Another Newbie having trouble with his SSG

[Marksman]

Hey everyone. First post here. Here a few months ago I was reading some online to see if there was any way to revive dead car batteries. After going through some threads with people claiming that they could fix a dead battery by pouring epsom salts in them, I stumbled across some of Bedini's work. Never heard of the guy or the concept of his motor, but I wanted to build one, so now...

I have it crudely built (pretty much a pile of wires sitting on my desk.) and got it to run last night about 2 am after my wire came in for the coils (150 feet of 20 and 22 AWG). As the power source I am using is a 12v power supply and the charging battery is a a small 12v battery that was in an electric gate.

While it runs, it seems to only be running around 250 RPM (If that, just my guess) and adjusting the potentiometer doesn't affect it any. When the power supply is on with nothing hooked to it, it sits around 13.6 volts. When I hook up the motor, it drops to 4.5v. Regardless of whether the rotor is spinning or not, the charging battery is around 2.2v. I was expecting 3k so RPM like i've seen in videos.

Thinking that maybe my power supply wasnt beefy enough, I went out and got my car jumper box and hooked it up. Voltage is around 12.6 volts at the power battery, but only like .4v is getting to the charging battery and it wont run. I was stumped, so I went and got the battery out of my truck to see what it would do. Same results as the jumper battery. When the car batteries are hooked up, it does have effect on the rotor (Pulls the rotor to the coil when the power is on), but it wont stay running.

I have the correct nv3055 transistor, the correct resistors and I think a 5k potentiometer (cant find the package).

As i said the coil is 150ft of 20 and 22 gauge and the core is R60 welding rod. Rotor is currently a electric cooling fan with the fan blades stationary and the frame spinning with ceramic magnets. Bearings are good and smooth in the fan. I plan on using a hard drive motor for the bearing but i haven't yet figured out how to extract it from the hard drive case.

If anyone has any info on what i may be doing wrong or have had similar issues, I would appreciate your help.

Thanks!

[Brodie Gwilliam]

there should be no power going through the coil when the rotor isnt spinning, if it has power getting pulled through it before you spin the rotor it could mean you have fried your transistor ... the coil will turn on and suck the magnet close to it and stay like that if your transistor is fried... as for speed goes it depends on the size of your rotor 10" and smaller can get above 1000 rpm but bigger rotors will spin slower.... the pot should adjust speed and sound of your coil firing massively, maybe you have something hooked up wrong

[Marksman]

Thanks for the reply.

I was running it earlier and shut it off. Went to start it back and nothing. I wanted to build it on a piece of plywood and secure everything so i went to radioshack and bought another transistor and potentiometer and put them in when i assembled it. Still, doesnt run. I checked continuity of the coil and its not fried so I'm stumped.

[Marksman]

I hate to double post, but..

Wouldnt do anything, and i was checking for voltage on various parts of the circuit. Then randomly the coil starts putting out this high fequency and it was putting 37v into the charging battery, and the neon bulb was glowing. Frequeny changed if i unhooked the charging battery and if i moved the coil further/closer to the rotor. Turned it off and back on and now it's back to doing nothing.

Tested the 3 transistors i have and 2 appear to be bad. Put the good one in and now since its acting up i'll test it.

[Allen R.]

Hi Marksman. Welcome to the forum. Please don't unhook the charging battery as that kills transistors dead or may only damage them causing poor performance. You may have an open diode. High pitch squeel is self oscillation caused by to high resistance. The 5k causes that but just don't turn it up so high. Probably you have a couple if different problems going on judging by your description.

Check your connections.
Check solder joints.
Check diodes.

If the rotor locks to the magnets when the supply is connected you have a bad tranny and possible a bad diode also. Try not to use power supplies especially ones that cannot provide at least 400ma. Even then you should add a decent capacitor in parallel with the supply. The pulse kills power packs and they introduce unwanted noise into the circuit. I use them too sometimes but always use a cap with.

When you changed trannies you may have accidentally reversed a pair of coils wires. That will give you a no run condition also.

Good luck.

al

[Brodie Gwilliam]

sometimes pots fry and can turn the motor into a solid state because the resistance on the base goes super high..... i have a coil thats similar and anything over i think 2-3k of resistance on the base turns it solid state after the first magnet pass

[Marksman]

Solder joints are good, connections are good, and both of the diodes have some resistance when hooked to a ohm meter. I bought an assortment of diodes when i was at radioshack a week or so ago and I cant find them now. They were on my desk and now they're not, so next time i'm in town ill go buy some more.

I thought the neon lamp was there to keep the transistor from frying?

I'll buy some more transistors when i'm there as well...

Over $100 invested and still wont run. God.....

[Allen R.]

Hi Marksman. Brodie is right. No run is usually just one of the coil pairs is wrong. There are four individual wires that come out of the coil. Two make one coil and two make the other. Pick a pair that are the same wire and swap where they are connected. That is , reverse them. Don't just pick two wires they have to be one of the two pairs.

I don't know how much about components that you know so bear with me. The diode is a one way valve that prevents reverse flow of electricity. Diodes can be open or shorted through. Your meter should read some resistance connected one way but nothing the other on a diode.

Hope that helps.

al

[Tom C]

Marksman.

I would encourage you to make yourself a small bike wheel salvaged from goodwill. ceramic magnets square ones from home depot or harbor freight. you don't need a 5 k pot you can use a 100 ohm resistor and 1k pot on the base. the neon will save a trannie for about 2 seconds. the pulse is way over 120 volts. the 2N3055 will work fine for a transistor check your diodes like allan said.

Tom C

[Marksman]

I will check the diodes both ways. Thanks for the info. Sorry if I seem a little uneducated in this field, because I am.

I am using 1n4001 and 1n4007 diodes. Are these fine? As for the transistor, are there any others better suited for the job?

Thanks.

[Ed_Morbus]

Yes 1n4001 from emiter to base
and 1n4007 from collector to charge battery

[Brodie Gwilliam]

those diodes will work... the mjl21194 is a lil more robust and doesnt fry as quick.... check that base resistance and make sure its pretty low(make sure you use the middle prong on the pot cuz if you use both outside prongs the knob wont actually change resistance)

[AlvaroHN]

I will check the diodes both ways. Thanks for the info. Sorry if I seem a little uneducated in this field, because I am.

I am using 1n4001 and 1n4007 diodes. Are these fine? As for the transistor, are there any others better suited for the job?

Thanks.

Hi, the ideal transistor is MJL21194, but it should work with 2n3055 also. The diodes are correct.

In my first SSG years ago I fried lots of 2n3055, mostly because for some strange reason I insisted in disconnecting the charging battery.

best,

Alvaro

[Marksman]

Thanks for the info everyone. Busy today working on my car but I'll get back to this in the near future.