to adapt it to a more snowboard style… bit more expensive… try these https://onewheel.com/products
The lack of a good smooth, wide open road surface was our main challenge…
Apart from the buffeting gusty wind and the fact the lines snapped.
Yea, it’s good fun.
Sold as an amusement challenge… Can you make a +ve charge ride? This could maybe become a profitable AWES thing.
Most useful AWES.
That got me thinking, in the spirit of the topic, if you put two steering wheels on a kite buggy maybe you’d have the simplest AWE system ever, apart from an actual kite buggy. The extra steering wheel would be for the kite, which you could, if the manual controlled version seemed to be working, automate, and perhaps do away with the extra steering wheel again.
Then if you’re feeling ambitious, put a regenerative braking system and batteries on it, maybe convert it to a (hydrofoil) boat, and have it go around autonomously.
You can make an RC version to cheaply experiment with the automatic kite control, or first just attach it to the ground and measure pull.
OK, let’s not get carried away… This wasn’t much of a success… There is occasional generation… We definitely used up more power on the day as it was not very practical to generate and the amount made was small.
The sort line kite setup was weak and despite being held widely , because it was close to ground turbulence, the kite often twisted round. This was a very kind video edit.
A few seconds looking at the unedited version gave…
If this was a useful AWES it would be exploiting the Airborne advantages and properties of AWES
Going to be done better on a long line test day… Or a similar day with stronger lines.
