Scientilosopher's Domain: Dia-Mag-X Alternator

Diametrically Magnetized Alternator

We'll start with the Dia-Mag-6. This is the best test so far...

And a look at the magnetic field...

Synchronizing Gears...

Evolution of the DiaMag Alternator

I had studied the ideas of Axial Flux and Radial Flux Alternators. My big idea was to make sort of a hybrid using ideas from both. An Axial Flux alternator has coils between two magnets in a disk, while the Radial Flux alternator has coils around a cylinder. The fundamental principle is the same, but two different methods. So I build a little mock up to exploring the concept...

The mockup allowed me to toy with the magnets and see what they would do. After a while I decided to build a hard version with aluminum plates. I put a small coil between the magnets, and drove the shaft of one of the magnets with my drill. the result, about a Volt...

One magnet is driven, and the other follows the magnetic field orientation of the other magnet. This was extremely crude, and not efficient. I needed to make a better alternator, and didn't know much about how to do it. So the quest began. The second prototype, DiaMag2 had 1/8" square Iron rods for the core material...

I needed more windings to get the Voltage up, and also figured I needed more Iron in the coil cores. I had limited space for the windings and needed bigger cores. At this point I didn't know I needed to balance the Iron around the magnets to keep them from motoring on the Iron blocks. Motoring means the poles of the magnets want to stick to the cores and not move. This makes turning the shaft very hard...

The photo above is DiaMag3. I did get the Iron blocks in there, and I have more winding space, but the magnets motored hard on the blocks, and had no balance. So, the next logical step was to build a core that completely surrounded the magnets radially with Iron. So I took a stack of Iron sheets and set out to build another core. DiaMag4 and 5 were similar to DiaMag3, both had an imbalanced core. DiaMag6 is balanced because the iron surrounds the magnets...

It was at this point I also decided to try a magnet motor to drive the DiaMag6 Alternator. So I build this adapter plate to couple the two together. I am still developing the two together.

DiaMag6 was moderately successful. I think the maximum Voltage it generated was around 18.5 Volts, 0.5 Watts. This is good. I had multiplicative revolutions about designing and manufacturing alternators while building DiaMag6...

There are gears that synchronize the three magnets. These had some issues in binding, and I had to align the magnets and adjust the mechanical construct to get everybody happy. Also added some more Iron to be the Field return Path Bars. This increased the efficiency...

After all the adjusting, I began testing. So, it turns out that DiaMag6 is not a very efficient alternator. But it does produce current, and it works good for a development platform for the UABMM, and it is still in use for that purpose. Once I get the UABMM working I'll need to make a more efficient alternator.

This is where DiaMag7 comes into the picture. In DiaMag7 we eliminated Iron, and any other ferrous metals, its an Air Core alternator. I changed to more traditional windings, which will hopefully make it more efficient. Making DiaMag7 an air core alternator makes it a LOT easier to build. I can use aluminum, and I only need two sheets, not 18 Iron sheets like DiaMag6. I am in development of the DiaMag7 now...