Troy Amason's posts

I keep thinking that I am not going to post any more on this but so many people email me that I feel like some people are still interested.

Carl Vettes, Linda Vettes, and their accomplice Morgan Chapman were arrested on 4/21/10 for fraud. Between them there were at least 94 felony counts and bail was set at $125000 for each. As best as I can tell their home is in forclosure and they have nothing much left. It seemed like they would plea guilty, however they have now plead Innocent to all charges so the games continue.

Carl also finally sued me for $1,084,000.00 in order to stall my small claims action against him. Well that case was dismissed and a default claim against him for $84000 has been entered. Not that he has anything to claim or pay with but it is there to follow him around for what is left of his life.

OK I know I have stripped the hide right off this poor dead horse. However I promised to report court happenings and the fact is that these post help keep Carl Vettes, Carl Vetts, Glenn Hunt, Linda Vettes, Freetricity, and now American Home Wind and Solar on the first page of the search engines so maybe anyone smart enough to do a little checking will not be taken in by this criminal.

In an effort to put off the court action I had filed against him, Carl trumped my case by filing one of his own in a higher court. He got exactly what he wanted. A big delay. This morning that all finally ended with Carl once again showing his true colors. The case he had filed was dismissed as he failed to show up in court for the second time. Yep despite all his ranting in here he just no showed. Of course it remains to be seen what he will do about the cross compliant that I filed. I am not sure what part of "I will never give up" he is having trouble with. Keep your eyes open Carl changed the name of his golf scam at least four times.

Court Update.

Well folks lace up your dancing shoes. I did indeed witness another round of the Freetricity shuffle otherwise known as the "Dance a Little Sidestep". For the third time I was ready to let the judge hear the facts and decide the case. Again however Carl came up with a way to delay and dodge. He did file a $2,084,000 limited civil suit against me. This action basically trumps the smaller cases and sets a new hearing date in May of 09. This is the same tactic that Carl has used in every aspect of our dealings. Delay for as long as possible. In the Vetets world of "bad publicity" is better than no publicity, every week he can delay is another week he can sell his wares.

Court update:
I had promissed to report the outcome of the Oct.2 trial. I am sorry to say that this is just an update. As has been the standard with Freetricity, Carl came to court with nothing but excuses and begging for it to be delayed.

Starting in Jan. Carl has been telling anyone that would listen that he was suing me. Since that never happened. I finally filed on him and had an Aug. court date. He avoided that by dodging the certified mail summons sent by the court. I then got the Oct. court date and Carl was served by an actual process server. Due to Carl dodging the Aug. date the Alabama distributor was able to file against Carl, have him served by the same process server, and get the same Oct court date. That allowed us both to be there when Carl came in alone and claimed that he had just found out about the trial three days before. He had no idea about it. The judge sort of smacked that down however me and the other plaintiff had received advice from the court to list both Carl and the company since he had used an alias when setting it up. It turns out that this is bad advice and the judge granted Carl the continuance he asked for based on that incorrect title line. New court date of Nov 6. where I am sure Carl will again try some sort of trick. Of course the delays have sort of worked out for me so far. Flying is no real trouble for me or the Alabama distributor and the golf is great out there year round. We had a very nice round while we were there this time. So we will just keep showing up and reporting Nov. 6, Dec 6, Jan. Whatever it takes.

Hey John last weekend was the big turbine challenge out in California so maybe they are all busy out there.

Hey Sue I only wish I had been as smart as you.

OK then I will admit defeat. I really do appreciate the help. Would hate for my wife to come home to a giant crater.

Thanks again,
Troy

Thanks Will. I appreciate the help. Obviously I am worried about it as well and will take your advice. I am curious though as I know there are some real experts on here.

Is there a safe way to step that voltage down from 48 to 12?
Anyone???

Thanks again for the reply Will,
Troy

Need some quick help with a situation. I have a 48v battery and a 12v inverter. As a temporary set up till I can get my 48v inverter back I am wondering if I could use a single 12v battery, old or new, as a buffer. Hook the 48v to the old 12v and that to the inverter. I am not worried about the 12v but I don't want to destroy the inverter or the 48v. Is this possible or no? Will it kill the 12v or should I use an old thrashed 12v?

Thanks for any help.

Hi Tom, Nick, John or any of the guys that know. While this did not work out for me I am still interested in RE and in particular wind. I am still trying to learn all I can. Tom asked Carl about his credentials and it reminded me of something Carl told me early on that does raise a legitimate question. Carl was telling me how at one of his personal homes he had three of his E2D's up and he had twisted all their wires together thus making a 36v system out of three 12's and then he used an Outback inverter and auto transfer switch to run 80% of his power. When he said it I thought "that is exactly what I want to do". As I was looking at inverter options and exactly how to accomplish this I had an RE retailer tell me that it was simply not possible to hook turbines in series to increase voltage. So my question is can it be done? Can I use multipal turbines to increase the voltage of my system or am I simply running multiple same voltage systems into one battery bank? What is the effective use of multiple small turbines?

Nope no blackmail. You feel free to stick to your guns. Man of principal you are and all. Just offering a solution.

As to other companies I have had issue with there was one in my 46 years. I found them on a huge thread in scams.com and filed a complaint. Actually it was similar to you. They were failing to provide what I had paid for. Unlike you they did step up.

Other than that I think I'm good. Nice diversion tactic though.

Carl you can refund my money, or I would be happy to meet with any of your nearby distributors to have them show me their working product. With either of those actions their pain could stop.

Sorry again Carl as I missed that page but let me catch up.
 
As to you hooking something to me I am up for that. You could come out here like you promised you would and give that a try.

Now on taking that unit apart you don't actually have to be an engineer to take out two screws and a couple of brushes, but in fact I had an electrician that knows electric motors do it. Tested it first. Then opened it up and took a look. Then put it back together and retested it. It still put out the same voltage using a drill in reverse as it had before we opened it. As a safety I didn't open the second one up. It tested the same as the first throughout.

Sorry Kathy I missed a whole page there as it got heated. You can write me at tradewindstwa @ sbcglobal.net

Kathy just curious You said you have two units?

What area are you in?

Troy

Oh did I mention that it doesn't work?

Yes Carl I get it. Your smart and I am not. Of course I do have a unit that anyone can come look at and test to their hearts desire in the Dallas area. Something that you can't seem to provide.

Yep just what I thought. No name, no contact, and no working units. It could be that simple for you Carl, but it isn't because you can't provide those things. You just don't have em.

Carl as I have tried to express a number of times I truly wanted your product to work. If it had then I would have made a lot of money. I tried to give you every opportunity.

You were stringing me along giving me excuses and promises.

The second visit was to return the one defective unit you had provided. That would have been around Sept. 15th.

At that time I still had no working product and not having any electrical background you still had me snowed. I still thought that maybe your revolutionary enhancements were real and this was going to go. I had already sunk my money into it and I really did not want to admit that I had been had.
It was not until Oct. when you finally delivered a supposed tested working unit that I finally knew I had been stung. As I have said I had the unit taken apart and tested. No added magnets. No gears. Nothing extra or enhanced and it would not charge a battery.

Carl you pull this off because you already have the peoples money and then they really do want it to be true. You have a great line of BS, and it all seems possible. You keep stringing them along by making promisses of just a few more days, weeks, etc. and then when they finally have to admit that it is a scam you cry "too late".

Guess it worked for you at Topgolf and Ultimate Golf. Hey that might be an idea. Maybe you could send me one of your old Golf Masters?

Tell you what Carl I tried to get Dallas, Tarant, or Johnson counties, and you said that they were all full. Put me in touch with your distributor in any of those counties as I can't seem to find their websites. You could also give me one of your 70,000 customers in this area with a working unit up. I see a working unit and I would have to back down on that part right.

Carl the contract is dated 05/22/07, and I would be glad to scan it for anyone that wants to see it. It is just one page.

As to the rest I have already given my experiences and what I said stands.

I'm sure that you built that little shed just for this scam.

As for the BBB good going. Thursday it was still a BB. Friday it was a B and lucky for me I printed it. I just went back there and it is all the way back up to a BBB with one complaint removed.

John you are right he does keep defending it.

OK so me and Carl can go back and forth all day. It is obvious by my post in here that I was still wanting this thing to work as late as Nov. 07. Unfortunately for me, mine didn't. I would just have to say to anyone wanting to buy one that you should find one person that has one that is actually up and opperating. Don't fall for Carl's "see it will spark" trick. Find someone that has one and is charging batteries with it. So far I cannot. I have had six other distributors contact me. So far none of them has gotten one to charge a battery. I did not contact any of them. Most contacted me through my website that in fact was up in the first week of June 07.

When I signed up I was told that my order for three units would ship in eight days. That was 05/07 and it is still not filled on 01/08. As to him being a start up he told me that he had been in business for something over a year and that he had 70,000 units out and working. As to me seeing his facility well I did see a small storage building where he said he was doing R&D but there were supposed to be two factories, one in Mexico and one in Canada that were pumping these babies out. I now figure that he is right I did in fact see his facility.

His BBB rating has gone from "A" last May too BBB, to BB and is now at B. I don't think I could accomplish that all by my self.

Certainly make your own choice on this I am just giving my experiences. Maybe I am the only one.

I am really sorry to hear that you got stuck with this as well. So far as I know not one person has charged a battery with one of these. They do put out some voltage but almost no amps at all. It is basically a science fair toy. As for Steve being Carl I think that is correct but even that is wrong Carl Vetts is really Carl Vettes. In the eight months I have known him his BBB rating has gone down three levels from A to BBB to BB to B. The one thing that might be in your favor is I do know he has given a couple of refunds or partial refunds if you ask for it quick. I would stay nice and ask for your money back right now and you might get it. He is very good at talking you down and if he can stall you then he refuses to refund so I would not delay. Good luck.

Hello all. Back a month or so ago I was on here and got some great help with my Freetricity unit. It would not charge my batteries. After I started asking on here the dealer finally got interested in helping me so I have been doing his test. He had promised to fix my problems or refund my money by Dec.30. When his test did not show what he wanted he stopped talking and no refund. Here is my test. First I took the batteries to Interstate Battery headquarters in Dallas and had them tested. They are fine and working well today however after weeks of 15 to 30 mph wind the Freetricity unit would not charge them. Next I spun the Freetricity unit with a drill and got 63v. Then I took a 12v step motor used to fold out a step in an RV. Put it on a 12v battery and measured that it put out .5amps and ran fine. Next I hooked it to the wind generator and spun it with the drill. At first nothing and I was very confussed. Finally left the drill going and discovered that after 5 to 10 seconds the step motor would finally start turning very slow. I then finally got a very sporadic reading of .09amp. Then I cracked it open. When it was shipped to me I was told it was an 8 to 1 geared unit that had the new super magnets added in like Steve talked about in here. Well when I opened it up no gears and no super magnets. There were only two magnets in the unit each one wrapped almost half way around the diameter of the casing. Not even any room for added magnets. The unit looks exactly like a 1/27th hp motor that you can buy from Grainger. In any case at the amperage that mine is producing it would take a lifetime to ever charge a battery. Thanks for the help that you guys tried to give me.

Arg. OK here I am getting squeezed out again. Since you asked Steve I am still on the original tail light bulb. You are right it doesn't light for much more than five seconds but the bulb is fine. When touched the bulb acts as if it is simply draining capasitors or something. Voltage in the 20s is quickly drawn down to below 10. Disconnect and the turbine spins back up. Seems like the bulb is to much of a load. That can't be right? Now this is why I am frustrated. You have 28 years as an engineer. When you were building, testing, quality control testing you had to take real messurments at some point. Like I said a spark does not mean anything to me. I have done the ultimate laymans test. It won't charge any of my batteries. Now in order to figure out why I would like to make a real test. Freetricity has told me that I can't connect a meter in series with the battery and test voltage. So even though that test seemed to indicate that I did have workable voltage now even that test is void. How do I test the unit under load? Hook what to what exactly so that I can see at this wind speed I have X volts and X amps? John the tail light thing was yours. Do my results give you any ideas? How many amps does it take to light that bulb?

First off I want to thank Nick. I have never bought anything from his company and the fact that he is letting me try to work out my problems with another companies product is pretty awesome. I hope I am helping you keep this thread on track Nick.

Now back to work. I am going to have good wind a little later today. John before I was not smart enough to read my book on my meter and know that I had things correct but after getting your directions I went back and the book agrees with exactly what you said on hooking it up. So far this morning I have only had about 5mph wind. Now I will say that hooking the unit up in series that is giving me about 7.5v. So far my apm reading is 0.00 but I am going to wait and report after wind is at least 10 and also when volts are 13ish. One interesting note. I have a 12v tail light like John suggested. I am getting a little spark when I touch that but no lighting. Thanks again for all the help on here and I am really hoping to get a definitive number today.

Thanks John I am going to have to give this a rest for the day but I have the 12v bulb that you mentioned and now I can hook up the meter and try that. I will do that soon and let you know what I find. Steve I have actually tried a number of deep cycle batteries. As I said I have had them tested by an engineer at Interstate battery headquarters. He actually used two diffrent devices that were both several thousand dollars. For whatever reason he has no problem charging these batteries with a car charger and I charged them according to his instructions. Not sure what to tell you other than when I do this they charge up and hold it. Then they discharge over several hours with an inverter. The turbine then will not charge them. Unhook it and the car charger charges them just like the engineer said. Thanks all I am going to try to light the bulb and I am going to try to get an amp reading while charging my batt and see what happens.

Perfect. I am going to bet you are correct on that Steve. Now my multimeter on the other hand is relatively expensive. It has five function areas. DCV, ACV, ACA, DCA, and something I don't know probably ohms. Anyway the DC setting should work yes? My setting options are 2, 200m, 20m/10a, 2m, and 200with a backwards y. My wire connection options are red v, black com black A and black 10A. Lets just call the hot wire from the turbine red and the negative wire black. Now can anyone tell me what to hook where to get a reading or do I still not have the right equipment?

Steve I would agree that something is wrong. Like I indicated I am not sure what kind of indicator that spark is of amps but yes even at one I have had plenty of wind to charge a battery. Trouble is how do I figure this out? The battery works with a standard charger and it works over and over so it is eliminated. Freetricity has stated to me directly that they tested both of my current units and they were working. Both units behave exactly the same. I have tried direct hook up, I purchased a diversion load unit from another source and I now have the xantrex controler and the results were the same with all of those on a number of batteries. If this was going to work it should have. Now James here again I must appologize for my lack of knowledge. What I have was not expensive at all. It is a simple digital amp meter from Lowes. You hang it over the hot wire and it reads the amps. It works fine for example when you use it on wires coming out of your home breaker panel. Will this type meter not work here?

Thanks John sorry for the confusion but I am trying to be careful so I stay on the education side of things. The most productive way to handle this is to say that I at this very moment have two of these units and I want to get them working or know for sure that they never will. Freetricity is now using a name brand controller. It is not included but I have that, am using it and it appears to be working. I have done like Steve says and touched the wires together and it sparks. As I said if you put a meter on the turbine while it is free spinning it will put out 40v in 20+ wind. I am curious if that spark really does indicate 10amp? I will try the 12v light test you recommend. Maybe the amp clamp will give indication while lighting that bulb? Thanks again for the help and I will let you know what happens with the bulb.

Hey guys thanks again John and James I do not want to get lost in the argument part of this. I actually have a couple of these things and I would love to get them to charge a battery if it is possible. James I have not found any published info on the units like you are asking for. John I will have to look for a UL sticker but that is a climb on the roof and open the cover thing that I will have to do another day. Do either of you have any ideas, suggestions or comments on my situation with amps testing?