Induced magnetic field to overcome sticky spots

[Onevoice]

Hi @Greendoor,

I agree with you on functional grounds, but I have to disagree with you on the reason why. If you stack up a bunch of nonworking wheels, the sum of the torque on all of the unstuck ones is expended by unsticking the stuck one. When you consider that a magnetic field's strength follows the inverse square law, and that the wheels are stacked so that the one magnet at the lowest energy state (closest attraction or farthest repulsion) must be moved to the highest energy state (farthest attraction or lowest repulsion), then its going to take a pretty big stack to move.

Steven's principle and the COE law predict that in a simple wheel mock up, the amount of energy needed to overcome a sticky spot is roughly equal to the amount of energy that can obtained across the entire rest of the wheel. - Hence, your statement about the stack of non-runners holds true. The best than can be obtained is zero energy gain.

The sticky spot must be mitigated and must be done so in a way that requires less energy than the energy of the sticky spot. This scenario results in a net gain. My approach to do this is to use another permanent magnet as a controller to ease the wheel past the spot and use a very low energy method to control the "switch" on this controller magnet. At least that is the theory...

[resonanceman]

That  brings  up a question that I  can't answer .
Is it possible for  a perment magnet  to  saturate   a   magnetic  conductor  like  this iron ? 
For  example .........could the  end  of the iron close to the magnet  be  ran paralell  to  the magnet  under the  other end  and  be tapered to a point  so it  would   be 
Or maybe  if the close  end  could be  pounded  very thin ........one  side of this thin area  could be  close to the magnet  the  other  could actually  be connected to the start    forming   a loop 

gary

After thinking about it a little  .
I think that if you put a small  coil  on the start  of  your iron  (  the part farthest  from the magnets )
And you had a fairly thin  iron  connection  in between the ends of the iron 
If   the  coil  was set up  to  opposite  polarity  to the  magnet so that it pulls .......it would  help   your magnets  flux to jump to the  start   
I am also pretty sure that  if the  iron connection was narrow  enough   the  section that  is the end now  would flip  polarity ,,,  also helping   to bump   the magnets flux  to the start


gary

[Onevoice]

Lets look at it a different way. What if, instead of the coil, I had another permanent magnet situated near to the stator that was aimed and matched to induce the same kind of field. In between the stator and that magnet, we have a thin sheet of steel. The steel can act as a gate to turn the field at the stator on and off. If the steel is moved perpendicular to the field, then the effects of the field itself can be cancelled out. If I can balance the steel with springs, other magnets shields etc to minimize the energy required to move it, can I lower the amount of energy needed to move it below the threshold of torque generated by the sum of the remaining (unstuck) rotor magnets? If so, then a really low tech mechanical switch can shift the shield as each rotor magnet approaches the end of the stator loop. I was also toying with alternating the poles on the rotor and building the switch as a rotating wheel. When the first magnet passes the threshold, the switch will already be setup for the next magnet's approach.

[resonanceman]

Lets look at it a different way. What if, instead of the coil, I had another permanent magnet situated near to the stator that was aimed and matched to induce the same kind of field. In between the stator and that magnet, we have a thin sheet of steel. The steel can act as a gate to turn the field at the stator on and off. If the steel is moved perpendicular to the field, then the effects of the field itself can be cancelled out. If I can balance the steel with springs, other magnets shields etc to minimize the energy required to move it, can I lower the amount of energy needed to move it below the threshold of torque generated by the sum of the remaining (unstuck) rotor magnets?

I  don't have enough  experience to  know if that would work
It does sound like it would be really  tricky

If so, then a really low tech mechanical switch can shift the shield as each rotor magnet approaches the end of the stator loop. I was also toying with alternating the poles on the rotor and building the switch as a rotating wheel. When the first magnet passes the threshold, the switch will already be setup for the next magnet's approach.

HHHmmmm
you  want a really low tech  mechanical  switch .

I have a  very  half baked idea for you . 
Using  the  pole  flipping   we were talking  about  .
If you made a  second  rotor ...... with  2 magnets on it ....probably  larger magnets
The  second  rotor  would  be  set up to act on the  outside of the same  iron  stator .
It  would  be   geared to  run in the oppasite direction .....at twice the speed .
The big  question is ......if this  was set up  right  could  it  be set up  to cause the   rotors  to temporaraly  flip   the polarity in the  stator  for each other

Edit

My intuition  tells me to focus on the  stator  start / end  section .........45 degrees  from the magnet paths .
I  have a very vague  image in my mind of the   magnetic  fields   apporoching the  start / stop  area    the   fields   move  down the  thin  connection  between the   start / stop . .......  then the  fields seem to bounce .

gary 

[Onevoice]

Hi All,

I've been working on the trigger for the stator. Thanks for the ideas @Resonance et. al. Below are pictures of my first attempt to build a shielded trigger mechanism. The idea is that the shield blocks alternating N and S magnetic fields. The fields are then used to cancel out the rotor magnet's attraction to the iron stator. Also, because the trigger magnets are moving in a direction perpendicular to the shield, the trigger won't show resistance to movement. This is actually very similar to a device patented by Steorn. I don't know if their patent covers this too, I'm not a lawyer, I'm a wana be inventor..I still haven't gotten this working like I want. It has very low flux density coming through the hole The 1/4 x 1 neos also just don't pack the same punch as magnets with larger surfaces on their poles.
The bearing I'm using came from the arm of an old hard drive. Very high precision and low resistance. The ends are compatible with #4-40 screws.

Has anyone out there successfully built a device similar to this. Any ideas how close the magnets should be to the shield or how large the hole needs to be?