What's wrong with my circuit?

[adamo21]

Hey guys. I have very very little experience in circuits, and wiring, soldering etc..

I built this circuit using a bread-board and for the wire's used 22AWG magnet wire.

When everything is hooked up nothing happens, I think it's because the magnet wire had a coating so it wasn't making proper contact? Should I strip the coating using a razor blade? Or use 16AWG wire thats easier to make contact?

I have plenty of options on how to connect the wires, I bought plenty of alligator clips, crimp's with open U shaped ends(Seen on left of pic). I also have plenty of electrical tape...I'm not sure which one to use, so many choices...help please!

I have been following the video here YouTube - How to Build a Bedini Motor ... Part 2 to build the circuit

Here is what I have so far...

[Joit]

HI,
yes remove the coating with a box cutter or any similar,
it is a pretty good isolator.
You can even see with a ohmmeter, if there is a connection with your wires, when you bridge it.

[zhorv324]

[QUOTE=adamo21;108552]Hey guys. I have very very little experience in circuits, and wiring, soldering etc..

I built this circuit using a bread-board and for the wire's used 22AWG magnet wire.

When everything is hooked up nothing happens, I think it's because the magnet wire had a coating so it wasn't making proper contact? Should I strip the coating using a razor blade? Or use 16AWG wire thats easier to make contact?

that is problem , you mast strip the coating

[adamo21]

lol, ok guys, thanks. Ill bump this thread with a post with my next question keep an eye out for me

[patmac]

adamo21

I would like give you a few recommedantions:

Where is the neon bulb?. Protoboard run risk disconnections, then if you charging batt is disconnected when the Energizer runs fast then 3055 is easily burned if neon flash this protects the transistor, I recommend you to buy MJ15015 is near to be identical to 3055 but support higher voltage C-E @100 volts vs 50 volts on 3055 so your money is more secure. But in country the 21194 transitor is easily found so even better.

Rick Friedrich for example recommend test the circuit with low voltage 6 volts for example to detect short circuit and bugs without makes smoke. Please if your energizer don't run then you need test your transistor using a multitester in diode mode by putting red wire on base and black wire on Emitter and Collector in both cases mult meter must to be read 800-900 aprox.

Regards

[adamo21]

PatMac, thanks for the info! I'll test the transistor out and start buying higher voltage transistors from now on. I actually do have neon bulb that i will connect to the emitter and collector of the transistor.

Thanks for the help.

[adamo21]

Ok guys, I tested the resistor in diode mode like PatMac said and it was 900-1k. I also tested the + and - on the transistor and confirmed the voltage is going from the primary to the correct place, however, nothing happens. I'm puzzled, Im using a 50k potentiometer instead of a 1-5k, I know this isnt efficient but it should work though right?

Im thinking maybe one of the coatings on the magnet wiresnt isnt properly skinned off, maybe I should go back to using a breadboard...any suggestions? Here is a pic of my setup.

Here is a pic of my circuit and setup:



Im not sure if you guys can see how the setup is, I can edit the image with the schematic synced if that will help...any idea of whats wrong? The charging battery has 4v and the source battery is new and has 14.47v.

[citfta]

Hello, The wire coming from your trigger winding needs to be connected to the center leg of your pot. As you have it the adjustment of the pot has no effect at all. Do you have any pictures of your wheel and magnet assembly? Another common mistake is to have the coil too far away from the magnets. Also what kind of core are you using for your coil? All these things will have an effect on the operation of your motor.

Good luck, Carroll

[adamo21]

Thanks for the help Corroll.

The way the potentiometer is setup now, the trigger coil is the top alligator clip. So your saying to move it to the middle connector of the potentiometer? So nothing is connected to the top then?

Currently im re-wiring everything more securely and proper, once everything is hooked up which will be later tonight i'll post some pictures of my complete setup.

I don't have a filling for the coil, based upon the research i've done air coils perform better, although I do have some screws/nails that are holding the spool together and they are in the middle, so im sure that has some negative effect.

I'm gonna head down to the corner store to grab a beer then back to work

[Joit]

Potentiometer.
When you look at the Pictures, you should see how it works.
The outer Pins are the Connections between the Resistor ring,
the middle Pin is the pickup.
50k is indeed a bit high, you usual have a Resistance at your Coils from maybe ~10-100Ohms,
usual your Pot is set to ~200-300 Ohms, that it works proper.
The Pot controls the Power what goes to the Base
and therefor how far and when the Transistor opens.
When it has a to big Value you will have a hard time with the fine tuning,
because J. Bedinis says, you should adjust it there,
where you can get the highest RPM and lowest Amp draw, and then again a little bit back lower.
When you wanna connect it as a real Voltage divider, you connect it over the 2 Pins,
and connect another Connectins from the middle in direction of Base,
like it shows at the below Pictures on Wiki.
But then there allway run a bit Current through.

[adamo21]

Thanks for the info joit, you explained it well...

Here are some pictures of my new circuit and wiring job, a long with the complete setup...








Can you guys look at my circuit and setup and tell me if you see anything wrong? Or, can someone who has experience message me there AIM or MSN so i can chat and get some help? That would be appreciated...

Let me know if you guys have any questions, im going to double and tipple check everything then give it a run.

[adamo21]

Ok got the circuit to work, performance is horrible, but this is because of the pentiometer and my magnets are not spaced correctly. Thanks everyone for the input.

[citfta]

Hi Adamo, well I wrote a long post to try and help you and apparently I didn't hit the right button to submit it. So I'll try again. Glad you got it to at least run. You are correct about your magnet spacing. The magnets should be about 3-5 magnet widths apart. So you will need to make a new wheel and get about twice as many magnets. Also the orientation of the magnets is important. It is hard to tell from the picture but it looks like your magnets maybe are mounted with the long part of the magnet aligned with the wheel. The long part of the magnet should be parallel with the axis of you wheel. The idea is to have the magnet move past the center of the coil as fast as possible. The magnets should also be regular ceramic magnets not strong neos. We only need the magnet to generate just enough power in the trigger winding to turn on the transistor. You also need to make sure all magnets are mounted with the north side facing the coil and the south side facing the wheel. The wheel also needs to turn very easily. It should spin for at least a few minutes without power after you give it a hard spin by hand. Many people have failed to get good results from their SSG because of excessive drag on the wheel. It also seems you are getting some bad advice. You do need a good core in your coil if you expect to get good charging and easily be able to tune your SSG. The core should be soft iron wire. Think electric fence wire or welding wire or even coat hanger wire is better than no core. It needs to be able to be magnetized when the coil turns on and needs to loose that magnetism when the coil turns off. Copper will not work. Cut the wire to a little bit longer than your coil and put as many in the coil as you can. I have a SSG made with a 17" aluminum bike wheel. It has 12 magnets. I can give it a gentle push and it will take right off. It also charges very well. Some of these things I have told you you may already know, but I am trying to help you double check everything so you can get a good running SSG.

Good luck, Carroll

[adamo21]

Hi Adamo, well I wrote a long post to try and help you and apparently I didn't hit the right button to submit it. So I'll try again. Glad you got it to at least run. You are correct about your magnet spacing. The magnets should be about 3-5 magnet widths apart. So you will need to make a new wheel and get about twice as many magnets. Also the orientation of the magnets is important. It is hard to tell from the picture but it looks like your magnets maybe are mounted with the long part of the magnet aligned with the wheel. The long part of the magnet should be parallel with the axis of you wheel. The idea is to have the magnet move past the center of the coil as fast as possible. The magnets should also be regular ceramic magnets not strong neos. We only need the magnet to generate just enough power in the trigger winding to turn on the transistor. You also need to make sure all magnets are mounted with the north side facing the coil and the south side facing the wheel. The wheel also needs to turn very easily. It should spin for at least a few minutes without power after you give it a hard spin by hand. Many people have failed to get good results from their SSG because of excessive drag on the wheel. It also seems you are getting some bad advice. You do need a good core in your coil if you expect to get good charging and easily be able to tune your SSG. The core should be soft iron wire. Think electric fence wire or welding wire or even coat hanger wire is better than no core. It needs to be able to be magnetized when the coil turns on and needs to loose that magnetism when the coil turns off. Copper will not work. Cut the wire to a little bit longer than your coil and put as many in the coil as you can. I have a SSG made with a 17" aluminum bike wheel. It has 12 magnets. I can give it a gentle push and it will take right off. It also charges very well. Some of these things I have told you you may already know, but I am trying to help you double check everything so you can get a good running SSG.

Good luck, Carroll

Thanks for the advice and taking the time to re-write the message carroll.

Yea my magnets are all facing north, but the spacing distance between them and the coil varies because when i cut the wood i wasn't exactly precise. This has a huge effect on performance . They are not alined with the axis, that was a good tip.

Im just building the ssg to gain circuitry and electrical experience, im a programmer now learning step by step how to do circuits so its a huge learning experience. After I get this setup nicely for a good trophy im going to move to the solid state version next. I think thats where the air coil works best, i read it somewhere but i forget. I hammered a socket to the end of the alternator, so its going to be a ***** getting that flywheel off.

Thanks for the advice.