Switched Flux Reluctance Generator

last updated:25 May 2002

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Switched Reluctance Generator

Previously I used a (Radio Shack) 18V DC electric motor to drive this generator, but these motors were inefficient and tended to burn out. This is a top view a a simple adams type motor I built to drive the generator. The wooden disc in the middle contains 4 radial bar magnets. The black cylinder on the left is a ferrite core wound with enameled wire. It is the drive coil. The two pieces of wood at the top each contain a reed switch (wired in parallel). This motor gets its timing from the same magnets used to drive it (only 90 degrees apart).

This is the bottom view showing the switched reluctance generator. The cores are (Radio Shack) transformers, machined in to 'C' cores and rewound with 20 gauge wire (only 2 are visible). There are 2 DC (mag field) coils and 2 AC (generator) coils. In the middle is a rotating core with straight pieces of laminated iron used to make and break a 'magnetic circuit'.

This is a side view of the driving Adams motor. The magnets inbeaded in the wooden rotor are visible here.

This is an o-scope trace showing the timing pulses for the driving circuit. This generator had a lot of drag (I assume hysterisis drag from the iron cores) In future experiments I will probably try to replace the laminated iron with ferrite cores.

This is an illistration of the bottom view of the magnetic circuit. There are two iron strip (on the bottom and two on the top) of a wooden core that are in the center of DC and AC coils. The DC coils generate the magentic fields, which are transfered through the rotating iron strips to the AC pick up coils.

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