This motor is a good flux bottle, I was trying not to destroy the original configuration by grinding or replacing windings, just simply adding neo's.
What I've seen so far is a good generator that gets extremly hard to turn when even one phase is applied to load. Possibly could be used for Hydro applications with right impeller and a way to dissipate heat, or a temporary charging arrangement attached to small internal combustion engine.
Variable Reluctance motor conversion first diary entry here:
http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2005/7/14/42640/9511
Motor is rated 120V and 2.5amps, intermittant duty @ 10 minutes on - 20 minutes off, no forced air cooling provided as-is and no open grills on cast aluminum motor bells.
N38 magnets are 1" by 1/2" by 1/4" (17 pounds pull force) for eight poles (16 mags) on a 'gear toothed' laminated rotor.
Shown in the first diary was what every-other coil in series output was, but canceling and low/no output trying for two-phase. Really interesting, placing the phases in parallel and obtaining full ouput with no complete wired circut, just the flux flowing betwen coil sets!
Here is waveform from that configuration.
10:1 multiplier at 5V per division at 1200rpm.
I next rewired coils to quad-coil sets to match the 8-pole rotor, so I get three phases of four coils each.
First try was four coils in series which yielded 212 VAC and cogged very hard - no pictures, just a near squarewave output form. Personally I didn't want to get shocked by 212VAC RMS so stopped immediately. Holding onto the motor housing laminates still gives off shocks as potentials float around - I can't measure any coil as 'shorted' or 'leaking' to ground even under high-power, there is just sharp static like shocks snapping about. A label on motor warns against touching while in operation and motor is never to be grounded.
So next I changed to four coils in parallel, 'start' leads together & 'finish' leads together. Output went through a 15 ohm power resistor - One phase gave 40VAC across resistor with 2.7 amps displayed on my Fluke DMM - 110 watts calculated using I2xR. Also saw 6+ amps at 12VAC through auto headlight capsule at about 120-150rpm before both filiments burned open.
Waveform shot here:
For the electronic gurus - the switched (variable) reluctance motor style can be turned into a generator w/o magnets by using position sensor and a "field" coil sets nested within each coil - small coils w/ precise timed pulses induce a larger flux cascade, they will be used more often in transportation in the future, the military likes them because they can take alot more damage and continue working then other motor styles.
My next step if I continue w/ this anymore would be to discard the motor housings laminate/coil section and replace with 5" PVC pipe, duplicate the 12-coil arrangement in as a air core arrangement to reduce cogging - but there are too many needy projects to continue w/ this...
