How a Testatika motor works?

[sm0ky2]

another update on my modified wimshurst::::

learned sometihng new tonight about charge vs radius...
making the sectors 2x the size also made the gap between them too small for the charge they collected = "spark over" between the sectors across the face of each disk...

so, the largest i was able to go was about 1.5 the size, there is a noticible increase in charge-rate, not the 2x i was hoping for, but i'll call it +50% (estimated by surface area of the sectors, and verified by spark frequency @ 1/4".

after piddling around with this most of the night i have decided that if i want more spark than i currently have, i need larger disks.

Conclusion::  if you intent on modifying your wimshurst to increase the charge-rate, only increase the size of the sectors by +50% of the factory specs, more than that causes inherent problems in the design.

i'll build a large one eventually, but for now::: back to the conversion process.

i dont think the source of your static electricity matters, as long as you have an ML-converter to turn the HV/low current into LV/high current.
i watched a video years ago, where Paul explicitly stated the machine was run by a motor - some of the electricity produced was piped back in to drive the motor.
HOWEVER::: in Stephans translation of a 30-engineer study done on the machine, Paul reportedly told them that the laws of attraction and repulsion between the charged plates was what kept the disks moving...  This may have been said intentionally to throw them off.
either way the alleged output of the testatika is far more than the draw off a small motor, so such details are seemingly irrelevant.

The 'heart' of the machine ( in my opinion) lies in the external circuitry (cross-linked converters/capacitors) - and possibly the feedback of charge to the surface of the disk (3rd capacitor in the center).   i'll start first with the 2 capacitors.

Charge is fed into the center of these layered-cans. Paul claims there is a coil there. (im not sure wether that fact is true or not, doesnt make much sense to me...)
From my earlier testing, i believe that charge is then induced in the perforated layers throughout the can. from the last layer inside the can, charge is picked up and fed through an inductor in a magnetic field* this is important, as it polarizes the electricity.
"tames" it if you will...  it will still spark through the impedance of the air but, the sparks are straight and narrow, not 'static' and everywhere like we're used to seeing.
theres a noticable difference with and without the magnetic inductor.   
it is then sent BACK INTO the machine through the 3rd cap(huh?)
secondary leads from the layered-caps ( might be the other end of the input coils? but that doesnt make sense either...) goes around the opposite 'pole' of the magnetic inductor and these are the DC outputs of the machine. The very outer surface of the layered-caps are linked to each other, depending on which Testitaka you are observing they may be linked to each other (common ground)
or linked to their opposite charge (opposing ground).

in addition to this inductance/capacitance circuit, there is also several + to + , - to - circuits around the machine, these are supposedly to 'balance' the charges around the disk, further than the cross-arms are capable of.

That's where i stand so far.
any thoughts, experimental results, suggestions??

[Overmind]

Did someone say that when 2 plates of a capacitor  with a charge on them are brought closer together
the voltage drops, but the charge stays the same?

The energy of an electron or spherical capacitor (as it's equivalent) is constant no matter the range of the electron/capacitor.