Self-sustaining DC Motor, using old 5 1/4" Floppy Drive Magnet

[sm0ky2]

I wonder if the motor is necessary? Spinning by hand and having the shaft vertical hanging by a cotton thread could be a good test. I've got a few of these drives as well as 3.5 inch ones stashed up somewhere. Might give it a go .

The shaft in my illustration is drawn way too long,. there wasn't much of a shaft to speak of in the actual build,
   the magnet was mounted directly to the gear-head on the motor shaft. It was the motor itself that caused the effect.
somewhere in the combination of the motor coils, its' own internal magnets, and the sectional magnet from the Drive.
I did try spinning it by hand, and I couldn't seem to get up enough RPM to cause the effect that way....
im not sure if the electric field has anything to do with it, or just RPM of the spinning magnetic field.


I'm not sure if the shield-plate is necessary, or what effect that had on the whole thing, I left it on there out of convenience.
   it gave a nice hole to mount it with, and the magnets are kind of hard to separate from the shield-plate without breaking them.

I didn't try with the 3.5 inch, not sure what the magnets from those are like... but it might be something to look into as well.

[Low-Q]

Maybe an old harddrive will be just as suitable for this experiment - in case you cannot find another floppy drive.


Little off topic: First time you open a harddrive, just take a moment to look at the mirror polished disc. It is the cleanest place on earth. No specs, no dirt, finger prints, nothing. But try to close your eyes and imagine a mirror polished surface without specs or marks on it. It's impossible :-)


Vidar

[Pirate88179]

Maybe an old harddrive will be just as suitable for this experiment - in case you cannot find another floppy drive.


Little off topic: First time you open a harddrive, just take a moment to look at the mirror polished disc. It is the cleanest place on earth. No specs, no dirt, finger prints, nothing. But try to close your eyes and imagine a mirror polished surface without specs or marks on it. It's impossible :-)


Vidar

I opened a failed hard drive a few months ago and the polished disk had ketchup and mustard all over it.  Of course, I was eating a cheeseburger at the time and it might have come from me...ha ha.

Good point though, those are assembled in clean rooms that use positive air pressure to keep dirt and dust out of the area.  A very cool technology especially when you remember that the first hard drives had hardly any memory capacity and were huge!  We have come a long way in a short time.

Bill

[sm0ky2]

Maybe an old harddrive will be just as suitable for this experiment - in case you cannot find another floppy drive.


Little off topic: First time you open a harddrive, just take a moment to look at the mirror polished disc. It is the cleanest place on earth. No specs, no dirt, finger prints, nothing. But try to close your eyes and imagine a mirror polished surface without specs or marks on it. It's impossible :-)


Vidar

maybe you have something else in mind, as I've opened hundreds of these, and there are pieces inside that can be recycled,..
   magnets, polished disks, stepper motors, etc..  but nothing that resembles the sectional magnet found in the old 5 1/4" floppy drives.
http://hackedgadgets.com/2007/05/10/magnetic-viewing-paper/

this is the magnet, & shielding plate, notice how it is magnetized in sections. I didn't find much on how these are actually made, or pieced together, what have you. but I believe it is this arrangement that has the most to do with the effect.

[shylo]

Hi smokey, In that link it says that the white lines are the separations between fields.
So the outer rim is a saw tooth pattern?
Other than that you would just need a steel plate with alternating magnets placed evenly around?
How many poles are there on your disc?
Interesting , wish I had one of those to test, maybe it has to do with that saw tooth pattern.
artv