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A portable kite turbine, tested on the field and that is a finished product, not a prototype. 24V DC, 100 watts guaranteed with 25 km/h winds, a very conservati

A portable kite turbine, tested on the field and that is a finished product, not a prototype. 24V DC, 100 watts guaranteed with 25 km/h winds, a very conservative estimate https://kitewinder.fr/ https://kitewinder.fr/

Kaibeezy 5y ago
Nice! Basic description: Parasail kite with a small bladed turbine hanging off it. 100 Watts, 4.5 kg, no tools to assemble. €900 is not cheap, but the price should come down eventually.
- marmakoide 5y ago
  I seat the office next to the team of people who designed it and who are currently producing it. Cost is mostly because of the current low production volume : they can't buy full containers of screws, bearings, motors, they can;t order thousands of injection molded parts. They assemble it themselves. They make the control board mostly themselves, apart from the PCB which is made in China. They also produce the plastic (molded resin I think) and metal parts (we have a big CNC mill) themselves, so they can handle low production volumes without a big upfront investment. They recently tested it on the Brittany coast under heavy winds, it did fine. It was tested a lot on Aquitaine coast.
  - Kaibeezy 5y ago
    That all sounds so familiar. I was involved with design and low-volume production of a complex optical assembly long before AliExpress. We tried using surplus lenses and prisms, which were practically free compared to new or custom stuff, but the inability to standardize was ultimately more costly in terms of re-engineering, searching for parts, etc. Balancing all that out was an ongoing challenge. I remember finding a factory in India that could make us prisms at a very reasonable price and it was a huge relief. They came in individual handmade pasteboard (cheap frangible cardboard with surface layers of very thin paper) boxes with hand-lettered labels glued on. Old school. I think these will be very appealing for campers, off-grid, emergency and other backup situations when they can hit a somewhat lower price. I understand solar panel costs are dropping, but it isn't always sunny everywhere!

Kaibeezy 5y ago

Nice! Basic description: Parasail kite with a small bladed turbine hanging off it. 100 Watts, 4.5 kg, no tools to assemble. €900 is not cheap, but the price should come down eventually.

marmakoide 5y ago
I seat the office next to the team of people who designed it and who are currently producing it. Cost is mostly because of the current low production volume : they can't buy full containers of screws, bearings, motors, they can;t order thousands of injection molded parts. They assemble it themselves. They make the control board mostly themselves, apart from the PCB which is made in China. They also produce the plastic (molded resin I think) and metal parts (we have a big CNC mill) themselves, so they can handle low production volumes without a big upfront investment. They recently tested it on the Brittany coast under heavy winds, it did fine. It was tested a lot on Aquitaine coast.
- Kaibeezy 5y ago
  That all sounds so familiar. I was involved with design and low-volume production of a complex optical assembly long before AliExpress. We tried using surplus lenses and prisms, which were practically free compared to new or custom stuff, but the inability to standardize was ultimately more costly in terms of re-engineering, searching for parts, etc. Balancing all that out was an ongoing challenge. I remember finding a factory in India that could make us prisms at a very reasonable price and it was a huge relief. They came in individual handmade pasteboard (cheap frangible cardboard with surface layers of very thin paper) boxes with hand-lettered labels glued on. Old school. I think these will be very appealing for campers, off-grid, emergency and other backup situations when they can hit a somewhat lower price. I understand solar panel costs are dropping, but it isn't always sunny everywhere!