New Medium Sized Machine

[James_Somewhere_In_Idaho]

Hi Bobzilla

I was trying to upload a spreadsheet that you could use to track your batteries response to different timing settings, and therefore the performance of your energizer with various modifications, however, I was prevented from uploading it. Apparently, we cant post xls files...sorry. Happy Thanksgiving anyway. Stay safe...

P.S. If anyone knows how to upload xls files, please post a tutorial here, thank you.

[BobZilla]

Oh no brother,,,,that is the sound of success!

It is a bit much but I have it in it's own room so I hardly notice it. I have thought about some other ways to switch though. I may make a commutator style that just glides across rather than bouncing about on it. Remember though that this is very much an experiment about doing this with less. The way this is working right now the ONLY thing that is not wire and screws is one diode.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

I have a new video to post. In this one I am charging up a capacitor bank and gong through three timing settings to demonstrate the difference. The capacitor is nice because it shows the charge very well and it also shows that there is no connection between the primary and the charging because if they were at any time in parallel the caps would raise up very quickly. We do not see that happening however, only the radiant getting pumped in.

Video Link:
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AmzmftzD-V0mhjC0J-XYk2DuGyHg

[Branch Gordon]

Interesting setup man! I'm not sure I could handle that clicking noise for long haha. I'd have to stick a box over that ****.

Well heck I wanted to let the run go overnight but just after my last post I checked on it and the meter quit recording to the chart. I quit the run and am just posting what I got. It doesn't matter too much anyway since this was never going to be a full run.

So anyway here is another video with the other timing setup. Yes we are still crawling on the speed but this is fun in it's own way,, right?

Oh James I do have that 19awg ordered and it will be enough to make quite a few coils. I got a 10 pound spool. I also got some cobalt magnets to try out on another wheel. They are much less of a pull rating and instead of 1/2 by 1/2 by 1/8 they are 1/2 by 1/4 by 1/8 so maybe the weird pole situation will change on that wheel. Just trying different things out.

Video Link:
http://1drv.ms/1jhhhlL

[BobZilla]

Sounds interesting James M. but I think I will have my hands full for quite awhile with this machine. You should make a post about it with a video, I'm sure it wold help others out there.

Personally I am trying to go with less modern tech, I have made lots of aurduio timed devices and lot's of fet's and transistors but at least for now I'm trying to go simple.

@all
I took the three 24awg coils off the machine and put the single 18awg on there. I will try to post something later just so you can see the difference. Really I am just waiting to get my new spool so I can load up multiple low-resistance coils.

[James McDonald]

Well heck I wanted to let the run go overnight but just after my last post I checked on it and the meter quit recording to the chart. I quit the run and am just posting what I got. It doesn't matter too much anyway since this was never going to be a full run.

So anyway here is another video with the other timing setup. Yes we are still crawling on the speed but this is fun in it's own way,, right?

Oh James I do have that 19awg ordered and it will be enough to make quite a few coils. I got a 10 pound spool. I also got some cobalt magnets to try out on another wheel. They are much less of a pull rating and instead of 1/2 by 1/2 by 1/8 they are 1/2 by 1/4 by 1/8 so maybe the weird pole situation will change on that wheel. Just trying different things out.

Video Link:
http://1drv.ms/1jhhhlL

Hi Bob --

I watched your video and saw your analog current meter bouncing back and forth. Remember in May of this year I mentioned in a post I was designing
a way to measure the current on the SG machine without any affect on the RPM of the machine with a more accurate current measurement. Well after the
third current sensor I finally found one that works. I have designed a board and the board puts out 2.5 volts when no current is flowing. A simple formula
converts the voltage output to a current. This current calculated value was verified with a meter. The only problem with the meter is it affects the operation
of the SG machine. Thus giving you a higher current due to the SG machines RPM is affected. The calculated current value goes to 3 digits beyond the decimal
point. You had mentioned before you would be interested in such a product. I can send more information to you if you want. You can hook the output to either
a Analog to Digital Convertor then to a Raspberry Pi computer or directly into the Analog input on a Arduino processor.

James McDonald

[James_Somewhere_In_Idaho]

Hi Bob

Glad to here that you have some bigger wire coming. I think that energizer would really benefit from it. Looks like it is designed for 6 coils, am I right?

[BobZilla]

Well heck I wanted to let the run go overnight but just after my last post I checked on it and the meter quit recording to the chart. I quit the run and am just posting what I got. It doesn't matter too much anyway since this was never going to be a full run.

So anyway here is another video with the other timing setup. Yes we are still crawling on the speed but this is fun in it's own way,, right?

Oh James I do have that 19awg ordered and it will be enough to make quite a few coils. I got a 10 pound spool. I also got some cobalt magnets to try out on another wheel. They are much less of a pull rating and instead of 1/2 by 1/2 by 1/8 they are 1/2 by 1/4 by 1/8 so maybe the weird pole situation will change on that wheel. Just trying different things out.

Video Link:
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AmzmftzD-V0mhi_tCc3qIFQ1ewAP

[James_Somewhere_In_Idaho]

Hi Bob

That's a shame, Bob...sad state of affairs...The few feed off the many...

I live in a town of about 33,000 people, and another half that across the river. The little town the "old guy" has his shop in is 45 miles away, and about 3,500 folks. His shop is still open--wiring houses, but I'm sure there is more wire, in various sizes, in the back (I should get some more). There is, also, a motor winding shop here in town. I live about 100 miles from a major city with an international airport. I guess I am fortunate in that respect, but need to find a way to move out to the country a bit, or at least a small town no greater than 3,000 pop before things go sideways.

Hope you find a deal on wire...I'd love to see what that little motor does with 18 AWG!

[BobZilla]

That may work for others out there James but in my area it's not likely. I live to close to the city and everything seems to be tightly controlled these days. People won't even let you get old batteries from them, even offering more than the recycle contractor that they normally use. Regulations and control over everything is the norm around here. There are not really any shops left that are not some big dam chain of some sort and those people just don't know how to break away from what their procedures manuals tell hem to do with stuff. For example many years ago in this same area I used to be able to stop in at practically any auto service station and ask for some used tire weights, now a-days they look at you like your crazy for asking. I used to melt them down for fishing sinkers but now I have to buy my fishing sinkers from the fishing store Lol.

Independent business is being squashed out in this area and that is the main problem. The old guy you speak of would have been put out of business in my area and nobody would be winding any motors, they just sell you new ones and send the old ones back to china or whatever ;-)

That new run is still going, I may wait and let it run over night again before posting a video.

[James_Somewhere_In_Idaho]

Hi Bob

Something you might consider: I met an old guy who runs an electrical contracting shop, who also had rewound armatures for water pumps, and small motors at one time. I had purchased a 5 gallon bucket of 19 AWG back about 15-16 years ago, after reading about the school girl John helped with her science project, and wanted to build an energizer for myself. I gave it to a buddy of mine a little while after that, because I was going through some stuff that made me change my priorities. I think I paid $50 for about 50 lbs. Just three or four years ago, after a LOT of research on John's energizers, I jumped in again, with both feet, at first salvaging the degaussing coils off of big screen TVs and then deciding to see if that old guy was still around. Sure enough, he was, and he sold me another, just over, 90 lbs of 18 AWG and some other amounts of different gauges for about $100...Having said that, maybe you could do some looking around your neck of the woods and see if there isn't someone who "used to" re-wind motors, for whatever use, and talk him out of a 5 gallon bucket of new-old stock like I did, or maybe if that isn't going to happen, try talking a few TV and appliance folks into letting you salvage wire from junk TVs...just be careful of the high voltage stuff back there...

[BobZilla]

Thanks for checking it out John. Keep an eye on this thread because this is only getting started. I have a ton of options with this setup and it will run much harder and faster than what I am showing right now.

James I designed all of the parts in a CAD program which is provided by the machine shop and then submitted the drawings for machining. It is quite expensive but I could never produce anything like this on my own. I built for several years with wood and wheels, lots of glue and screws but now I am confident enough to lay down the money for precision parts. NOTHING against guys out there who put together machines with whatever they can find, as I said I did it for years myself.

Here is a link to the shop I used, I also used them for my big machine in the intermediate section.

Link:
http://www.emachineshop.com/


I am doing a small run right now with the other timing arrangement I mentioned in the video. It will not be a full run either but I think it is important for you guys to see what I mean about it. The way I had it set in the last one was set to trigger just as the magnet approached the core, this one is just after. You would think ok attraction and repulsion but not exactly because the first way actually had switch closed all the way through the approach and the retreat which baffles me. It was a pull/push action that reduced the current draw way down.

By the way I have ordered some 19awg to build some coils for this thing. The main reason it is so slow is because those coils have a lot of resistance. I will try to post a new video later tonight.

[James_Somewhere_In_Idaho]

Hi Bob

Did you use your own CNC or have a shop cut the components out?

I agree, that's an interesting build. I'm curious how long the contacts last with that arcing, but hey, they're only made of wire, and as long as you have wire, it runs...We'll probably all be doing something similar when if/when we can't get transistors...might as well be trying to build them that way now...right?

[John_Koorn]

Interesting build Bob. Good luck with it.

John K.

[BobZilla]

Here is a video of the new machine. You will see in the video but this is running on a very minimal consumption, the charging is not very fast. I do plan to shoot some more video with some different timing configurations I have already discovered with it. I will probably just keep to a single garden battery for now as well.

I am excited about this machine. It may not seem like much when you see this run but I can see a lot of potential with this thing.

Link:
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AmzmftzD-V0mhi5-hI4Jx2WgA6dc

[James_Somewhere_In_Idaho]

Hi BobZilla

Ok, cool...keep us posted...