Cooling effects in Steorn eOrbo

[PaulLowrance]

I just repeated another control experiment. I removed the toroid, and point the IR gun at the magnet, then turned on the dremel motor. The temperature never decreased, and in fact in about 5 seconds time the magnet temperature increased by 0.2°F.

[Vortex1]

Consider that this could be a case of electrostatic cooling from a charge accumulating on the spinning plastic holding the magnets due to air friction.

The electrostatic charge could also work its way into the speed control circuit and bleed charge off the trigger capacitor causing rpm's to drop.

If the dremel is of the double insulated type, a considerable electrostatic charge could accumulate.

The toroid needs to be "grounded"  to the scope or power supply for a source of charge (and some ambient heat) to be ripped from it by the charged rotating plastic.

A control study would be to replace the toroid with something mildly  conductive and approximately the same size that would not allow eddy current production from the spinning magnets. A chunk of carbon etc. Now try this with and without ground.

If you have an electrostatic meter handy bring it near the spinning dremel to see if charge is accumulating on the plastic causing the electrostatic cooling effect. This cooling effect is common around high voltage DC power supplies typically the electrostatic type.

I have often felt the cooling effect when playing with small electrostatic power supplies.

Best of Luck...V

[PaulLowrance]

Nice theory, but if one does the calculations it would need millions of volts to decrease the temperature of this by 2.5°F. There's just zero chance that this is due to electrostatic cooling. Also I've done numerous control experiments that showed no cooling effect from the spinning magnets.

BTW, not that it matters any, but the toroid is grounded to the scope and dual power supply.

[PaulLowrance]

Forgot to mention that according to my meter the highest rpm during todays experiment was 9850 rpm's.

Just judging by ear, I would definitely say that the dremel went to much higher rpms yesterday, so it probably went over 10000 rpms yesterday.

[Vortex1]

Electrostatic cooling is well documented and does not take "millions of volts"

e.g.


LASER BEAM REFLECTOR SYSTEM
United States Patent 3703813
An electrically conductive laser beam reflector is cooled by a high voltage electrostatic field created between the reflector and a probe spaced from the surface of the reflector on the same side of the reflector as the impinging laser beam. The cooling effect by the electrostatic field is of essentially the same distribution as the heating effect of the laser beam thus eliminating different and varying temperatures gradients in the reflector and the resulting distortions in the beam.