ZFM Advanced Explorations

[Yaro1776]

Greetings to all,

Since the last post the YZFM has been outfitted with a modified rotor with a longer and slimmer Neo set attached to one of the soft iron rotors on hand. This rotor was the original unit used for the 2017 Conference demo outfitted with a 1"Dx0.375"T Neo's. The intent of this rotor modification was to extend the length of the rotor Neo's beyond the width of the coil and to narrow the width and thickness of the Neo's to reduce the sensitivity with respect to timing.

In a set of prior experiments it was observed that moving the motor body axially, thereby shifting the rotor centerline in either direction with respect to the coils centerline, had a minimal impact upon the performance of the YZFM. The conclusion from these experiments strongly suggested the field of the coils was fairly wide and could accept a longer magnet and thus increase the YZFM performance.

0224181416.jpg

Not quite as simple as envisioned and the logical assumption here was a bit flawed. A simple experiment with the new rotor using a paperclip attached to light string demonstrated that the magnetic field of the Neo pole face was not evenly distributed along the edge of the length. Very wrong - this experiment conclusively showed that the maximum field strength was in the center of the pole face. Therefore, any position of the center of the pole Neo face within the width of the coil has a minimal affect on the motors performance irrespective of the tested Neo's length. This observation has been verified with 3 different rotors and Neo sizes.

The overall magnetic strength of the Neo's drives the ZFM to greater torque capabilities, but this comes with a penalty. The motor responds to the stronger Neo's with a greater amperage draw and some decrease in maximum speed, along with a greater sensitivity to changes in advance/retard and length of powered on pulse.

As it turned out the previous experiments with the Ron Cole configuration damaged the the Bipolar Switch transistors and reed switches. The initial trials of this rotor produced inconsistent results and quickly degenerated into erratic and strange behavior of the motor. The net result was that the motor stopped and the amperage reads spiked to maximum. Upon inspection it was noted that the reed switches appeared to be damaged and two board transistor were fried and the other two damaged.

The initial data sets did show that the 2" rotor would produce the following:
36.06v 9573 RPM 0.84A
48.05v 10312 RPM 0.92A
60.00v 11780 RPM 1.09A

Next up will be further data sets and video for documentation purposes.

[Yaro1776]

It took a couple of weeks to repair the Bipolar switch board and replace the four transistors. The replacement reed switches for the timing were a higher amp rating than the originals and altered the timing substantially. This necessitated re-calibrating the Timing rotor Neo's and so on... Just a major cluster and a pain in the left nostril delaying any further work.

Finally, the YZFM is now back to operating fairly closely to the original configuration and with a limit to maximum operating voltage of about 48v. The Ron Cole two pole configuration rotor has been placed on the back shelf for testing in late summer or fall. This R Cole configuration can produce some intense reaction between the various magnetic fields as briefly noted in the first RC video. The movement of the motor body at a specific advance and high voltage range was reproduced three times and ultimately damaged the reeds and transistors. The why of this reaction is unknown at this time.

Moving on. The performance of the 2"Lx0.5"Tx0.5"W Neo rotor versus the 1.5"Lx1"Wx0.5"T Neo rotor was relatively similar given that the overall magnetic pull force of the longer Neo's was about 10% less than the shorter Neo's - (60 lbs vs 67 lbs). However, this configuration is not as gutsy torque-wise at the lower RPM's. Due to the re-calibration of the system it does make it difficult to nail the differences/similarities with a high degree of certainty. One has to bear in mind that the shorter 1.5"Rotor is Aluminum, whereas the 2" rotor is soft Iron - to date, no major differences in the performance between the rotors' material.

To illustrate the performance of this 2" long rotor configuration see the two attached charts depicting motor parameters with respect to performance. The charts should be mostly self explanatory:
AmpvsRPM2inIR.pdf
Power COP 2inchIR.pdf

For detail purposes the FA or Firing Angle was 70 to 75 degrees for the readings depicted. The data points are for firing advances of 30 to 83 degrees. One can observe that the best performance is essentially in the mid range advance of 50 to 70 degrees. This tends to a more balanced mode of attraction and repulsion. The greatest speeds are observed as the advance is pushed to maximum, but with a COP and amperage penalty.

Also, another boring video, YZFM 13.1, will be attached to the next post of the latest YZFM mod operation - nothing new from an entertainment value, but documentation is always good.

Happy Spring,
Yaro

[Yaro1776]

Spring greetings to all,

In the last post there are two charts that give a good overview of the YZFM's performance characteristics with the 2"L Neo's. In general, the overall performance is similar to the stronger 1.5"Lx1.0"Wx0.5"T Neo rotor. The overall power output from this configuration is in ft-lbs/sec which are a direct reflection of the power calculation. If so desired, one can modify this to Hp and watts by multiplying the values with a constant.

The COP calculation or motor efficiency percentage is based on the input amperage and voltage. For ease of calculation the input amperage is taken from the power supply readout. Cross checking this value with a DC clamp on meter does verify the accuracy of the amp reading. However, the computer's on screen reads are typically lower by over 10% at times, even though the TET amp sensor is on the power supply's output. This discrepancy can be attributed to the fact that the BiPolar switch is reversing the voltage to the coils at a rate up to 400 times per second at 12,000 RPM. The calculation method is different!

So the amperage is also being pulsed and reversed at this rate and unfortunately each pulse value is not identical. The coils see this reversal constantly and in an ideal world the subsequent DC value would be "zero" amps. However, in reality what is produced is a thin band around the zero amp value. So the amp wave is similar to an AC wave with unpowered pauses, though at a fairly high frequency that most common inexpensive instruments can't handle with accuracy. What a mess!

For the sake of convenience and consistency the simple route is taken by reading the DC amp output from the power supply. As a result the efficiency calculations, though consistent, may not accurately describe the System Efficiency Percent Value.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miqdbNlfUqk

Pretty much finished with this aspect of the YZFM and onward to the new ZFM design based on all the experiments and testing to date. Catch up with you later after this summer's hiatus.

[Deuis]

Hi Yaro,

have you seen any reason other than structural rigidity or cost as to the selection of rotor material?

Thanks,
deuis.

[Yaro1776]

Hi Yaro,

have you seen any reason other than structural rigidity or cost as to the selection of rotor material?

Thanks,
deuis.

Hello John,

At this point the rotor material is a non issue for basic ZFM experimentation, in my opinion - if you live north of the Arctic circle, or the Antarctic circle if that applies, an ice cube would probably work with liberal wraps of shipping tape to retain the Neo's.

Jesting aside, to date there has been no significant difference observed between the different ZFM rotor materials. However, this may not be the case as the motor's performance is refined - early days as yet.

The suggestion here is to use what is at hand or easily available. At low RPM's the interplay of the various magnetic fields does not appear to be impacted by the rotor material, but as the RPM's are increased other things and affects come into play.

The timing provided by the small Neo's and reed switches is OK to use for low RPM's, but around 10,000 RPM the magnetic field produced by larger motor Neo's induces some unusual behavior to the timing. The 4 pole motor fortunately works best torque-wise well below that threshold.

Spring in Vermont means slugging through the back roads mud - the term mucking around is very apropos.

[Deuis]

Thanks mate,
I'll fuel up the ice breaker and get me some rotors.

[Yaro1776]

Hello to everyone,

After taking an extended break from posting due to many Spring speed bumps and post 2018 Conference blues, I am back at it again. This time around I thought that it would be entertaining to disclose some of the weird and strange effects experienced during ZFM testing this past year. Some have been proofed, while others are on hold. I will list all these in a random order and will attempt to hit everyone in separate posts as the summer progresses. Should be engaging fun or at least entertaining until the next round of ZFM testing begins in October.

1) Induction heating experiment of ZFM motor coils
2) Dueling ZFM's experiment
3) Ron Cole Air coil motor experiments and toasting of Bedini Cole switch transistors
4) Apparent axial motion of reed switch mount at high RPM from magnetic fields
5) Amperage read mismatch between coil sensor and power supply amp display of more than 25% at different input voltages (interestingly the coil amperages are higher)
6) ZFM capacitor test (harvesting spike energy) and resulting in a totally fried board and tripping the power breaker
7) O-scope video showing three distinct voltage and amperage dancing wave forms at a steady speed of 7200 RPM
8) Spreadsheet depicting torque test results of the JZFM demonstrating the reason why accurate data and notes are of great importance to identifying seeming anomalies.

Some of the above have been replicated at least three times or more on separate test runs. Some results may just be an aberration, while some may be a glimpse into the unknown. The ZFM is an experimenters delight, or for some, a continuing nightmare.

[Yaro1776]

Back in March a simple experiment was performed with two strips 3.5"Lx0.5"Wx0.125"T of low carbon steel - stuff on hand from Ace Hardware. The two straight strips were placed next to the outside diameter of each coil and taped into position. Essentially simulating an internal inside core for each coil with the intent to gauge the impact on performance of the ZFM.

First a quick run of the ZFM at nominal voltages of 24v, 36v and 48v without the strips to establish an overall baseline.
24v 5868 RPM at 0.30A
36v 8137 RPM at 0.40A
48v 9948 RPM at 0.53A

Tape the strips to the coils and run; yielding at 36v 7600 RPM at 0.48A with a slight warming of the metal strips. So the speed drops and the amperage increases.

Now the two strips were each bent to form an arc that would fit the outside diameter of each coil and taped into position.
W/o the arc strips 36v 8010 RPM at 0.40A
With the arc strips 36v 7095 RPM at 0.61A and operated for three minutes with speed dropping to 6800+ RPM and 0.63A. There was an arc strip and coil surface temp rise from 78F to 98F.

Next experiment a torque load of 300grams was applied yielding the following:
Without Arc Strips and no load 36v 8094 RPM at 0.43A
Without Arc strips and with load 36.5v 4930 RPM at 1.03A; temp relatively the same.

With Arc strips and loaded 36v 4271 RPM at 1.65A run for a minute with Temp increasing to 110F

For another reference point;
With arc strips and no load 48v 8990 RPM at 0.79A with rapid warming of strips
Without arc strips and no load 48v 10035 RPM at 0.55A.
It was noted the arc strips had no magnetic field after the experiment - could not attract a small paperclip.
Done with this experiment.

This experiment demonstrated that placing low carbon steel strips on the face of the coil negatively impacts the performance of the ZFM (RPM and Amperage) and appears to produce inductive heating. Inductive heating is produced by rapid oscillation of the induced fields - a well known method used in industry.

The ZFM, when operated at speed, reverses polarity at a relatively high rate and mimics the inductive method used for heating metal components. The above results imply that an internal low carbon steel coil core in the ZFM at high speeds will not improve performance and will induce inductive heating. A separate test with a magnetic iron core will be performed in the future to verify the results of the above experiment.

Happy Summer!

[Yaro1776]

Hello to All,

Well a window of time appeared due to the late summer wet weather pattern, so it was appropriate to become engaged in one project that has sat for awhile. This project was to modify the existing YZFM series coil arrangement to a bifilar configuration to each coil and to observe the impact upon performance. Some have said that the bifilar or multifilar approach is not very effective.

Okay let us check this out by taking the each 4 strand (Each strand 75 ft of #20 wire) coil and modifying the circuit to two 150 ft strands wired in parallel then tying in both coils in series. The original resistance in the full series circuit was about 6 ohms. The modified bifilar circuit in the two coil series was measured at about 1.7 ohms.

So when this was fired up at 24v the YZFM accelerated to about twice the normal series circuit speed. Not surprising, in that bifilar circuit resistance was almost 1/4 of the original series circuit. You can view the data comparison between the series and bifilar circuits in the spreadsheet data .pdf below. Interesting to note that the power efficiency remained about the same while the torque curve shifted upward to higher speeds. Very Interesting. Certainly an improvement in part. Circuit diagrams are also there in a .pdf format. Apologize for making you work a bit to view the data and schematic.

BiFilar 24vTorque2018.pdf
ZFM Series Bifilar.pdf

Some may opine that these advanced experiments are useless, since they do not display the Holy Grail. True, but each step clarifies the path and subsequent steps to the goal.

So what would happen if the circuit is returned back to the original two coil series arrangement and then reconfigured so that the two coils are now in parallel? Hmmm...

[Deuis]

Beautiful work Yaro.