@Craigy,

What do you mean "it works"? Do you mean you have a wokjing self-sustaining Torbay motor and you're trying to show us a video of it? If that's the case, I can't wait to see it. Why don't you try posting it on Google or Youtube?

Hi Craigy,
Your basic rotor movement looks nice. Good work.
I also watched yours, Mrd. Works correct.
I haven't tried to build this motor, but I think I understand it well.

Guys, You've done a really good work, and makes me thinking about the concept deeply.

I already have a design in mind based on pure magnetic mechanics, which holds some good promise for me.
I can't build it, because it's more complex, but I believe you can do it with hard work.
So, if you will fail with your own ones by any reason, and interested in my design, please ask me to draw it for you. It's even not easy to draw, not one picture, and it will take me some time to visualize properly and write descriptions, but I will be glad to give it to you, when you will be interested.

I think the best thing is to finish your own research first.
Hope you will find the right solutions. I'm with you.
If you have any problems, feel free to ask me and I will try my best to help.
You must be with the magnets, and the magnets will be with you!

All the bests,
Greg

Hi all , i have achieved 360 degrees of rotation, without the top hat ramp , this will not continuosly rotate because it comes to a grinding stop when it encounters the first raised stator, as per previous post i should have the ramp sorted in the next few days. I should mention that i am using the great idea by Mrd to raise the magnets, if you look closely at video you will see a small magnet superglued to the perspex top hat, this works much better than i ever imagined..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kfYO1mz7FA

I will post again in daylight as the above video is a little dark but look at the power!! HiHi


Craigy

Hi Craigy,

I've been busy trying to make the top section, this is definitely the tricky part. I've installed the rollers, but am experiencing some friction, i.e rollers arent helping to push the magnets down properly, perhaps they maybe to big or they have too much slack, ill have to work something out. Hows your little project going?

Cheers,

Dom

 

Haha nevermind the last post about the video. I see now that you were moving the stator magnet with your hand

Hi All,

Yes i have a few posts on You tube, i am pleased to say that my video of the Torbay chasing the Gap has got almost a 1000 hits in the week its been on there, so its not just us that are interested in this, i have another video which i will post shortly that has me rambling on about what i think i will do next with the ramp problem.

As you know i have 11 magnets on the rotor. These magnets are angled to maximise the force being generated in the clockwise direction. This seemed the most logical, but after looking at how to lower the stators this force is holding the stators up. At the 180 degree point ( 0 being when we first raise the magnet) i have 2 or three magnets which run almost parallel with the edge or the rotor , pointing their lobes in the anticlockwise direction. These last magnets actually raise the stators more than the first half dozen, so clock wise force is one thing but i must sacrifice it to reduce the field at that position so the stators will go down. Also i made a perspex top hat with a 180 degree cut out so that the stators could raise when they needed to, but with improvised ramp and magnet assist i couldn't get the stators low enough to clear the perspex, Hence loud Clunk! after a good start up.

I will try again with re-positioned Rotor magnets that reduce the effect on Last stator in the sector being energised, this being the first stator that has to drop fully to the horizontal. The perspex top will have the cut out for the ramp extended to 220 degrees.
Testing by hand suggests that you don't have to push 4 stators down at the same time to get the rotary effect, all that is needed is a push to get it to the next stator , and you do that by knocking the last stator down before the magnet automatically knocks the next in line up

I Think i have concluded from my rambling that, The magnet or magnets on the rotor should also have their fields in the form of a ramp, ie strong to begin with then tapering off as we reach 180 degrees, This would work in unision with a physical ramp.

I would like to conduct torque mesurements, i have a digital scale 0 to 300 grams acurate to a tenth of a gram, does anyone know how i could hook this up to get some idea of the rotational force i am getting?

Well i'm still experimenting, and my Uncle Brian is coming from the uk to see me in nov, he is a retired mechanical engineer so perhaps he will see something that i can't.

I must say that acceleration and torque seem great until you try to ramp it down. But this must be posible , if you have ever played with one of these torbays you will know what i mean.

Cheers

Craig

Hi Craig,

I have an idea that might help you a lot, though it may intel a bit of redesigning of your prototype to some extent.

The orientation of the magnets on your rotor looks just like the Minato wheel in its design. If you check out http://www.fdp.nu, you can see that Mr. Minato used a large stator magnet to cause the rotor to rotate; but the interesting thing is that his rotor actually rotates in the opposite direction of yours! The problem with minute?s wheel is that the sticky spot is at the beginning of the track (back repulsion) that stops the wheel from going, but once the stator magnet is past that area, the wheel accelerates through the track, and at the end, it gets a shove away from the last magnet until it reaches the sticky spot again. But perhaps you could use that repulsive sticky spot to your advantage to life the stators in front of the track. And since the magnets are angled in the direction the wheel is rotating in, you won't have the problem you are having now with the field at the end of the track being too strong to allow the stator magnets to lower. But you will need to use stator magnets with a larger pole face though to accomplish this. The larger face will allow the stator magnet to smoothly glide over the track without getting stuck between the rotor magnets.

God Bless,
Jason O