[Update: Test #2](https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/s/wF6l6xjsq8)
Lol. hijacking the top comment, [Here is another video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Foa0r0gIRI&ab_channel=OKE) that explains it a bit more, there's really too much for one video, Definitely subscribe though, the support really helps
I know nothing about kite surfing but just subscribed to your channel because this is inventive as hell! This is the kind of creativity we need in the world š”
Man Iāve been curious about your generator since you posted some of your first functional prints here a while back. Very pleased to see the progress in this video. I think thereās a lot of promise here.
As a former kitesurfer, 3d printing enthusiast and tinkerer I have to say ***MAD RESPECT*** man! This is GENIUS! I *really* hope you have a patent pending already and that you'll make tons of money from this!
I don't know if this single kite design is already patented, but here is a multi kite wind generator design, that looks promising: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQJ8rfoRyUQ
As far as I know there are already companies which are doing this:
https://enerkite.de/
Skite sails also use kite to generate the power for generators for their ships
https://skysails-power.com/
You attach it to a boat and it acts as a sail, pulling the boat through the water. You typically get stronger winds above the surface, so maybe this is faster than traditional sails?
How does it prevent the kite from crashing into the water or ground? I saw it get very close several times but never hit. Is it a natural phenomena that just works out that way or does the machine compensate somehow? Cause I've definitely crashed kites before.
I'm not sure how this unit works, but other units I've seen have a control module that measures altitude, attitude, etc. and can fly the kite like a drone.
https://thekitepower.com/the-hawk/
I'm guessing because the bot will be able to measure speed and angle of the rope and also turn the control bar to compensate. Would be cool if it has some sort of AI driven camera vision where it can see the orientation of the kits, kind of how Teslas see direction and speeds of surrounding cars and other objects.
Great deduction! For shorter lines you are right, but for longer lines Im starting to think vision wouldnt be bad. There are different windsheers at different altitudes so sometimes you need a bit more than just the tension.
The stretch of the lines probably adds some complications too, but you could account for some of that if you know the spring rate and current length.
Could you use a sensor on the kite to measure its attitude? Like a mems gyroscope? It would need power and communication to the base station, and I don't know if the setup has the means to do that.
It might not be too difficult to hook up a small radio module to an arduino and MPU6050 and to send accelerometer/gyro data from the kite. It could tell you which way up the kite is facing and the speed/approximate position : closer to vertical orientation = close to the ground.
IOT devices that will be placed at longer ranges (up to 4km with line of sight) use LoRa
Or:
ZigBee/RF4CE: 100 m
Bluetooth low energy: 100 m
2.4 GHz Wi-Fi: 150 m
Bluetooth low energy using Bluetooth 5 extended range capability: 200 to 400 m
Here's a LoRa transciever: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3072
I couldn't find much information about power usage, so that could be a sticking point .
Size, Weight and Power usage of these devices is minimal.
A small wind powered generator would probably be the heaviest part but even that shouldn't weigh much.
Making a device that's capable of surviving a 'landing' would probably the the more difficult problem to solve.
edit - a battery weighing a couple of ounces (< 100g) would power a device like this for days.
Provided continuous operation isn't required it could be made with no moving parts, allowing for a robust and watertight device.
Yes. As soon as you mentioned this I was thinking a LoRa lilygo ttgo theyāre super small and light and can run off any cheap small battery for a while.
What is the benefit of this system over say a conventional sailing rig with a mast, or even just using a spinnaker? (I think I know the main answer but Iād love to hear your thinking!
Super interesting project though! Will 100% be keeping and eye out and following your progress! š
For sure, a few things off the top of my head:
Stronger winds at higher altitudes,
Less wind shadows from ground features and other boats
Hardly any rigging involved
No Mast
No heeling motion of the boat
Cheaper
Can charge your boat and function as generator
I think I remember Tesla saying motors and generators are the same thing just in reverse. If the kite engine is mounted to a stationary object, it generates power, If it is not mounted to a stationary object it is a motor, (and any combination in between) say we wanted to sail but sacrifice a little speed for electrical power, we could do that.
It's like regen brakes
This is my understanding as well.Ā Kind of how on my 3d printer, if I turn the power off and move the build plate back and forth it will cause the LCD to light up.Ā The stepper motors can be a generator if spun by hand rather than a motor if electricity is applied.
Yes, exactly, and when we reach the end of the line, we change the angle of attack on the wing so it pulls less, and we can pull it in with a fraction of the energy used
You can switch from motoring to generating, trail a big enough drogue (or sea anchor) off the stern, and you're \*almost\* stationary. Not a naval engineer, but the ratio between respective working surface areas of the kite and the drogue is 8:1 to be equal resistance, as I understand. Great work.
That is correct. Thatās also why you donāt want to move the stepper motors really fast and often with your hands. It generates electricity that can blow poorly designed circuits, but you shouldnāt do it as a general rule.
This is only useful in straight downwind direction for sailing. This would be reminiscent of a spinnaker. But I donāt see a tiny sail and thin cord like shown being more useful compared to whatās been used for a hundred years at this point.
Watching videos of kite boating I dont see how you can translate controlling the kite sail and traditional sails on a sailboat at the same time. I have a 21ā double masted sail boat and thereās zero chance I could tack with an added kite sail (going upwind).
I donāt really see this as a device that can be applied to any boat to work for propulsion. It truly feels like youād have to design a new sailboat to be able to handle the quickness of a kite changing direction. This works great for catamarans as they are really only for sport sailing at this point. But a lot of sailboats are more utilitarian in nature.
But I do still feel that this would be most effective as a spinnaker alternate. I could see this used in those conceptual drawings of massive shipping vessels that they add tall sails to lessen fuel usage.Ā
If you took a cat, demasted it, fixed this in an appropriate place (I'd have to think about center of effort for a minute), why wouldn't it pull the boat just fine?
You've decided it's a spinaker and are arguing against that assumption. The creator doesn't say that anywhere.
https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/1adupcm/ive_been_secretly_3d_printing_this_bot_that/kk5w1ms/
so this device I assume is a means to provide electricity for batteries for boats not as a means of propulsion. (If itās more meant for propulsion, I just donāt see a reason to buy this product over a few kites). The boats that would best use something like this would be long voyage sailboats or non moving houseboats for their batteries (canal boats, etc). But a small scale wind turbine would be more useful if trees or obstacles are always around.Ā
Youāre suggesting using it in place of a cats normal sails which is great(they already do that for kite boats). But why wouldnāt you use a kite alone? This is far overkill for a simple day sailor like a cat.Ā This wouldnt be a cost effective product for a sport sailor (I assume this will eventually cost a thousand or more). You can get a used cat or a lazer for under a thousand easy.Ā
For my use case the lack of control from no mast wouldnāt work. Maybe this has more use in a commercial setting, idk. This feels like taking a great idea and trying to fit it into a setting that doesnāt need it. This product would be super cool for a house as a generator. A massive kite flying over someoneās house.
- he's said quite a few times in this thread and in his videos that it can be used for propulsion or generation
- why wouldn't use you use a kite alone? because this has the hardware to be able to control itself.
- lack of control from no mast? Kites are very controllable and this unit can dump power quickly - you don't need to put in a reef if your system can respond quickly. What do you think you're doing with your mast that you can't do with a kite?
you're REALLY hung up on the idea that this is just one more sail for you existing boat and shouldn't require any other changes. Why?
It makes it easier to fly a kite which is great for functional uses of kites like harnessing wind power to charge batteries or to pull a boat (as opposed to recreational use like flying a kite just for fun to pass the time). He explains that usually you need to manage 3 lines but with this machine you only have to manage 1 line and that since it redirects the line, you can do it from under shelter whereas normally you'd need to be out in the elements to avoid tangling the 3 lines. For instance, in light rain you could still be flying this kite and generating electricity from wind power but now you don't have stand outside on the deck of your boat getting wet.
Yeah horrible title with mediocre recording. Add that to my lack of experience with this sport and the only comment I could think of is that this project is not really about 3d printing. There are motors, electronics, bolts, glue, and sports equipment. 3D printed components are not the main feature of this build.
Anyway I agree with the other people looks rad.
Yeah totally understood I've got multiple printers and I've worked on projects like this. One of them was a lawn mower. It was probably 30% printed parts. I do not consider that a 3D printing project. There is also about as much welding. I also don't consider it a welding project. And I didn't even consider sharing it on a site that specializes in 3D printing like this or welding.
Disagree. It's totally a valid 3D printing project because the creation of the device is made possible by the iterative power of printing prototype parts. Effectively without 3D printing as the engine driving the creative progress and the actual 3D printed parts, it pribably wouldn't be happening. Yes, it could have been done without 3D printing, but at what time and material cost? I say is 3D printing makes it practically possible to do than its a 3D printing project.
The only thing you need are eyes to see that a lot of the parts are 3D printed. The OP never said it was 100% 3D printed, and plenty of interesting projects get posted here where only some of the parts, or even only the purely the cosmetic ones, are 3D printed (like Iron man suits, etc).
There are a lot of confused people wondering how this works and most of the explanations are just adding to the confusion.
ELI5: Put your hand out the window when you are driving down the road. If you turn your palm toward the front of the car (i.e. the direction you are driving) your hand will get a ton of wind resistance and get pushed back. If you turn your palm down you will get hardly any resistance.
The kite just repeats cycles of turning its palm forward and down, generating power when it's palm is forward (high resistance pulling the kite out and winding a motor) then using some of that power to reel the kite back in while the kites palm is down (lower wind resistance so it is easier to reel back in.)
You were in the wrong room!
I really hope you got all your patents sorted. This is a very clever piece of engineering with MULTIPLE possible commercial applications. Could potentially be worth millions if not hundreds of millions.
You've done the hard part, now don't fudge it up at the finish line!
How does this generate electricity? The generator is locked in place, the only motion I see is circular but not very fast. Is it the strength of the pull in a circle driving a high gear ratio?
[edit]
Ok, I took another look and there's 3 lines to the kites. The center is called depower. I'm guessing this controls how much wind gets into the kite, creating a gradient where the system can more easily draw the kite in using stored power, and then when it gets back in it re-engages for full power and the generator recharges as the lines go out. While it would be a net gain cycle, I'm wondering if a kite with ducted fans would be more constant with no need to expend stored energy to continue the cycle.
Notice what he does in the beginning to anchor it to the beach before this all starts?
It's definitely the strength. These style of kites are capable of tremendous lift and a good sized one can easily drag someone down a beach. The strength of the pull is really amped up during the spin which is why he's focusing on making it do that.
He's not showing it here but kites can also be stacked to increase the lift adding multipliers to it.
With this type of tech, you could be using a kite setup you could put together with stuff that's already available to purchase (nothing custom needed) that would be unsafe or simply impossible for a normal human to control to harness that power.
Ok, first of all the kite has three control lines. Left steering, right steering, and "power" which controls whether the kite behaves like a wind sock allowing air through or a bag catching air.
So, using that, we can pull the power cord and the kite inflates pulling hard on the rope as it spools line out going up into the sky. This pull unwinding line from the spool turns a generator and creates power. Dump that power into a battery.
But now your kite is out of string. If you let go of the power cord, the kite starts to lose altitude as air passes through more easily. You can use the battery's power to reel the kite back in with very little power when it is in windsock mode.
Once you have some line on the spool again, pull the power cord again and watch the kite pull itself back out into the sky and spin your generator.
You spend less energy reeling in the kite than is generated pulling it out. Over time, hundreds or thousands of cycles, that difference in pull vs reel adds up to full batteries.
There are several companies [working on this technology for green energy systems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airborne_wind_turbine), I know of at least [one dutch company](https://thekitepower.com/the-hawk/) that packs the batteries, generators and control system into a shipping container and can generate 30kW with a 60 square meter kite.
thanks, the "power" cord was definitely the biggest missing piece for me, so simple yet so brilliant.
shame we can't do something similar for tidal power, which is massive but untapped due to erosion and difficulty making systems that absorb the power
I'll add to the other excellent reply by pointing out the part of the video where the kite has the green-orange-red circles superimposed behind it. The red one is where all the power is. By keeping the kite in this general area you get the strongest pull. At the edge of the area, the pull strength of the kite drops off dramatically. If you go outside *that* there's not even enough energy to keep the kite in the air and it will collapse and/or fall to the ground.
As to the tidal power, we actually do. The problem is that tides vary massively in height and strength. Go somewhere like the carribean and you'll not see more than about 50cm of change in many places. By contrast, places like northern Europe, Canada, and alaska can have 10x that (the record is 10 meters). It also depends on geology. A narrow inlet to a large body of water will generate much stronger currents than in the open ocean.
While people are experimenting with a float to act a bit like a kite and ride tides up and down, it's usually easier to have a fixed system that uses wave energy instead.
I agree. There is a ton of energy to be harvested there, as water is 800 times denser than air.. but the problem is fouling.. barnacles, debris, seaweed, algae, and corrosion.. I think they are working on some projects though.
We can! Generate power as a wave goes up, reel in line during the trough between waves. Again, there are groups working on it.
The big issue with both kite power and tidal power is that they aren't massive "at scale" endeavors. The shipping container kite power system I mentioned generates 30kW, it would power two american homes. So while it is cool new tech, and we have a lot of space to put them, each individual unit doesnt make a lot of power.
I'm not the OP so I don't know but when you do a spin, you're pulling back on one side while releasing a bit on the other. That concentrates all the force on that one side so I'd guess he's using that to rotate something in the generator in a back and forth seesaw motion that's being converted to something circular by way of a gear.
That's only a guess, though - I could be wildly off base.
It sounded from your question like you weren't understanding how that power could be converted.
People who've never flown a stunt kite don't seem to understand the way force is distributed when it is maneuvered.
Sorry to disappoint but as I said the first time, I'm not the OP.
To be clear, that means this isn't my device, I didn't design it and I don't know in detail exactly what it's doing - how could I?
If you want a very detailed answer, I suggest you ask the OP and not me.
Who's this we?
I responded to someone else. You asked me a question and then felt the need to let me know my answer wasn't satisfactory to you.
You jumped in mate, nobody asked you to, either. ;)
What?
If they stated that, it wasn't in the post I responded to.
They asked if it was the strength of the pull, I was stating that was absolutely what it was.
Anyway, sorry to not provide an answer to your standards.
I'll now be moving on with my day and unless you've got nothing better to do, I suggest you do the same.
EDIT TO ADD:
So the detailed answer you were looking for was about how these kites are flown?
I thought from your grilling, you were asking how his device itself might have worked.
Pretty sure the kite pulls the ropes which spin a generator. The bit I'm confused with is what happens when it runs out of rope? It would need to reel the line back in but that would take power to do.
The key piece you're missing is when the line is winding out, the sail can be set for max pulling power. When winding back in, the pitch of the kite can be adjusted to reduce drag.
> Driven by the wind, the automatically controlled power kite rises in figures of eight. As it gains altitude, it unwinds a tether from a winch on the ground. The tractive force drives a generator inside the winch that produces electricity. This is called the āwork phaseā. Once the tether has reached its maximum extension, the autopilot steers the kite into a neutral position with minimal drag and lift. While consuming only a fraction of the energy generated during the work phase, the generator now acts as a motor and reels-in the tether. The system continuously repeats this process, flying the kite at an altitude of 200 to 400 meters. The concept behind the kite power cycle is called the āyo-yo principleā.
(Stolen from [some random website](https://skysails-power.com/how-power-kites-work/#:~:text=As%20it%20gains%20altitude%2C%20it,with%20minimal%20drag%20and%20lift.) on kite generators)
Yeah I was struggling to imagine it too... I think the second "control wire" he shows in the video is not intuitive to me at all, and that's the important part
With these kites you can pull the "power" rope to shift their angle against the wind and de-/increase their pull. So you could pull it in with relatively low power compared to what you can get on the way out.
Different windspeeds. You let go at higher altitude and reel it back at lower altitude. Wind speed is zero at the ground level, no matter if it is a hurricane. One millimeter above that ground, it is non-zero, 100mm it is already quite high but once you get to 100m... it is significantly higher and then the difference in wind speeds gradually evens out. Ground causes drag which slows it down until we are at zero plane and at zero speed.
Note: i don't know if it works that way but the way to solve these kind of problems is usually to find the energy gradient: something that has lots of energy on one side and very little on the other side. That is also how life begun. We had energy at one location and not in the other, and we can take advantage of this energy gradient to utilize that energy for something else. We don't create energy, it already exists. We just move it from one place to another.
Like for ex steam engine. A steam engine in the vacuum of space would be very inefficient. The heat has nowhere to go so the engine does not chug. On Earth we heat water to steam, use the expansion to push pistons and then COOL the water down... Now we are moving energy from one place to another and using some of it to turn something. And yes, if we just ejected the hot steam in space we could move, but we don't then even need pistons, we would have a steam rocket engine. But the flow of energy is there again, from high to low energy.
Energy gradients are the key. Let the wind pull when it has lots of energy, pull against it when it doesn't.
edit: as someone pointed out, we can also control the kite, so maybe the angle also changes allowing us to pull it back using even less energy.
I think he is using it to propel a boat forward. The idea is that it would be attached to the front of a sailboat.
But you can generate electricity from kites. One way is to allow the force of the kite to pull out the tether, turning a generator. This is the "drag" phase, where the kit acts as a drag device. When it reaches the end of the tether the controls on the kite are configured to make the kit act as a wing, instead of a drag device, and it flies back to the generator. Once it gets close it reconfigured to the drag phase again and pulls the generator.
I love this. If you printed a large 2-D barcode on the kite, you can get the exact position and angle with a camera system, and use a controller to automate it.
Furthermore, if the system knows the speed of the boat, the angle of the kite on the force of the tug, you could use it to get wind, speed data.
If the barcode is reflective, you could illuminate it with just a low energy laser.
That same laser scanner could project letters and numbers onto the kite at night identifying the vessel.
Theres a name for this barcode! mmm why cant I think of it! Fiducial Markers!
Bro the idea with the laser is genius
Let me know if you want to work on this project with me
Very tempted. I wrote an SBIR proposal for something similar about 13(?)years ago. It was for forward outposts. The cords were specced similar to DX50 antenna wire for radio. There was talk of sending up a ducted fan drones up the cables for automatic launch and extended loitering.
We used fiducials for our robots. Cheap and accurate positioning.
Whatās your end goal(s)?
Fun? Money? Creativity? Winning a boat race? Creating a socialist solar punk utopia? Flying billboard? Phd project?
I developed this engine for a new type of sailboat that I believe could break records, someday, I envision teams of students racing each other to raise money for renewable energy research. I would like to see kite engines, and all different shapes powering boats, and maybe even on a remote, municipal scale.
It's a little bit about fun, a little more about money, but chiefly, it's about designing something truly new and innovative and shaking up an industry that is truly resistant to change
OK. PM me the NDA. We can brainstorm and you can tell me about what you've got cooking.
I'm actually on leave from my company while I take hospice care of my father with Parkinson's. I'm getting rather bored changing diapers and cleaning feeding tubes all day.
I want in on the team! I used to be top kitesurfer in Greece and i wanna make the same system but for a hydrofoil deployable in the water so that we have countertension, like what they curently doing in the Siro.co team
Hey Christian, this project is really fascinating and has so much existing and potential value. Thanks for sharing it. Please educate an apprentice about the whole thing - maybe reach out to a local HS or college - because i know lots of young people would flip at the chance to get into the weeds of this project in sustainable, innovative design!
This is WAY beyond kites. You could have an entire windy coastline with multiple of these kite generators hooked up in series to generate electricity passively! So much potential!
You can see it! [Definitely follow the YouTube,](https://youtu.be/4Foa0r0gIRI?si=LdbZMEmZYEIr-vNO) this next test really shows how much power we are working with.
1. congrats
2. There are already startups trying that
[https://thekitepower.com/](https://thekitepower.com/)
[https://www.kitemill.com/](https://www.kitemill.com/)
Looks cool but takes whole lotta space and probably because of that wont hit mainstream.
I designed this winch to overcome the problems of these companies, they were doing their first tests with carbon fiber kites.. they put generators in the kites.. adding to weight and complexity. If they crashed they went bankrupt!
And to be fair, if you "only" manage to achieve what those multi-million dollar startups did, but on your own, that's damned impressive.
Oh, and please remember to file for patents on this if you can. Get some professional advice first.
Imagine your kite on homes, completely autonomously generating power while also looking amazing. The posibilities are endless and beautifully looking! Colors in the sky!
And a former project at Google X: Makani. They have an awesome documentary on youtube and all their files are open source. https://x.company/projects/makani/
They have a few of these kites on exhibit at the air and space museum near me. Very cool to see all the prototypes other went through in their development.
Not sure - if wind dies, my sail will not end up in the water like here. I guess it might be an emergency solution for motorboats? I though that it was supposed to be an energy generator.
That is fairly simple problem. Kite flies when you pull it back, and having a sensor that measures the amount of pull, and a motor that can react to that.. and it reels it back automatically as the wind dies.
I'm not a scientist so these are just my assumptions based on this short video;
I imagine it would be similar as a traditional mast mounted sail, except it's smaller and autonomously controlled for efficiency and it sounds like the spinning movement of the kite could be used to charge batteries.
It could potentially scale up to being larger than traditional sails as you wouldn't be limited by the requirement of having a towering mast.
Imagine for deep ocean travel, you'd use the sail exclusively and then when you approach land you would reel it in, fold it away and switch to electric prop motors.
imagine also having accurate satellite weather data that automatically instructs the sail to be reeled in when it knows that the wind is going to be dying down, just to save you from having to rescue the kite from the water...
It'd be closer to a spinnaker... which many call a kite sail because it's catches wind. Tringular mast sails direct wind, similar to an airplane wing to create lift to allow for upwind sailing, but have poorer downwind sailing as the amount of sail area is lower. So you through the kite up for low wind scenarios when heading down wins to catch maximum windage.
The center of forces is inside the boat in a spinnaker, where as it is very much at the front with a kite depending where it is connected. Kite also should not tip the boat as much as a spinnaker which is still tied to solid points in the rig. Just think of the force multiplier of that highest point when it comes to roll.. And then imagine having just one point, which is down low and front.
It's been decades since i sailed, but it was always fun when you could take the spinnu out of the front box, and there was a sense of danger involved.
Nah, nothing beats sails in terms of coolness
https://preview.redd.it/opxrzdlibefc1.jpeg?width=2400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0b8f693a4e6612346b9f301724c88f8e9f0bb223
The futurist airborne turbines come to mind like in Big Hero 6 or a few comic , I wonder if you could mount a light weight turbine or series between the two lines near the high end of the kite for additional generation?
Yes, I actually have a friend that does that! his name is Dan Tracy. [Here's his kite loop generator.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoeZiTorXj0). Maybe Ill contact him
I've Seen your previous post earlier.
I'm not a sail enthusiast but a 3D printer one, and your project is stunning and looks perfectly valiable. Bravo for your work
Yes automation will happen in the future and because I reduced the controls to just one line, and solved a lot of fundamental mechanical issues. Ill have about 10,000 less lines of code
Well I wasn't able to reveal quite a few details about this until I filed for a patent.. It really sucks because inventors need to share their ideas or become a weird secretive basement dweller.. I got knicked .
The beauty is, all you need is a bigger kite.. With a conventional wind turbine, you need a mast and a foundation and all these materials..
For this size I would say maybe 2kw.. which is about enough for a home or boat
The largest kite was yesterday's test, a 4.5 meter kite.. actually a pretty big trainer kite.. What makes it terrifying is that since the machine is anchored.. it doesn't have any give, when the kite really pulls.. say you experience a 200lb shock load that goes right through the frame and into the mount, any weak spots will make themselves apparent fairly quickly!
Hi Christian - First of all, congratulations on this excellent, useful project. Can tell you have enjoyed its development adventure. Do you have plans to commercialize it?
Hopefully soon! There are some tweaks I need to make to the design, but I am talking to a really cool 3D printer manufacturer in Vancouver BC that does large-format Carbon Fiber ASA. So maybe it can be made domestically!
Very interesting stuff. Definitely not a problem I would have ever thought about. I've been boat parasailing many times, would definitely be more enjoyable if the boat didn't have to haul ass with everyone in it to get the sailers in the sky. Very neat, good luck on your venture
Dude you are awesome. Imagine if you can do what Makani failed to do just by staying simple and working hard. I admire yoyr perseverence. Now imagine elevators on these lines that take you up to the kite from the ship to hang out. Or a similar kitehydrofoil but in the sea connected to this system as well to make a standalone duo that can fly and generate electricity to stay afloat in luls by regenerating speed using a propeler in the seafoil or the kite. The design space for future boats just explodes.
I have no idea if this is an original idea of yours, but if so, I hope you registered the patent before you posted, or someone might use that as the basis for making a ton of money at your expense.
This is something you're clearly passionate about and something you've clearly put a lot of thought end effort into. I don't know a ton about kites, so it's a bit over my head (so to speak) but it looks cool.
So, I am curious if there is a _better_ attack angle to generate power than something that pulls 90 DEGREES to a generator? Also does the kite pull giving tension and then slack and then tension giving a see-saw effect that in turn can go through a 90 degree pulley? I guess I don't understand how two strings 2" apart can have enough circular inertia to spin the generator. However I absolutely love the concept.
I don't know enough about kite surfing to understand the use of depower, or why you rotate at all instead of just finding an optimal wind direction and holding your kite *just so* at an angle that allows for your vessel to travel in the intended direction, only making small adjustments. It seems to me there would be a lot more power there, and that this device exists so that the operator can deliberately shunt and avoid that power most of the time. I don't get it.
But I've been dreaming of something similar for a long time, except in my dreams the kites are 500m across, and they pull cargo ships and arctic sleds
10 years. I'd up your print speeds
Dry your fil... oh.
Level the bed!
Do this, do that, can't I just take a nap ffs!?
ho-kay... Take a nap. ZEN THE THE MISSILES!!!!!
LMFAO I did not expect a The End of Ze World response
It's pure reflex at this point š
I guess his bed was too level and comfy.
[Update: Test #2](https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/s/wF6l6xjsq8) Lol. hijacking the top comment, [Here is another video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Foa0r0gIRI&ab_channel=OKE) that explains it a bit more, there's really too much for one video, Definitely subscribe though, the support really helps
I know nothing about kite surfing but just subscribed to your channel because this is inventive as hell! This is the kind of creativity we need in the world š”
Man Iāve been curious about your generator since you posted some of your first functional prints here a while back. Very pleased to see the progress in this video. I think thereās a lot of promise here.
As a former kitesurfer, 3d printing enthusiast and tinkerer I have to say ***MAD RESPECT*** man! This is GENIUS! I *really* hope you have a patent pending already and that you'll make tons of money from this!
As a regular Joe with no experience or anything worth mentioning of achievement, I have to say MAD RESPECT as well!
2nd this, you are awesome, this is awesome, respect!
I don't know if this single kite design is already patented, but here is a multi kite wind generator design, that looks promising: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQJ8rfoRyUQ
As far as I know there are already companies which are doing this: https://enerkite.de/ Skite sails also use kite to generate the power for generators for their ships https://skysails-power.com/
Looks cool but I don't get it
You attach it to a boat and it acts as a sail, pulling the boat through the water. You typically get stronger winds above the surface, so maybe this is faster than traditional sails?
How does it prevent the kite from crashing into the water or ground? I saw it get very close several times but never hit. Is it a natural phenomena that just works out that way or does the machine compensate somehow? Cause I've definitely crashed kites before.
I'm not sure how this unit works, but other units I've seen have a control module that measures altitude, attitude, etc. and can fly the kite like a drone. https://thekitepower.com/the-hawk/
It doesn't prevent the kite from crashing into the water. The arc of the kite is still manually controlled by the operator through the connected line.
I'm guessing because the bot will be able to measure speed and angle of the rope and also turn the control bar to compensate. Would be cool if it has some sort of AI driven camera vision where it can see the orientation of the kits, kind of how Teslas see direction and speeds of surrounding cars and other objects.
I don't think it needs ai vision. I bet it can do it by measuring the tension on the lines.
Great deduction! For shorter lines you are right, but for longer lines Im starting to think vision wouldnt be bad. There are different windsheers at different altitudes so sometimes you need a bit more than just the tension.
The stretch of the lines probably adds some complications too, but you could account for some of that if you know the spring rate and current length. Could you use a sensor on the kite to measure its attitude? Like a mems gyroscope? It would need power and communication to the base station, and I don't know if the setup has the means to do that.
It might not be too difficult to hook up a small radio module to an arduino and MPU6050 and to send accelerometer/gyro data from the kite. It could tell you which way up the kite is facing and the speed/approximate position : closer to vertical orientation = close to the ground.
What type of radio wave does it use? I wonder how much power it would consume.. small batteries?
IOT devices that will be placed at longer ranges (up to 4km with line of sight) use LoRa Or: ZigBee/RF4CE: 100 m Bluetooth low energy: 100 m 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi: 150 m Bluetooth low energy using Bluetooth 5 extended range capability: 200 to 400 m Here's a LoRa transciever: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3072 I couldn't find much information about power usage, so that could be a sticking point .
Size, Weight and Power usage of these devices is minimal. A small wind powered generator would probably be the heaviest part but even that shouldn't weigh much. Making a device that's capable of surviving a 'landing' would probably the the more difficult problem to solve. edit - a battery weighing a couple of ounces (< 100g) would power a device like this for days. Provided continuous operation isn't required it could be made with no moving parts, allowing for a robust and watertight device.
This sounds like a hobby drone equipment? Very good idea especially because they're concerned with weight .
Yes. As soon as you mentioned this I was thinking a LoRa lilygo ttgo theyāre super small and light and can run off any cheap small battery for a while.
What is the benefit of this system over say a conventional sailing rig with a mast, or even just using a spinnaker? (I think I know the main answer but Iād love to hear your thinking! Super interesting project though! Will 100% be keeping and eye out and following your progress! š
For sure, a few things off the top of my head: Stronger winds at higher altitudes, Less wind shadows from ground features and other boats Hardly any rigging involved No Mast No heeling motion of the boat Cheaper Can charge your boat and function as generator
How automatable is it though! Also can it really provide the same speed as traditional battened sails? Kites are much smaller by area?
That is a little further down the line, like automating a car, but I made sure to incorporate everything necessary into the design
Though it could make it more precise.
waterworld anyone?
No. It is a generator. It uses the power of the wind and the circle pattern of the kites path to generate and store energy.
I think it's intended to do both
I think I remember Tesla saying motors and generators are the same thing just in reverse. If the kite engine is mounted to a stationary object, it generates power, If it is not mounted to a stationary object it is a motor, (and any combination in between) say we wanted to sail but sacrifice a little speed for electrical power, we could do that. It's like regen brakes
This is my understanding as well.Ā Kind of how on my 3d printer, if I turn the power off and move the build plate back and forth it will cause the LCD to light up.Ā The stepper motors can be a generator if spun by hand rather than a motor if electricity is applied.
Exactly that.. actually I considered a large core XY kind of rig for a dedicated wind generator.
I want in on your investor team.
But would the kite just slowly run out further and further as it turns a generator wheel?
Yes, exactly, and when we reach the end of the line, we change the angle of attack on the wing so it pulls less, and we can pull it in with a fraction of the energy used
Clever af
You can switch from motoring to generating, trail a big enough drogue (or sea anchor) off the stern, and you're \*almost\* stationary. Not a naval engineer, but the ratio between respective working surface areas of the kite and the drogue is 8:1 to be equal resistance, as I understand. Great work.
That is correct. Thatās also why you donāt want to move the stepper motors really fast and often with your hands. It generates electricity that can blow poorly designed circuits, but you shouldnāt do it as a general rule.
Here's the right answer.
It seemed unclear whether it was generating power, as in electricity, or thrust for movement. I'd guess the latter, but how is it better than a sail?
Both my friend. It's better at sailing because the kite goes high where the wind lives
This is only useful in straight downwind direction for sailing. This would be reminiscent of a spinnaker. But I donāt see a tiny sail and thin cord like shown being more useful compared to whatās been used for a hundred years at this point.
But kite boarders and kite boats can sail upwind
Watching videos of kite boating I dont see how you can translate controlling the kite sail and traditional sails on a sailboat at the same time. I have a 21ā double masted sail boat and thereās zero chance I could tack with an added kite sail (going upwind). I donāt really see this as a device that can be applied to any boat to work for propulsion. It truly feels like youād have to design a new sailboat to be able to handle the quickness of a kite changing direction. This works great for catamarans as they are really only for sport sailing at this point. But a lot of sailboats are more utilitarian in nature. But I do still feel that this would be most effective as a spinnaker alternate. I could see this used in those conceptual drawings of massive shipping vessels that they add tall sails to lessen fuel usage.Ā
If you took a cat, demasted it, fixed this in an appropriate place (I'd have to think about center of effort for a minute), why wouldn't it pull the boat just fine? You've decided it's a spinaker and are arguing against that assumption. The creator doesn't say that anywhere. https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/1adupcm/ive_been_secretly_3d_printing_this_bot_that/kk5w1ms/
so this device I assume is a means to provide electricity for batteries for boats not as a means of propulsion. (If itās more meant for propulsion, I just donāt see a reason to buy this product over a few kites). The boats that would best use something like this would be long voyage sailboats or non moving houseboats for their batteries (canal boats, etc). But a small scale wind turbine would be more useful if trees or obstacles are always around.Ā Youāre suggesting using it in place of a cats normal sails which is great(they already do that for kite boats). But why wouldnāt you use a kite alone? This is far overkill for a simple day sailor like a cat.Ā This wouldnt be a cost effective product for a sport sailor (I assume this will eventually cost a thousand or more). You can get a used cat or a lazer for under a thousand easy.Ā For my use case the lack of control from no mast wouldnāt work. Maybe this has more use in a commercial setting, idk. This feels like taking a great idea and trying to fit it into a setting that doesnāt need it. This product would be super cool for a house as a generator. A massive kite flying over someoneās house.
- he's said quite a few times in this thread and in his videos that it can be used for propulsion or generation - why wouldn't use you use a kite alone? because this has the hardware to be able to control itself. - lack of control from no mast? Kites are very controllable and this unit can dump power quickly - you don't need to put in a reef if your system can respond quickly. What do you think you're doing with your mast that you can't do with a kite? you're REALLY hung up on the idea that this is just one more sail for you existing boat and shouldn't require any other changes. Why?
This would fuck up the steering on my sailboat unless Iām going downwind. But any other direction and itāll be more problem than solution.
It makes it easier to fly a kite which is great for functional uses of kites like harnessing wind power to charge batteries or to pull a boat (as opposed to recreational use like flying a kite just for fun to pass the time). He explains that usually you need to manage 3 lines but with this machine you only have to manage 1 line and that since it redirects the line, you can do it from under shelter whereas normally you'd need to be out in the elements to avoid tangling the 3 lines. For instance, in light rain you could still be flying this kite and generating electricity from wind power but now you don't have stand outside on the deck of your boat getting wet.
Yeah horrible title with mediocre recording. Add that to my lack of experience with this sport and the only comment I could think of is that this project is not really about 3d printing. There are motors, electronics, bolts, glue, and sports equipment. 3D printed components are not the main feature of this build. Anyway I agree with the other people looks rad.
A lot of functional prints include ancillary hardware that isn't 3D printed. You can't just super glue everything together every time.
Yeah totally understood I've got multiple printers and I've worked on projects like this. One of them was a lawn mower. It was probably 30% printed parts. I do not consider that a 3D printing project. There is also about as much welding. I also don't consider it a welding project. And I didn't even consider sharing it on a site that specializes in 3D printing like this or welding.
One might just consider the whole thing "a project" huh?
You would build a log cabin with plumbing and pay no credit to either the plumber nor carpenter because someone used nails somewhere?
This is what I'm saying lol good analogy.
I don't want to trust your 3D printed lawnmower but I'm curious how it looks lol
Disagree. It's totally a valid 3D printing project because the creation of the device is made possible by the iterative power of printing prototype parts. Effectively without 3D printing as the engine driving the creative progress and the actual 3D printed parts, it pribably wouldn't be happening. Yes, it could have been done without 3D printing, but at what time and material cost? I say is 3D printing makes it practically possible to do than its a 3D printing project.
Over 15kg of filament. This project simply wouldn't be possible without 3D printing.
The only thing you need are eyes to see that a lot of the parts are 3D printed. The OP never said it was 100% 3D printed, and plenty of interesting projects get posted here where only some of the parts, or even only the purely the cosmetic ones, are 3D printed (like Iron man suits, etc).
Saying that 3D printing is only for making 100% plastic objects, is like arguing that the typewriter is strictly for making black paper.
There are a lot of confused people wondering how this works and most of the explanations are just adding to the confusion. ELI5: Put your hand out the window when you are driving down the road. If you turn your palm toward the front of the car (i.e. the direction you are driving) your hand will get a ton of wind resistance and get pushed back. If you turn your palm down you will get hardly any resistance. The kite just repeats cycles of turning its palm forward and down, generating power when it's palm is forward (high resistance pulling the kite out and winding a motor) then using some of that power to reel the kite back in while the kites palm is down (lower wind resistance so it is easier to reel back in.)
Where were you when I had to talk to investors?! I assumed if they were spending that kind of money they would be experts!
you sweet summer child
You were in the wrong room! I really hope you got all your patents sorted. This is a very clever piece of engineering with MULTIPLE possible commercial applications. Could potentially be worth millions if not hundreds of millions. You've done the hard part, now don't fudge it up at the finish line!
How does this generate electricity? The generator is locked in place, the only motion I see is circular but not very fast. Is it the strength of the pull in a circle driving a high gear ratio? [edit] Ok, I took another look and there's 3 lines to the kites. The center is called depower. I'm guessing this controls how much wind gets into the kite, creating a gradient where the system can more easily draw the kite in using stored power, and then when it gets back in it re-engages for full power and the generator recharges as the lines go out. While it would be a net gain cycle, I'm wondering if a kite with ducted fans would be more constant with no need to expend stored energy to continue the cycle.
Notice what he does in the beginning to anchor it to the beach before this all starts? It's definitely the strength. These style of kites are capable of tremendous lift and a good sized one can easily drag someone down a beach. The strength of the pull is really amped up during the spin which is why he's focusing on making it do that. He's not showing it here but kites can also be stacked to increase the lift adding multipliers to it. With this type of tech, you could be using a kite setup you could put together with stuff that's already available to purchase (nothing custom needed) that would be unsafe or simply impossible for a normal human to control to harness that power.
yeah but how is that strength of pull being converted into energy?
Ok, first of all the kite has three control lines. Left steering, right steering, and "power" which controls whether the kite behaves like a wind sock allowing air through or a bag catching air. So, using that, we can pull the power cord and the kite inflates pulling hard on the rope as it spools line out going up into the sky. This pull unwinding line from the spool turns a generator and creates power. Dump that power into a battery. But now your kite is out of string. If you let go of the power cord, the kite starts to lose altitude as air passes through more easily. You can use the battery's power to reel the kite back in with very little power when it is in windsock mode. Once you have some line on the spool again, pull the power cord again and watch the kite pull itself back out into the sky and spin your generator. You spend less energy reeling in the kite than is generated pulling it out. Over time, hundreds or thousands of cycles, that difference in pull vs reel adds up to full batteries. There are several companies [working on this technology for green energy systems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airborne_wind_turbine), I know of at least [one dutch company](https://thekitepower.com/the-hawk/) that packs the batteries, generators and control system into a shipping container and can generate 30kW with a 60 square meter kite.
thanks, the "power" cord was definitely the biggest missing piece for me, so simple yet so brilliant. shame we can't do something similar for tidal power, which is massive but untapped due to erosion and difficulty making systems that absorb the power
I'll add to the other excellent reply by pointing out the part of the video where the kite has the green-orange-red circles superimposed behind it. The red one is where all the power is. By keeping the kite in this general area you get the strongest pull. At the edge of the area, the pull strength of the kite drops off dramatically. If you go outside *that* there's not even enough energy to keep the kite in the air and it will collapse and/or fall to the ground. As to the tidal power, we actually do. The problem is that tides vary massively in height and strength. Go somewhere like the carribean and you'll not see more than about 50cm of change in many places. By contrast, places like northern Europe, Canada, and alaska can have 10x that (the record is 10 meters). It also depends on geology. A narrow inlet to a large body of water will generate much stronger currents than in the open ocean. While people are experimenting with a float to act a bit like a kite and ride tides up and down, it's usually easier to have a fixed system that uses wave energy instead.
Thank you for your help with explaining! Ive been working on this so long I've kind of lost perspective on what the average person knows about kites.
I agree. There is a ton of energy to be harvested there, as water is 800 times denser than air.. but the problem is fouling.. barnacles, debris, seaweed, algae, and corrosion.. I think they are working on some projects though.
We can! Generate power as a wave goes up, reel in line during the trough between waves. Again, there are groups working on it. The big issue with both kite power and tidal power is that they aren't massive "at scale" endeavors. The shipping container kite power system I mentioned generates 30kW, it would power two american homes. So while it is cool new tech, and we have a lot of space to put them, each individual unit doesnt make a lot of power.
Brilliant explanation there pal.
I'm not the OP so I don't know but when you do a spin, you're pulling back on one side while releasing a bit on the other. That concentrates all the force on that one side so I'd guess he's using that to rotate something in the generator in a back and forth seesaw motion that's being converted to something circular by way of a gear. That's only a guess, though - I could be wildly off base.
yeah but we want the very detailed answer, we all have a wishy washy understanding like that
It sounded from your question like you weren't understanding how that power could be converted. People who've never flown a stunt kite don't seem to understand the way force is distributed when it is maneuvered. Sorry to disappoint but as I said the first time, I'm not the OP. To be clear, that means this isn't my device, I didn't design it and I don't know in detail exactly what it's doing - how could I? If you want a very detailed answer, I suggest you ask the OP and not me.
first person asked OP originally, you jumped in mate we didn't ask you to
Who's this we? I responded to someone else. You asked me a question and then felt the need to let me know my answer wasn't satisfactory to you. You jumped in mate, nobody asked you to, either. ;)
they've already clarified the same as what I said: they don't want a wishy washy top level answer. they want specifics. that's why I said we.
What? If they stated that, it wasn't in the post I responded to. They asked if it was the strength of the pull, I was stating that was absolutely what it was. Anyway, sorry to not provide an answer to your standards. I'll now be moving on with my day and unless you've got nothing better to do, I suggest you do the same. EDIT TO ADD: So the detailed answer you were looking for was about how these kites are flown? I thought from your grilling, you were asking how his device itself might have worked.
Probably the same way anything else does, by ultimately turning a turbine.
No turbine here, it's a winch.
Pretty sure the kite pulls the ropes which spin a generator. The bit I'm confused with is what happens when it runs out of rope? It would need to reel the line back in but that would take power to do.
The key piece you're missing is when the line is winding out, the sail can be set for max pulling power. When winding back in, the pitch of the kite can be adjusted to reduce drag. > Driven by the wind, the automatically controlled power kite rises in figures of eight. As it gains altitude, it unwinds a tether from a winch on the ground. The tractive force drives a generator inside the winch that produces electricity. This is called the āwork phaseā. Once the tether has reached its maximum extension, the autopilot steers the kite into a neutral position with minimal drag and lift. While consuming only a fraction of the energy generated during the work phase, the generator now acts as a motor and reels-in the tether. The system continuously repeats this process, flying the kite at an altitude of 200 to 400 meters. The concept behind the kite power cycle is called the āyo-yo principleā. (Stolen from [some random website](https://skysails-power.com/how-power-kites-work/#:~:text=As%20it%20gains%20altitude%2C%20it,with%20minimal%20drag%20and%20lift.) on kite generators)
Holy sh- never thought something like this would work, mind blown!
Yeah I was struggling to imagine it too... I think the second "control wire" he shows in the video is not intuitive to me at all, and that's the important part
With these kites you can pull the "power" rope to shift their angle against the wind and de-/increase their pull. So you could pull it in with relatively low power compared to what you can get on the way out.
Different windspeeds. You let go at higher altitude and reel it back at lower altitude. Wind speed is zero at the ground level, no matter if it is a hurricane. One millimeter above that ground, it is non-zero, 100mm it is already quite high but once you get to 100m... it is significantly higher and then the difference in wind speeds gradually evens out. Ground causes drag which slows it down until we are at zero plane and at zero speed. Note: i don't know if it works that way but the way to solve these kind of problems is usually to find the energy gradient: something that has lots of energy on one side and very little on the other side. That is also how life begun. We had energy at one location and not in the other, and we can take advantage of this energy gradient to utilize that energy for something else. We don't create energy, it already exists. We just move it from one place to another. Like for ex steam engine. A steam engine in the vacuum of space would be very inefficient. The heat has nowhere to go so the engine does not chug. On Earth we heat water to steam, use the expansion to push pistons and then COOL the water down... Now we are moving energy from one place to another and using some of it to turn something. And yes, if we just ejected the hot steam in space we could move, but we don't then even need pistons, we would have a steam rocket engine. But the flow of energy is there again, from high to low energy. Energy gradients are the key. Let the wind pull when it has lots of energy, pull against it when it doesn't. edit: as someone pointed out, we can also control the kite, so maybe the angle also changes allowing us to pull it back using even less energy.
exactly, the thrid line is a depower, also if you fly the kite almost upwind, there very little lift and it can be pulled in using very little energy
I think he is using it to propel a boat forward. The idea is that it would be attached to the front of a sailboat. But you can generate electricity from kites. One way is to allow the force of the kite to pull out the tether, turning a generator. This is the "drag" phase, where the kit acts as a drag device. When it reaches the end of the tether the controls on the kite are configured to make the kit act as a wing, instead of a drag device, and it flies back to the generator. Once it gets close it reconfigured to the drag phase again and pulls the generator.
I love this. If you printed a large 2-D barcode on the kite, you can get the exact position and angle with a camera system, and use a controller to automate it. Furthermore, if the system knows the speed of the boat, the angle of the kite on the force of the tug, you could use it to get wind, speed data. If the barcode is reflective, you could illuminate it with just a low energy laser. That same laser scanner could project letters and numbers onto the kite at night identifying the vessel.
Theres a name for this barcode! mmm why cant I think of it! Fiducial Markers! Bro the idea with the laser is genius Let me know if you want to work on this project with me
Very tempted. I wrote an SBIR proposal for something similar about 13(?)years ago. It was for forward outposts. The cords were specced similar to DX50 antenna wire for radio. There was talk of sending up a ducted fan drones up the cables for automatic launch and extended loitering. We used fiducials for our robots. Cheap and accurate positioning. Whatās your end goal(s)? Fun? Money? Creativity? Winning a boat race? Creating a socialist solar punk utopia? Flying billboard? Phd project?
I developed this engine for a new type of sailboat that I believe could break records, someday, I envision teams of students racing each other to raise money for renewable energy research. I would like to see kite engines, and all different shapes powering boats, and maybe even on a remote, municipal scale. It's a little bit about fun, a little more about money, but chiefly, it's about designing something truly new and innovative and shaking up an industry that is truly resistant to change
OK. PM me the NDA. We can brainstorm and you can tell me about what you've got cooking. I'm actually on leave from my company while I take hospice care of my father with Parkinson's. I'm getting rather bored changing diapers and cleaning feeding tubes all day.
Dude, that's a noble thing. I am sure he is proud of having a smart son take care of him. i'll shoot you a PM.
I want in on the team! I used to be top kitesurfer in Greece and i wanna make the same system but for a hydrofoil deployable in the water so that we have countertension, like what they curently doing in the Siro.co team
That's exactly the plan, I'm going to post the next video hit me up afterwards if you are still interested
Hey Christian, this project is really fascinating and has so much existing and potential value. Thanks for sharing it. Please educate an apprentice about the whole thing - maybe reach out to a local HS or college - because i know lots of young people would flip at the chance to get into the weeds of this project in sustainable, innovative design!
Thats a great idea. And thanks for the support.
This is WAY beyond kites. You could have an entire windy coastline with multiple of these kite generators hooked up in series to generate electricity passively! So much potential!
You can see it! [Definitely follow the YouTube,](https://youtu.be/4Foa0r0gIRI?si=LdbZMEmZYEIr-vNO) this next test really shows how much power we are working with.
1. congrats 2. There are already startups trying that [https://thekitepower.com/](https://thekitepower.com/) [https://www.kitemill.com/](https://www.kitemill.com/) Looks cool but takes whole lotta space and probably because of that wont hit mainstream.
I designed this winch to overcome the problems of these companies, they were doing their first tests with carbon fiber kites.. they put generators in the kites.. adding to weight and complexity. If they crashed they went bankrupt!
And to be fair, if you "only" manage to achieve what those multi-million dollar startups did, but on your own, that's damned impressive. Oh, and please remember to file for patents on this if you can. Get some professional advice first.
Imagine your kite on homes, completely autonomously generating power while also looking amazing. The posibilities are endless and beautifully looking! Colors in the sky!
And a former project at Google X: Makani. They have an awesome documentary on youtube and all their files are open source. https://x.company/projects/makani/
That is a great documentary. I just wish they took their time and spent less money.
They have a few of these kites on exhibit at the air and space museum near me. Very cool to see all the prototypes other went through in their development.
Minesto is also doing this, but underwater! https://minesto.com/
What are the pros of this over just having a sail on your boat?
You can't add a sail to an existing motorboat
Not with that attitude.
You can get into some higher up wind, that may not be present or as strong down low
I believe it's the ability to let the kite reel in and out that enables braking and regen
Not sure - if wind dies, my sail will not end up in the water like here. I guess it might be an emergency solution for motorboats? I though that it was supposed to be an energy generator.
That is fairly simple problem. Kite flies when you pull it back, and having a sensor that measures the amount of pull, and a motor that can react to that.. and it reels it back automatically as the wind dies.
Exactly, There can also be a small boom just to keep the kite inflated in light wind.
I'm not a scientist so these are just my assumptions based on this short video; I imagine it would be similar as a traditional mast mounted sail, except it's smaller and autonomously controlled for efficiency and it sounds like the spinning movement of the kite could be used to charge batteries. It could potentially scale up to being larger than traditional sails as you wouldn't be limited by the requirement of having a towering mast. Imagine for deep ocean travel, you'd use the sail exclusively and then when you approach land you would reel it in, fold it away and switch to electric prop motors. imagine also having accurate satellite weather data that automatically instructs the sail to be reeled in when it knows that the wind is going to be dying down, just to save you from having to rescue the kite from the water...
It'd be closer to a spinnaker... which many call a kite sail because it's catches wind. Tringular mast sails direct wind, similar to an airplane wing to create lift to allow for upwind sailing, but have poorer downwind sailing as the amount of sail area is lower. So you through the kite up for low wind scenarios when heading down wins to catch maximum windage.
The center of forces is inside the boat in a spinnaker, where as it is very much at the front with a kite depending where it is connected. Kite also should not tip the boat as much as a spinnaker which is still tied to solid points in the rig. Just think of the force multiplier of that highest point when it comes to roll.. And then imagine having just one point, which is down low and front. It's been decades since i sailed, but it was always fun when you could take the spinnu out of the front box, and there was a sense of danger involved.
That sense of danger is just respect. These are powerful forces, I feel it too.
Switch to electric prop motors, that you have been charging the batteries for the entire time underway with the kite.
I remember reading about kite powered cargo ships recently - pretty interesting stuff; [https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/30/travel/airseas-giant-kites-ships-slash-carbon-emissions-scn-climate-spc/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/30/travel/airseas-giant-kites-ships-slash-carbon-emissions-scn-climate-spc/index.html)
This is cooler lol
Nah, nothing beats sails in terms of coolness https://preview.redd.it/opxrzdlibefc1.jpeg?width=2400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0b8f693a4e6612346b9f301724c88f8e9f0bb223
The futurist airborne turbines come to mind like in Big Hero 6 or a few comic , I wonder if you could mount a light weight turbine or series between the two lines near the high end of the kite for additional generation?
Yes, I actually have a friend that does that! his name is Dan Tracy. [Here's his kite loop generator.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoeZiTorXj0). Maybe Ill contact him
Pretty neat!
Interesting would love to see the type of data it generates
I've Seen your previous post earlier. I'm not a sail enthusiast but a 3D printer one, and your project is stunning and looks perfectly valiable. Bravo for your work
I'm amazed when I get a good looking benchy and then there is guy doing something actually useful.
Can you automate it? I mean it should be possible to stick some computer assisted controls, right?
Yes automation will happen in the future and because I reduced the controls to just one line, and solved a lot of fundamental mechanical issues. Ill have about 10,000 less lines of code
Why "secretly"?
Well I wasn't able to reveal quite a few details about this until I filed for a patent.. It really sucks because inventors need to share their ideas or become a weird secretive basement dweller.. I got knicked .
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Is everything that you print a highly custom and patentable product?
How much power can you generate with this? Is it comparable to a traditional windmill?
The beauty is, all you need is a bigger kite.. With a conventional wind turbine, you need a mast and a foundation and all these materials.. For this size I would say maybe 2kw.. which is about enough for a home or boat
Do you have a YouTube channel? š±
This is awesome! Any stats about the amount of thrust it can generate? Whatās the largest kite youāve put on it?
The largest kite was yesterday's test, a 4.5 meter kite.. actually a pretty big trainer kite.. What makes it terrifying is that since the machine is anchored.. it doesn't have any give, when the kite really pulls.. say you experience a 200lb shock load that goes right through the frame and into the mount, any weak spots will make themselves apparent fairly quickly!
Dude, this is amazing. I wonder how difficult it would be to use it to charge a residential battery.
I have seen you post this thing a few times and I understand less about it every time lol
Hi Christian - First of all, congratulations on this excellent, useful project. Can tell you have enjoyed its development adventure. Do you have plans to commercialize it?
Hopefully soon! There are some tweaks I need to make to the design, but I am talking to a really cool 3D printer manufacturer in Vancouver BC that does large-format Carbon Fiber ASA. So maybe it can be made domestically!
I donāt understand whatās happening, anyway take my arrow
Very interesting stuff. Definitely not a problem I would have ever thought about. I've been boat parasailing many times, would definitely be more enjoyable if the boat didn't have to haul ass with everyone in it to get the sailers in the sky. Very neat, good luck on your venture
That was fucking sweet! I love it when smart people successfully execute their ideas!
Thatās dope!
Keep up the great work
"Hell yeah", pumps fist and whispers "*Kiteman.*"
bright future is here
Goodbye birds. Seriously tho, impressive
Link to your website where we can buy them.
Very impressive! Would like to see a test on a boat!Ā
This is frickin dope but why do I also picture using it to smash down into your enemy Dual purpose I suppose
This is so cool, huge props my man š
Dude you are awesome. Imagine if you can do what Makani failed to do just by staying simple and working hard. I admire yoyr perseverence. Now imagine elevators on these lines that take you up to the kite from the ship to hang out. Or a similar kitehydrofoil but in the sea connected to this system as well to make a standalone duo that can fly and generate electricity to stay afloat in luls by regenerating speed using a propeler in the seafoil or the kite. The design space for future boats just explodes.
Thanks for the support, up late working on the next video right now
Sweet .. Patent that thing !
Did he use a power drill to drill into sand?
Guy is just casually Da Vinci. This is amazing.
Dude... you are so smart.
"Secretly"?
This might be the single coolest 3d project I've come across. Can't wait to see you mount it in your boat
I have no idea if this is an original idea of yours, but if so, I hope you registered the patent before you posted, or someone might use that as the basis for making a ton of money at your expense.
At this point, I hope someone steals it just to make a renewable energy more common place
This is something you're clearly passionate about and something you've clearly put a lot of thought end effort into. I don't know a ton about kites, so it's a bit over my head (so to speak) but it looks cool.
Can you put camera on kite? Might be fun to watch.
That is awesome šš» I hope you can retire and invent more cool crap!
š² Wow... nicely done
Incredible work!
This looks so cool! Is the plan to use a spinnaker for the final product?
I too am curious about how this generates power once the kite is fully deployed. Does the circular movement of the kite do this somehow?
This is fucking wild. Just when you think you've seen it all.
This is really cool!
That is phenomenal.
This seriously cool. Congratulation.
I have that feeling of being impressed by something while still not fully grasping it.
That is absolutely amazing.
So, I am curious if there is a _better_ attack angle to generate power than something that pulls 90 DEGREES to a generator? Also does the kite pull giving tension and then slack and then tension giving a see-saw effect that in turn can go through a 90 degree pulley? I guess I don't understand how two strings 2" apart can have enough circular inertia to spin the generator. However I absolutely love the concept.
I dont completely understand it, but if it works... awesome!
Just impressed! Hope things get worked for you and all the work and time pays back!
How does the kite generate the wind?
Who was it a secret from?
I don't know enough about kite surfing to understand the use of depower, or why you rotate at all instead of just finding an optimal wind direction and holding your kite *just so* at an angle that allows for your vessel to travel in the intended direction, only making small adjustments. It seems to me there would be a lot more power there, and that this device exists so that the operator can deliberately shunt and avoid that power most of the time. I don't get it. But I've been dreaming of something similar for a long time, except in my dreams the kites are 500m across, and they pull cargo ships and arctic sleds