Electrostatic motor


LidMotor does the coolest stuff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQh-Y0PEzaE

(All of it )

Yes, he started with a soft ball of sorts and a franklin bell a few videos ago.


And a bug zapper tesla coil...


I actually have a van de graff now; it's a hand crank... but, was able to put it across a spark gap with a secondary coil .. and have a bad tesla coil   Interestingly while it wasn't sparking but was charging the neon would continue to spark... so there was a lot of leakage.  Really need different stuff than stranded wire to use static electricty well.... like if I attach a meter probe with a pointy end on the ground and charge the ball at all, it glows no the top from 4 feet away



Then I read more about tesla's obsession with short sparks; so there is a flowing fluid dense/viscous? dielectric (oil) so it cuts the spark extra short....


TO the point that any back EMF from the field collapsing from the coil can't return...

Here's a cool one from the Energetic Forum thread:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JozqtARt7n0


Also, check this site map out for the latest in the highest state of the art: 


http://capindreswebsite.com/electrostatic-motor-menu.html

Check this one out courtesy of SilverToGold from Energetic Forum:



http://www.shinsei-motor.com/English/techno/

ゴシック]The clear case around ESM65-TR1 keeps the vacuum environment around ESM65-TR1. Keeping the vacuum environment around ESM65-TR1 reduces the possibility of "spark generating".
The sound is the wind noise of the propeller attached to the tip of equipment and the sound of a vacuum pump.

Look at the "Spark generating" in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtFDVa9sze0

@TK check your PM
Kind Regards
Mark

@synchro:
By definition, a "hard vacuum" is pressure to the _left_ of all the curves on the Paschen graph above. The voltage to jump a gap goes way _up_ in that region. The electric field gradient depends on the voltage produced, and the forces available to turn an electrostatic motor depend on the field gradient. No HV == no large field gradient == no force to turn the motor. So for an electrostatic motor to operate, you would need a _hard vacuum_ by this definition, or atmospheric or _greater_ pressure of air or an insulating gas.

I can only get down to about 25-30 microns at best, usually not even that low, with my vacuum system, and that is solidly in the "glow discharge" region for air -- as my vids demonstrate. I've already tested simple corona motors at that pressure and they don't work, there isn't enough ion thrust to turn the rotor. In other labs years ago I tested VDG machines at similar vacuums, which also depend on corona "ion spray" to operate, and couldn't get them to work either. I can't tell from the pictures what the operating principle is for the Japanese motor (Franklin type, corona spray type, or other) but it looks like it could be a Franklin type with spark transfer of charge, like my ball motors in the videos above (enhanced Franklin w/ rotor sparks over a tiny clearance, and the free-ball cyclotron sparks by direct contact with the field plates). If they have a good enough vacuum and the charge transfer is by contact, as in the "free ball cyclotron" video, the Franklin type motor would probably work, but definitely high electric field gradient (meaning definitely high voltage buildup, meaning definitely hard vacuum) is required for that.

I've got another experiment set up on the bench right now that isn't compatible with HV, but shortly I will be testing the Mendocino esmotor in my vac chamber. Since it too depends on ion spray from the negative "points" electrode to transfer charge to the rotor disc, I predict it won't work, for two reasons: not enough ions: to transfer charge, and too many ions: the glow discharge shorting the system to prevent HV buildup in the first place. Lol.... trapped in that darn Paschen "valley" again.

Commercial large "Pelletron" type VDGs used in particle accelerators often work with gases like CO₂ or SF₆ at _increased_ pressure, even as high as 10 atmospheres,  for more insulation. It's a lot easier to maintain increased gas pressure than it is to keep a good hard vacuum.  Does the Japanese machine use a rotary seal, or is it magnetically coupled to the output shaft through the chamber wall? If the former, then I seriously doubt that they could maintain a hard vacuum without constant pumping with turbopump backed with vane pump.

@TK,

Theoretically, a greater percentage of the applied voltage should travel across the drive rotor from the brush points to the ground with a reduction in pressure around the gap, right?

Do you perhaps mean "current" travels?
Let's try this again. Unless you are _below_ the pressure of the leftmost curve in the Paschen diagram above, the remaining gas in the chamber acts as a direct short circuit, or one of very low resistance. Yes, essentially _all_ the "voltage" you apply is shortcircuited by this low-resistance channel, even with large gaps. This means you _cannot_ build up high electric fields in such a case. If you attempt to overcome this by applying even more voltage from your power supply, a "power arc" develops and this is a direct short circuit which equalizes the potential (voltage) between its ends. "Gassy" vacuum tubes don't work properly any more! The force available to run electrostatic motors depends on two things: ions accelerated by electric fields and Newtonian reaction (ion motors, corona motors) and/or electric fields pulling-pushing charged material objects (Franklin motors, the free-ball cyclotron, the pingpong ball bouncer). If your voltage is short-circuited by a low-resistance channel-- as it will be anywhere in the region bounded by the Paschen diagram curves -- you will not be able to create strong electric field gradients!

Electric field gradient pushing/pulling a material object in a "linear" Franklin motor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxEpSX2Hd54

Below are images of a corona motor: first, spinning in air, and next, same motor but not spinning, in the vacuum chamber.