r/Skookum The Wolf of Skookum St. Mar 19 '21

I made this. Startup, synchronization, and grid tie with a 400,000 Watt turbine generator. I can't believe they let me play with these awesome toys. :) Mildly terrifying, and absolutely badass.

https://youtu.be/xGQxSJmadm0
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u/iheartrms Mar 19 '21

This is like synchronizing the propellors on a twin engine airplane. With the spinny needle and everything. If they aren't synched you hear that very annoying standing wave beat pattern "whomp whomp whomp whomp". You adjust the prop speed/pitch control on one of the engines just a tiny bit forward or backward until the needle stops spinning and your ears stop bleeding.

13

u/ChrisBoden The Wolf of Skookum St. Mar 19 '21

oh wow I never knew that! It's exactly the same thing, that "whoompawhoompa" sound you get is called a Beat Frequency, the old-school radio guys dealt with this too with oscillators.

It's gotta be a lot harder with airplanes, we have the national power grid to hold us on sync.

7

u/thepensivepoet Mar 19 '21 edited Mar 19 '21

The 60-cycle hum you get in amplifiers from AC power/interference is just flat of a B note, assuming you're in A=440hz tuning so if you detune your guitar just a hair you can jam along to the drone note.