My first Inventor project

[billjenkins]

Hello,

I recently completed my first project. I posted it on YouTube today and mentioned Autodesk Inventor a few times because I think it is excellent software. I took an introductory class and after about 3 months I had completed my project to the level I wanted to take it. If you’re interested, you can find the video on YouTube by typing Wind Gin in the search window. The short version is only 2m24s.

Happy Earth Day and Thanks for the help you gave me on this forum.

Bill J.

[CrAzY-MiKe]

I look forward to seeing it this evening. Unfortunately for me, our IT dept. has blocked access to YouTube. I will have to check it out from home. 😞

[Anonymous]

Excellent Concepts and execution! Now to test your model in
Simulation.

--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified
Expert
Autodesk Manufacturing Implementation Certified
Expert.
Instructor/Author/Sr. App Engr. Tel. (260) 399-6615
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AMD 64 x2 3.0 Ghz, 8GB RAM GeForce 9800GT 512MB

XP Pro SP3, Windows XP Silver Theme

href="http://teknigroup.com">http://teknigroup.com

[markc-uk]

Just watched the full video. Very , very impressive especially for having used the software for a mere three months.

[AlexFielder]

It is an impressive design. 🙂

It reminds me in fact of something I've long thought about - have any of you seen the film Pitch Black?

Granted, it is typical science fiction-fare, with one exception: they have what seem to be solar sails contained within a glass bubble and subsequently tied to a generator.

If the "wings" in your design were made of very thin gold (to keep the weight to an absolute minimum) and the glass bubble contained a vacuum, could these not be made to generate electricity from the light emitted by the sun? (granted, it would probably need some sort of magnetic bearing to reduce friction)

In much the same way that scientists (had) planned to use a Solar sail to propel a spacecraft.

(I read about this planned attempt years ago, but didn't realise until today that the payload never made it into orbit)

Edited by: vegbruiser on May 28, 2009 1:02 PM - Fixed the link. Edited by: vegbruiser on May 28, 2009 1:05 PM

[pauldoubet]

Bill,

I saw your original post at the time and wondered if your concept was similar to a design I helped refine about ten years ago. Today I looked at your short video on You Tube and would say that it is the same concept as one that was patented by Charles Pratt then of Estes Park, CO. However the patent drawing of his concept is quite crude in my opinion. Your model of the concept is quite refined and very impressive. Keep up the great work. If you are not aware of the patent you might search the uspto.gov site and read the patent.

Good Luck, Paul

[billjenkins]

Hello,

I appreciate the comments. I’m happy to see some interest here! The videos show the basic concept well enough but the original drawings are much more detailed. I would like to offer my drawings to anyone who is serious about designing a wind turbine that will produce more power at lower wind speeds. I’m not sure how to do this except via mail. You can send me a personal message if you are interested. I also have some general thoughts that go past the drawings. For casual viewers, go to YouTube and type in Wind Gin.

I’m sure an engineer could perform stress analysis and answer many of the basic questions I have and many that I have not thought of.

Regarding patents; I would like to see the patent mentioned. I did a quick and lazy search and did not find it. If you have a patent number or a link, please send it to me. I feel that many refinements would occur if anyone took this to a higher level and then they could decide to patent it or not.

Thank You,
Bill Jenkins

[pauldoubet]

Bill,

How time flies, it was actually in 1997 when I worked on this. The patent number is 5570997. Below is a link resulting from the search I did using the patent number. For some reason searching on full names on that site does not work very well. I could not even find my own patents using my full name in any combination.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=5570997.PN.&OS=PN/5570997&RS=PN/5570997

Here is a link for one of my patents which most of you have seen and some of you probably own:

http://patimg2.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=05596980&homeurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpatft.uspto.gov%2Fnetacgi%2Fnph-Parser%3FSect1%3DPTO2%2526Sect2%3DHITOFF%2526p%3D1%2526u%3D%25252Fnetahtml%25252FPTO%25252Fsearch-bool.html%2526r%3D3%2526f%3DG%2526l%3D50%2526co1%3DAND%2526d%3DPTXT%2526s1%3DDoubet.INNM.%2526OS%3DIN%2FDoubet%2526RS%3DIN%2FDoubet&PageNum=&Rtype=&SectionNum=&idkey=NONE&Input=View+first+page

WOW, hope that one works, Paul Edited by: pauldoubet on May 28, 2009 11:34 AM

[billjenkins]

Thanks Paul,

I would like to see the patent of yours that you provided a link for. That was a long address and unfortunately it only brought up a blank screen. I was able to view the text portion of the wind turbine you had worked on but again I could not view the drawings. I'm not sure if the problem is on my end or if special rights are required to view patent drawings and photos.

I'm curious, what ever happened with the wind turbine patent? Was a prototype built? I'm not sure if any serious/expensive prototypes have ever been attempted using a leverage based system like this. Someone probably has but I've never seen it. I was hoping that an experienced Inventor user would take on this project and form some conclusions using the digital prototype method.

The arms which I call struts were intentionally designed short to give the initial stress test a better chance but my hope was that the strut length could be increased to provide more torque. I added some favorites to my YouTube Wind Gin site that shows dramatic stress forces being applied to modern sailplane wings.

Bottom Line; Autodesk Inventor is a great. I was able to take something that only I could imagine and bring it into a moving 3D world for others to draw ideas from.

Bill

[pauldoubet]

Bill,

Try this link for the text only on my patent:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=3&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=Doubet.INNM.&OS=IN/Doubet&RS=IN/Doubet

I think you need to have the Quick Time Player installed to view the drawings/pictures.

I am not sure what testing was done on the prototype for the wind turbine patent. I did have a set of blades fabricated for the inventor and I assembled and shipped them to someone who was supposed to be testing them. I could check into this further if you are interested in knowing more details.

Paul

[pauldoubet]

Bill,

I did a quick search to see if I could find the contact info for the patent and I have additional info if you want to email me at pauldoubet at sbcglobal.net

Paul

[billjenkins]

I would like suggestions on finding an engineer capable of doing stress analysis of my concept designs for the Wind Gin Project. I was kind of thinking that someone here might be able to do it or maybe a college CAD class might be willing to do it. It seems to me that Autodesk Inventor has the capability to determine the structural concerns as well as the torque that would be produced.

If you would like the details of my wind turbine concept, please view the following YouTube links.

Long Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXCguElUR3M

Short Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpE5qQVSP5I

Or just type TheWindGinProject into the YouTube search window.

Thank You,
Bill Jenkins

[billjenkins]

I have added some explanations to the Wind Gin Long Version.

Thank You,
Bill Jenkins

[billjenkins]

Hello, I have uploaded a new low speed wind turbine simulation. Thanks, Bill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g_lCQyvrtA

[billjenkins]

I have uploaded a new video. This is my second upload in the last week. Thanks for your interest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F61xwoDjSwE

[Anonymous]

hey

My name is Parth.I just went over your post. Currently I am working on Wind turbin project in my one of my classes and just wondering if you would like to share your drawings with me. That would be a great help.

My email id is-parth.shah1053@gmail.com

[billjenkins]

Here is a link to my newest design. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2KJnT5jQng

Thanks,

Bill

[billjenkins]

Hi,

I have uploaded a new wind turbine concept project. The basic details can be found in the written description. Thanks, Bill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPuRIovRoBI

[Anonymous]

Very nice!

[billjenkins]

Thanks!

I try to improve my CAD skills by taking on wild concept projects.

I wonder, is there much demand for CAD designers? I also wonder if my skills are up to par and what I need to concentrate on. I still don’t have a handle on the “condition” option in the input graph of dynamic simulation. I have to create a timing graph which is not exact but close enough for my concepts. I use Inventor 2009. Also, I sure could use a wind tunnel add on. HA!

I lost at least 15% of the video quality by the time I made individual videos and finally uploaded to YouTube. The simulations run clear and smooth in Inventor. I use Camtasia Studio to produce videos.

Bill