Hi Dave,
The thing about the power drill is not trivial.
If you test in condition 1 and get one output curve, and then test in condition 2 and get another output curve, then all you know is that something changed.
But if you aren't watching the
input power, then you could be mistaking a change in power with a change in speed range, or worse, fooling yourself that there is any improvement at all. Even in the best case, you would want to know input power, to get the blades to match the generator characteristics. If the blades get stalled, then no amount of capacitors on the generator will correct it.
As I said, I went back to the old threads on the Backshed and started re-reading them. You'd better take a look at the comments from "HerbNZ" in the "Visual effect of capcitors" thread from GWatPE in particular, approximately page 20. I don't think the inductance explanation has legs. The other theories have merit, but by the time they were put forward, nobody still reading was interested in figuring out the rest.
I may have jumped to the wrong opinion when you started this subject. Since that old thread was poorly resolved, and didn't offer any method to judge what capacitors to use when, despite being 40+ pages long, I think there's still room to step in and offer a better solution. If you're willing to help, this will go faster than if I have to figure it out on my own.
To see the kind of test I'm talking about:
http://www.sparweb.ca/3_Gen_MoCo/Baldy.htmlIt's not necessary to go nuts with a lathe like that - I just had access to one, and it was big enough to drive the generator up to 2kW+. For your tests, all you need to do is put the washer drum back in the washing machine and, presto, you have a smooth bearing-mounted axle that the F&P generator can drive, while a prony brake holds the drum. Torque * RPM = Input power. Output power / Input power = efficiency