Topic
Kite Eurekas
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April 1, 2020, post by Dave Santos
Tri-junction brake for three-line kite with two hand-straps

Making sure this tri-tether idea, mentioned before, gets a post in context of Eureka Rig, itself a tri-tether case. Its a Double Whammy.

The 2.0 PL SS Uniq kite used for the Eureka Rig is sold as a three-line kite with bar. I used that bar elsewhere long ago, and rigged two straps with a tri-junction (tri-tether) for the brake line a couple of years ago. When I spread my arms wide, the tri-junction pulls the brake-line enough to reverse flight. This has proven natural and effective, however, with a larger kite, in strong winds, it will take a lot of strength to spread arms, so this solution is mostly for small kites. Its a good upgrade to many two-line kites with straps, to make them three-line. Its also a kite-killer approach.

Therefore, the Eureka prototype actually has 4 tri-junctions, counting the brake-function junction (rhyming term of art) at the straps.

Open-AWE_IP-Cloud
April 1, 2020, post by Dave Santos
Airborne String Transistor

Finally got a shot. It flies BETTER than pulley version (less mass and line noise).

TRL9 COTS Power Kite, plus 4 wee knots to rig PTO- kPower Eureka AWES

At its heart is Wubbo’s SpiderMill tri-junction mechanism. Its the airborne string transistor, ready to go.

Raw Photo- Annotated Version Coming
Airborne String Transistor by kPower
March 25, 2020, post by Dave Santos
kite eureka ~3562, never gets old...

Note tri-tether junction. Vibrations or control inputs bypass static load, no pulleys needed. Knot is total genius. Steampunk-Alien tech. Next kite lift demo concept-of-operation principle, rigged and ready to test-
Eureka!

kPower ready to serve in many ways!
kPower rig ready to serve in many ways!
Triple Tri-Tether Pick-and-Place Experiments
Typical kite test, trying to photograph and fly a weird rig in radically turbulent low (or high) wind.

Triple Tri-Tether Pick-and-Place with 2.0 PL SS power kite was eventually shown to work nominally earlier today. No pulleys are needed, its the tin-can-phone corner-effect, where load and signal are multiplexed.

The first photo proved elusive. First it took many tries to line up shot short-handed, then the touch-screen shutter-button would not work, try after try.

Have paid the dues, photo will come soon. This really does work. AWE simpler than anyone has ever imagined possible. Nothing can stop it, except that you have to like kites :)