1136 A Flywheel Generator

[markmetzger]

Great work Rob. I like how you continue to try new arrangements and report the interesting bits. Cheers.

[haroldkline]

If you have half the wheel north and the other half south, you are packing the potential from multiple phases into one ac signal and that's why the amps go up. I find a ratio of nine coils to twelve magnets alternating north, south, north, south, etc, gives you a solid three phase ac signal to work with. Nice build!

[franzschmidt]

You could change from a bridge rectifier to a single diode and an electrolytic capacitor if you would arrange all of your magnets in the same direction (like North only or South only). By doing so you would automatically generate DC only and the diode would only have the purpose of preventing the capacitor from discharging back into the generating coil when the wheel stands still. Thank you for doing these experiments for us. You are an amazing teacher.

[ladamurni]

You often say, that halve the time you don't know what you are doing. Well I wish I had the other halve and that would make me a very ingenius guy. Thanks again Robert, it is always al pleasure to watch your video's.

[glennwebster]

We live vicariously through you. Great video

[Buzzhumma]

rim in the rim with the concrete i am super impressed with for a multitude of design reasons.
Virtually free from scrap bikes and metal along with cheap concrete that can be balanced very easy! GREAT STUFF!

[scienceworksinmysteriouswa]

thank you SOOO much for having the balls to put it up with what you had, the magnets you had. awesome project

[iancrosby]

"if I had more magnets I'd put more on" I heard "moron" and thought I was getting a shout. Another great informative vid Rob. Thanks

[angelusmendez]

Omg! Imagine how much can it generate with the whole rim full of magnets... 👏

I've always thought it would be interesting to incorporate an electrostatic generator to power electromagnets in the rotor, in order to increase the magnetic field, and generate more power. The friction of the brushes would be minimal, though the increased complexity.

Very interesting those variations with the magnets arrangement, I wonder if using electromagnets and "shifting" the arrangement with a circuit could be of any use 🤔

[JasonJoplin]

Robert I love your video, however if I may suggest moving your magnets closer to the center of the shaft of your flywheel and your coils closer to the center shaft of the flywheel to utilize that leverage of the flywheel more efficiently, with the magnets and load on the edge of the flywheel it makes the flywheel less efficient, by moving the load closer to the shaft allows you to convert that leverage into torque and you'll get a lot more torque to put on your load, great work I love to see everything you do, you and I think a lot alike, I have a similar setup just like this

[andyhowlett]

Rob - I'm confused. 4 mA at 11 volts is 44 mW of power, which is tiny considering the amount of work you put into spinning the flywheel. Do the turns of wire just run around the circumference of the wheel? If they do, no wonder the output is so low - the magnetic flux is meant to cut *across* the wire, not just run parallel to it. So you really need lots of small coils around the edge, not one big coil around it. Then you would get some real power out.

[DeliciousDeBlair]

You could get a flywheel from a manual transmission or even use a brake rotor, either can be gotten easily from a salvage yard, not sure about the prices, or the sizes, depends on what all you have where you live, but they will be more balanced and require less work on your part.

Also, some vented disk brake rotors have holes you could use to mount your magnets into.

[jonjudice]

What you need to do is arrange the magnets on the spinning wheel so that north and south poles are on the left and right side then in a horse shoe arrange two coils one on each side. So what I'm saying is. An iron rod bent into a U shape and one coil on one side and one on the other then spin the wheel with the magnet passing in-between the coils. So that way you are utilizing both sides of the magnet. Then watch your results. Oh and the more coils the better. The more load you put on it the faster the wheel will spin and the amps will go down.

[TrentTationnaiseXization]

Thats a solid 5v supply. It's cool that the flywheel stores energy and smooths the signal.

[Greebstreebling]

for such a huge wheel and all the energy you put into turning it, the power output (Volts x Amps) is tiny. The one radial coil you have running around the perimeter does ot cut the lines of flux produced by the fixed magnets. So if you arrange lots of coils across the periphery and more magnets, you'd really crack some power out. Also of course the friction in the system causes the wheel to slow down dramatically, so a levitation 'frictionless' bearing (with magnets) would increase the efficiency enormously.

[vmoutsop]

OK, you've answered a question I've had for a long time that no one would explain to me. The difference between a motor and a generator. THANK YOU!

[ryanlebeck]

Have you considered adding a flywheel to your wind turbine to add constancy to the generation in periods of shifting wind speeds?

Lower positioning is going to lend less wind to the turbine, but so long as there is enough torque to turn the flywheel then the generation is going to be steady even if the wind speed drops. Just a thought mate, and combining both of your projects could lead to interesting results.

Well done mate!

[jasonhaymanonthedrawingboard]

Hmmm well done! Upping the volts in one arrangement. And upping the amps in the other. Sounds like a transformer/ amplifier. Great

[joohop]

Nice !
How About A 15 inch Crank Arm ?

Bless Up Felka

[broken]

10 years back. I bowwowed a 300 kilo train wheel....drilled, reemed and pinned it on a micro bearing... 3 x 75 amp hr altinators... armitur aperture.. unit stole 220volts... ran it thu bicycle chain like that, and used a geared deisel motor.. from old lawnmower, 2 dog power, .. used less than 1 ltr a day... Olive oil.. and made house electric... great idea... shame I sold it..!