Trinity Ecopower LLC

12/02/2025

It appears that Facebook believes my page violates their "community standards" because I only post when necessary, and sometimes with long gaps between.
Nobody, including Facebook, dictates my business policy.
Trinity is in hiatus for the winter, not dead.
The studio is still under way and active.

Send a message to learn more

03/04/2024

Trinity has expanded somewhat...
The economic state of the area makes the renewable energy system something of a luxury, so I have added a studio to the capital generation.
Having been an artist of sorts my entire life, I have decided to put some attention into the laser engraving and etching side of things.
I'll be setting up small "displays" here and there throughout town where I am on personal acquaintances of many of the business owners. Just to generate a little interest in the capabilities of what my laser studio has.
Aiming somewhat in the direction of the tourism industry that actually has a lot of exposure, maybe some tourist trinkets are in the future...
Here is one of my etched mirrors I made a year or so ago.

04/15/2023

Wow... A year has passed since my last update. Funny how life gets in the way of things.
Development of the portable wind power source continues, but there are safety issues that need to be worked out.. In order to make something actually useful for more than just a novelty involves larger moving parts and that brings up the thought of someone accidentally getting tangled up with the impeller/propeller/rotor... The intention is to keep it so it can be packed in and out by one person, but things are starting to get heavy.

Solar power testing has been under way since I built my initial system. Several upgrades over time has been rather expensive, but definitely required.

My design for hydro power is also slowly taking shape. Currently in the process of sourcing materials for the first prototype.

I will be replacing the email address shortly. I forgot that it was still under Comcast, and I no longer deal with them.

The WIX site is still there, but also needs updating. Hopefully, I will get the time to take care of that as well.

03/23/2022

OK, it has been some time I guess... The company has been dormant due to the living arrangements here but it is nearing the time to get things back up and running.

More to come...

08/16/2020

After a couple of burn-outs on the big wind turbine, I have had it in limp mode for about 15 months as I figured a way to let it run without over-doing it.

It seems I have found a solution with my current limiting modifications in the control system that will allow full power operation without pushing the capacity in high winds.

So the rotor is back on the 6 blade configuration and this has increased the usable power output due to lower wind speed cut-in.

When it had only three blades, it required 15 to 20 MPH winds to start turning. That has been reduced to under 10 MPH and the operating torque from the wind is also doubled. Max speed has not changed, the blades self-limit at around 1200 RPM, well within the safe limits of the alternator and structure.

While I had it lowered for service, I also added a slip ring module so the power cable is no longer subjected to the twisting that occurs here as the winds change direction throughout the day. Slip rings are a standard on the product line, I just haven't used them on the prototypes before. I wonder why I waited so long?

The small turbine that is in testing for the backpack system will be getting a slip ring module soon as well.

07/22/2020

Well... I guess it has been a while since I last wrote an update...
With the events of these last few months, it appears the state government would prefer to destroy small businesses like mine, so my supply line and materials vendors have all adopted new policies that preclude the small companies like this.

But, because things have been pretty much on hiatus anyway, due to budget constraints, I really do not feel the pinch that others might.

Research in the portable systems continues whenever I can and prototypes are still under way. The backpack wind power system has only one hurdle to overcome to make it viable and I am working on that issue now.

The solar portion of the portable backpack system is fully functional but will need to be custom scaled to work out. Commercially available solar panels are still a little too large to carry and deploy without considerable effort. I am thinking that some integration of the components right into the panels is the way to go here, as smaller panels are harder to find.

The semi-permanent systems are done with the design stages. Now it is just a matter of getting serious customers.

10/13/2019

Well... It certainly has been a minute or two since my last update.

Life kinda gets in the way of these projects at times and another costly curve ball came a week ago that set me back on development. There was supposed to be a major battery upgrade to my system here as the three group 27's seem to not be holding up very well. Granted, they are cycled at least once a day, and the cycling adds up over time but they really should still maintain the minimal draw I have at night for at least a couple of days. Lately, from what appears to be a full charge, they last maybe 6 hours. Unacceptable.

My plan was to get a couple of Trojan L16's, which together in 12 volt configuration would provide 400 AH, as compared to the 300 AH I am supposed to have with the 27's. I'll be making the change eventually, but after I get the back window of my truck replaced.

As for the development of the portable system: the back pack wind turbine is coming together well. I may have to tweak the gearing on the generator side of things, as the new safer turbine is a vertical shaft type and it rotates much more slowly. So there needs to be gearing to increase the generator RPM to be useful. The advantage is that the horizontal plane allows for much higher torque at lower speeds.

At the same time, I am also developing a sun tracker for the bigger solar arrays. A lot of that was delayed because I lost my welding generator last spring and all welding projects came to a sudden halt. It has been replaced just a couple of weeks ago and I am getting set up to continue with these projects.

More to come...

07/06/2019

Well... I haven't really had a lot of time to work on anything new lately. Life kinda gets in the way at times.

Since I live in what is considered the "wilderness", (Out in the open prairie land), a lot more work is involved in maintaining a home, job, vehicle and so on. So most of my power research development has been just on the existing system that I power my cabin with.

My higher-powered wind turbine has twice, burned up the stator windings, because apparently six blades and the winds here are just too much for the alternator.

So, I removed three blades, effectively limiting the actual power that the wind can provide. Even then, the winds still had a tendency to over-charge the batteries.

Voltage regulation would either cut out the turbine entirely, or load it down and make all that magic smoke, that everything runs on, out. So I got a little creative.

between the wind turbine output and the batteries, I stuck a 300 Watt halogen lamp in series to limit the current. When the wind is blowing, it lit up the porch as if it were plugged into the grid...

Yesterday, I changed it to a 500 Watt lamp and actually got to watch it in action as a thunderstorm blew through. The 500 Watt lamp lit up the porch too! It also doubled (almost) the charge current to the batteries.

Now I think I will build a cascading circuit, which will connect and disconnect the lamps to achieve different charge currents, depending on the actual battery condition.

03/28/2019

Still here folks... Looking forward to this summer. Current plans are to get things moving again and rolling out the new "backpack" design. I have the bugs worked out and am just digging up suppliers for the materials.

Complete "backpack" systems, include a 50W solar panel, 100W wind turbine. A 250 W inverter with USB output as well. A 75 AH battery and all of the necessary hardware to put it all together in one plug and play backpack sized system*, light enough to carry almost anywhere.

*When in transport, not in use

01/13/2019

Odd... I know I had posted an update a short time back. it seems to have disappeared.

This winter is a harsh test on the power storage capacity on the prototype system. Not a lot of wind this year and the Sun is obscured much of the time, not to mention only shining for about 9 hours a day right now. I have the generator run a few hours a day to cook and clean, so it also runs a charger for the batteries. They still hold me over through the nights but the colder temperatures really limits their stand-by time. It may come to needing to put them inside the cabin somewhere, but I have not yet decided where and how, to minimize the amount of space the system would take up. Currently, I am leaning toward the space by the water tank. I'll have to put it on wheels to move it out for servicing, but it is at least an option.

12/16/2018

Looks like it has been a while since my last update. So here is what's happening.

Work continues as time allows for the portable system. I have seen ads for a lot of them out there for solar "generators" but so far, not a whole lot for functionally usable wind harvesting.

I have found a new source for alternators well suited for these applications and am designing a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) to use one.

Low RPM geared assembly, so it is much safer that the high speed propeller driven turbines I build, but for much higher installation levels, which are out of reach.

This design actually folds up to fit in a backpack but can still harvest up to 100 Watts of usable DC power to charge batteries and run a small power inverter.

So far, the only real roadblock is how to set it up so that the wind doesn't just blow it away. A stout mast is heavy but a simple luggage rack mounting option is getting some serious thought. If out away from a vehicle, a tripod anchored to the ground is the other option.

Meanwhile, I have been forced to upgrade a little on my home system. Up until about a month ago, it ran a 750 Watt inverter for all of my low power AC devices. (Lighting, clocks, computer, etc.) But one night, it decided to stop working.

So out in 15° weather, in my swat pants and light jacket, I swapped it out with the backup unit. At 2:30 in the morning...

Well, the backup did its job, but it was backup for a reason - not very efficient and kinda noisy. So I found a 1000 Watt model a few days later and installed it over a fair weather Saturday.

This one is even more efficient that the original inverter. Though not a pure sine wave model, it approximates a sine wave pretty well and does not need to boost the voltage quite so high as the other one.

11/05/2018

Haven't had much to post here lately... Slow summer and less than stellar income means focusing on life for a while.

Due to the safety concerns, the portable system is not going to have a horizontal axis (propeller type) wind turbine. I am looking at designs for a vertical axis type, which is a much slower rotation and smaller footprint. Roughly 3 feet in diameter and 18 inches high, and can be pole mounted high enough to be safe underneath.

Solar panels are still the semi-flexible type and a new type of battery is in the works. Lighter and higher capacity.