STEPPER MOTOR GENERATOR MEETS BALL MAGNET

[magnetman12003]

Hi Guys,

I was experimenting with a stepper motor and a nearby ball magnet was attracted to its metal case. By chance it landed on the "Sweet Spot"   My U tube movie shows and tells all.  Maybe someone can tell me whats going on??      Try it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bHyJDbd9og&feature=channel_page

Tom

[ATT]

Looks like you increased the magnetic field that the rotor cuts through, increasing the output.

Was it harder to turn the shaft when the ball-magnet was in-place than when it wasn't (might not have been that noticeable with an LED load)?

[magnetman12003]

I found that turning a 400 step motor is like turning a very fine tooth mechanical thumb ratchet.  With the ball magnet on the motors casing the turning felt not so very fine toothed but offered the same resistance??   I am now going to see what a 1 inch sphere magnet does.  I just hope I dont ruin the stepper motor in the process.

Something inside the stepper motor is latched onto the ball magnets energy field and that is very apparent

Tom

[ATT]

You won't hurt anything if you're just turning it by hand.

Now, if you were to drive it with another motor (like with a flexible shaft-coupler) rather than turning it by hand and you had a low-resistance load on it, you could, conceivably, burn the windings in your stepper-gen.

Try that (the motor-generator thing) with a couple of cheap radio shack dc motors (you can try the external booster-magnet thing on them too).

Tony