about charging batteries

[prometei]

You'll find that the light will switch off abruptly when the wheel hits resonance and the amps drop.

Or maybe the potentiometer is faulty   

Are your batts sla or gels?

They are sealed lead acid batteries

[Ren]

Ok cool.

my comment regarding the pot may not have been descriptive enough.

Do this. Place an analogue (ONLY) gauge in the negative leg of the front end. Set pot to average amp draw and give it a spin. Watch the amps rise and fall, a bit like changing gears, as the wheel picks up speed. My plexiglass rotor will draw up to 210 ma on startup but as it reaches top speed it wavers back to 130ma and sits quite comfortably in its little sweet spot. Of course I can further reduce the amp draw, it can run on 25ma, but I want to push some current depending on the size of the battery. My point is in its sweet spot the light should not be lit.

My other trifilar can be set so that the light will come on as the speed is increasing, but abruptly switches off when it reaches running speed. The light doesnt have to come on at all, but try to find a setting where you see the amps fluctuate a couple of times as the wheel speeds up. This is an indication of the pulses per magnet pass changing.

Your pot could be faulty, when you find an ideal resistance for your batteries,  replace it with a fixed resistor.

[prometei]

@Ren thanks for your input. Do you have any videos, pictures of your motor?

Another thing I've noticed is that if I set the resistance to max, around 1100 ohms, and give the rotor a spin it will spin fast but if I start the motor at around 200 ohms and then gradually increase the resistance while the rotor is picking up speed, the rotor will spin faster when the resistance reaches 1100 ohms, faster than if started at 1100ohms. I'm gonna get an RPM meter soon to see if it is so.

[Ren]

check out some of my motors @ youtube. User name shannrenn.

As for your resistance, its easier to get it up to speed with a lower resistance and then choke it at full speed, especially if the rotor has a bit of weight for a flywheel effect.

[Feynman]

@prometei, Ren

Did you guys drill your trifilar windings?  I am building a Bedini motor this weekend.