Magnetic OU principle, You should really take a look at this !

[Blainiac]

@Derricka:

Thanks, and I know what you mean about obvious means being tried...  I didn't know about the rotation varying with the spread of the 'piston', and I understand what you mean about changing the ring with the changes in the piston.  I am just hoping that having the magnets pulled to a constant presence of steel, instead of wanting to pull towards a group of plates and not wanting to slip by, will eliminate the effects.  I think there were some linear magnet tests to confirm this, but I'm not sure...  Do you have any pictures or video of your design?  I'm always intrigued by others designs!

Blain

[derricka]

Hi Blainiac,

I disassembled my original "plate" setup months ago, in order to do other experiments, but I still had the transformer laminations (on two carbon fiber rods), and the rotor.
Originally, I had two magnet horsehoes mounted to the rotor, and the laminations were fixed onto the support at the back of the base. I took a photo of the remaining items for you.
The rotor is a 17cm diameter Acrylic disc mounted onto a hard drive bearing.

[Blainiac]

Awesome work Derricka!  I think I may use similar materials when I build my project.  When you were running tests, you mentioned how at different compression states the rotor would have altered force acting upon the rotation?  I think Mr. La Fonte taped a similar phenomenon, and something with the airgap between the plates to change the rotation...

I'm not sure.  If it was part of your testing, was it more difficult for the rotor to pass when they were compressed or expanded?  Did you try differing numbers of plates stacked?  What happened when you let the rotor go?  Did it make many revolutions, if any?

I'm going to invest in a similar setup and see where it goes!  Sorry for bugging you as well!     Thanks for posting the picture and some specifications!

[derricka]

When separated, the plates experience noticeably more force towards the gap between the magnet poles, and it takes noticeably more force for them to leave separated.  I tried using the rotational energy of the rotor to collapse the plates (with a cam) before exit, but the forces canceled out enough, that I didn't see any gain from this setup. With a spring pushing plates together, spinning the rotor became very noisy, the plates slammed apart entering the magnetic field, making a "Chak Chak Chak" kind of sound. A fast spin with the hand gave it only about 10-15 revolutions.

[Butch LaFonte]

When separated, the plates experience noticeably more force towards the gap between the magnet poles, and it takes noticeably more force for them to leave separated.  I tried using the rotational energy of the rotor to collapse the plates (with a cam) before exit, but the forces canceled out enough, that I didn't see any gain from this setup. With a spring pushing plates together, spinning the rotor became very noisy, the plates slammed apart entering the magnetic field, making a "Chak Chak Chak" kind of sound. A fast spin with the hand gave it only about 10-15 revolutions.

Derricka,
Have you noticed that when you close the air gap between the plates and the magnet poles to a point where they are in near contact that there is no force required to bring the plates back together?
Butch