The Polyphase Motor/Generator

There's no such thing as free energy...turn your own crank!

(Click on thumbnails to view larger images.) Please check the licensing link below for use and licensing information for the contents of this web site. Thanks! licensing

Click here for my boundary layer turbine page. Click here for my mark- boundary layer turbine page. Click here for my single-phase motor!generator page. Click here for my solar powered fluid mechanics lab page. Click here for my "-a#is C$C machine page. Click here for my %&&'.(( supercomputer page. Click here for my miscellaneagan)a! page.

*ome

Contents:
The +eal ,tory Coil -inder .agnetite .ining .odel "-Phase .otor!/enerator Construction
0rmature +otor 0#le 1rame 2earings Coil 0ssembly

Coil .ounting Coil 3ead Connection 1inal 0ssembly Phase -iring Preliminary Testing

4pgrades
*andcrank *andle Change ferrites to neodymium magnets "-phase rectifier

*ow5s t -ork
6iagramming motor!generator phase coil connections Coil count and connections for a single-phase motor!generator Coil count and connections for a polyphase motor!generator 7f magnets and wires and such /etting into the spin /oing the other way Pick a phase8 any phase ,inusoids Phase vs. phase .echanical vs. electrical degrees 798 picked a phase8 now what: ;ou say delta8 say why: Phasors don5t have to stun Phase arrangements +ollin5 +ollin5 +ollin5 .oving: +otating: nducing synchroni)ation /etting into the spin t all adds up 1inding 0nother -ay ,eries and parallel and such Phase se<uences 1orward!reverse ,plit phase start ,logging Through Cogging +ote +evisited

+eferences

The Real Story:

798 5ve wanted to build a hand cranked generator and use it to bright up a light bulb ever since was in the fourth grade. $ow8 pushing =( years later8 5m fiddling with this Tesla Turbine pro>ect8 and finally have a good e#cuse to figure out how to do it. That being want something to drive with upcoming versions of the turbine in order to do some simple power capacity tests8 and also something to use while figuring out fu))y logic control circuits for hybrid vehicle battery charging systems. n keeping with the trend in modern electric and hybrid!electric vehicle technology8 the motor!generator to be discussed in this report is a polyphase brushless permanent magnet design.

Polyphase brushless permanent magnet motors are becoming more popular for use in modern electric and hybrid!electric vehicles than the magnetless and single-phase varieties because they are easier to start8 easier to control8 easier to drive8 and tend to have greater power densities. They also make a perfectly fine generator8 so they can be used for regenerative breaking and battery charging in an electric vehicle8 as well as for the drive motor. Three-phase is the most commonly found polyphase system8 and8 the model motor!generator presented below is a "-phase unit. (2y the way8 $ikola Tesla is much more famous for his invention of polyphase motor!generators8 and 0C power generation and distribution than he is for his invention of the boundary layer turbine.) The motor!generator described here is also a ?pancake? design8 having a flat disc rotor with magnets on the disc face8 rather than spaced around the rotor circumference. 0nd8 similarly8 it has a flat armature8 with coils mounted to face the rotor magnets. -hile permanent magnet brushless motors can in general be made smaller than other styles of motor for the same power capability8 the pancake style motor can provide even greater space savings over more conventional cylindrical motor designs. The entire model three-phase brushless motor generator construction pro>ect is documented in this report. That documentation includes the making of a winder for the armature coils8 and the collection of magnetite (eventually not) used to fill the armature coil center holes. 6imensioned drawings for the basic units of the motor!generator are also provided. The theory of operation for three-phase motor!generators in general8 and the brushless permanent magnet variety in particular8 are provided in the final section of this report. The theory of operation for "-phase brushless motor driver circuits is presented there as well. ,chematics for circuits used in the model motor!generator design covered in this report are also included in the final section.

Coil

in!er:

f you5re going to build a generator or a motor8 then you5re going to need some coils. @ven with permanent magnet rotors as used here8 you5ll still need armature windings. ts pretty hard to get out much power otherwise. ,ome kind of winder will make the task of producing consistent coils much easier. The photos below show a simple coil winder8 which includes a tally counter for keeping track of the number of windings8 and a threaded crank shaft that allows attachment of arbitrarily shaped coil forms. 2esides '?#'? wood stock8 the winder is constructed mainly using "!A&? threaded brass rod8 "!A&? smooth brass rod8 thin wall brass tubing8 assorted pieces of (.(B? polystyrene sheet8 a piece of aluminum window frame (cut to form the cam which moves the tally counter push rod)8 some thin aluminum strips to hold the tally counter in place8 a piece of "!=? PCC pipe to hold the wire spool8 and some wood screws. The push rod hole and the crank shaft hole are sleeved with thin wall brass tubing. The portion of the threaded rod which passes through the crank shaft hole is itself sleeved with brass tubing8 so it is tubing to tubing8 not tubing to thread contact on the turning parts. The holes in the cam piece

are threaded so it is effectively double nutted in place by the nuts which hold the cam to the shaft. The winding handle has a free turning piece of brass rod over a piece of threaded rod for easy cranking. There is a cotter pin through the brass rod which pushes the tally counter lever. This cotter pin backs up against a flat washer when the tally counter lever rebounds after being pressed8 and prevents the spring loading of the tally counter lever from popping the push rod through its sleeve and into your lap while you are winding coils. 0 nail can be slipped into a snug fit hole in the wooden frame to hold the crank at its )ero start position while the counter is reset and the coil form is threaded. The coil form shown is for simple round coils. t consists of a piece of polystyrene tube8 two washers cut from (.(B? polystyrene sheet8 and two metal washers. The length of the polystyrene tube is the desired thickness of the coils to be wound ((.'D? in this case)8 the 76 of the tube is the desired 6 for the coils to be wound ((."ED? in this case)8 and the 76 of the polystyrene washers is the desired 76 for the coils to be wound (A.A'D? in this case). The metal washers backup the polystyrene washers to prevent them from spreading as the coil is wound. 7ne of the polystyrene washers has a slot cut in it to allow threading of the magnet wire used to wind the coil. That same washer has a groove filed in it which e#tends from the inner end of the wire slot to the outer edge of the washer. The groove allows the wire to be threaded under the metal washer without crushing the wire then the wingnuts which hold the coil form on the shaft are tightened. That5s '= 0-/ wire8 in case you5re wondering.

Magnetite Mining:
t can be a good idea to make armature coils which have their center holes filled with a metal core. 2ut8 it can be a bad idea to use a solid chunk of metal for this purpose. The reason for this (the reason why most transformers are built with laminated rather than solid metal cores) is covered briefly in the ?*ow5s it work:? section at the end of this report. 7n one of the myriad do-it-yourself alternative power websites FAG someone pointed out that a paste of magnetite8 (a common mineral of naturally occurring iron and iron o#ides8 most often found as small sand si)ed particles)8 and polyester resin8 could be a good substitute for trying to make laminated sheet metal coil cores. They obtained their magnetite by dragging a magnet around on their driveway. tried that8 and it worked8 but wasn5t very satisfying8 so picked up my pail and spade and headed to the beach to play in the sand. Pouring sand over a salvage magnet found the stuff >ust fine. The magnetite grains cling to the magnet8 and the nonferromagnetic material >ust passes on by. The salvage magnet used consists of two steel plates sandwiching a plate magnet8 with that assembly surrounded by a s<uare8 4shaped piece of heavy sheet metal. There is about a "!B? s<uare gap between the base of the sheet metal ?4? and the magnet sandwiched between the steel plates. ;ou can see magnetite collecting

on the edges of the steel plates in the photos below8 but the greater collection point was in the gap at the base of the sheet metal 4. 0fter pouring sand over the magnet for a while8 the magnetite collected in the gap could be worried out with a small stick. The first pour collection material contains a lot of low <uality magnetite. 7nce a couple of hand fulls of this material was gathered8 it was refined by passing a small8 but very powerful neodymium magnet an inch or so over the pile8 and subcollecting the material that >umped to the small magnet. The pile was stirred repeatedly8 and small magnet passed over the stirred material until no more magnetite >umped to the magnet. This refining process was performed on the subcollected material8 and again though several iterations of subcollections. The result was a very pure collection of magnetite.

6uring the two hours or so it took to collect and refine an amount of relatively pure magnetite sufficient for this motor!generator pro>ect8 had a tiny epiphany...?*ey8 this stuff looks >ust like the leavings that come out of a break drum lathe!?... 2reak drums and rotors are cast iron8 so8 in fact8 the leavings should work much like magnetite. *aving ready access to a such a lathe8 went back to the shop and took another =D seconds to gather a couple of <uarts of leavings. This material is what eventually used to fill my armature coil core holes.

Mo!el "#Phase Motor/Generator Construction:

$r%ature:
2esides having armature coils filled with a metal core8 (as mentioned in the .agnetite .ining section)8 it is also a good idea to have what is sometimes referred to as ?backing iron? behind the coils. 0s with filling the coil cores8 this metal should be disconnected laminations. 7n yet another of the myriad do-it-yourself home energy websites F'G someone mentioned that coat hanger wire (which generally has some form of lac<uer or plastic coating) could work well for filling coil cores. 0nd8 there is no reason why that can5t work for backing iron8 too. ;ou >ust have to cut a shallow groove in the armature frame piece8 (here used "!B? plywood8 and spun it on a lathe)8 making the groove wider than the width of the coils8 lay in pieces of coat hanger wire8 and fill the groove with polyester resin to seal everything in. The coils can then simply be glued in place over the sealed in coat hanger wire pieces with more polyester resin. This does work 79. 2ut8 don5t try to use the springyness of the coat hanger wire to hold things tightly in place. The fourth or fifth time it all >umps out on the ground for you8 you5ll get the idea.

Hust bend the pieces to sit in place on their own. 0nd8 if you don5t have a wire bending >ig8 don5t get too fussy about the fit8 unless you want to take a real8 real8 real long time. (*ey8 we5re not building a watch here.) think if do it again 5ll use the coated metal banding used to strap heavy items on to pallets for shipping. t5s about (.(AD inches thick8 and you can get it in A(( foot lengths on a roll-off dispenser from industrial supply houses (like .c.aster-Carr) for relatively cheap (around %"D.((). Cutting the strapping material into pieces a few feet long8 coiling them into the groove in the armature frame piece and sealing them in with polyester resin should work reasonably well. may also investigate using the same magnetite!resin paste used to fill the coil cores for backing iron. 0 hole was drilled in the center of the backing iron groove circle for the a#le to pass through. The backing iron groove was turned in high enough up the armature frame piece to allow clearance for the rotor to spin freely on its a#le when the entire motor!generator unit is assembled on its base.

Rotor:
Construction of the &? diameter rotor was very similar to construction of the armature support piece. 0s for the armature coils8 it is also a good idea to have backing iron in a groove behind the magnets. 2ut8 with permanent magnets8 the need for laminations in the backing iron is much less than for coils8 and a plate of metal will do. >ust cut a ring of about AB gauge steel from an old chunk of ventilation duct for this. The magnets stick to the metal plate8 and are spaced around the face of the rotor (alternating north and south poles up) by inserting them into holes drilled into a ring of (.(B? polystyrene plastic sheet material cut to fit in the groove above the backing iron ring. The magnets used here are fairly powerful "!=? diameter by A!=? thick ferrite types. -ithout the plastic spacer it would be very difficult to set the magnets in place8 unless you glue them individually8 holding each one and waiting for the glue to dry before setting the ne#t one (<uick set super glue would be a plus there). The spacing of the magnets in the e#ploded view rotor assembly photo below isn5t >ust for aesthetics. That is about as close as you can place them together without a sudden catastrophe. The backing iron disc8 polystyrene retainer disc8 and the magnets are held in place with hot melt glue. ,ince the forces trying to tear them out when the rotor is spinning are all radial8 and all the components are retained in the groove in the "!B? plywood rotor disc8 they really don5t re<uire more than that to hold them in place. t would be desirable to use neodymium magnets for the rotor. $eodymium magnets much more powerful and also much thinner than the ferrites used here are available for less than %'.((

apiece (check on e-bay). 4sing those it would be possible to smear a layer of polyester resin over the whole assembly to hold the rotor components in place. Then there would be no danger of the assembly coming apart while spinning. ( 5ll probably make that change someday.)

2alancing the rotor was accomplished through spinning it by hand on its a#le and bearing assembly and looking for the heavy spots. 7ne piece of adhesive backed lead (available from hobby shops for balancing model cars and airplanes) needed to be cut and placed on the back side of the disc8 opposite the position that always ended up down when the rotation stopped. This resulted in <uite good balance of the rotor. 2esides using its own adhesive8 the lead piece was glued in place with a glob of five-minute epo#y8 and a glob of five-minute epo#y the same volume as used for the lead piece was placed on the opposite edge of the disc from the lead piece to ensure the balance wasn5t changed by the glue. ( n the picture showing the lead balance piece8 the bit of stuff visible in the shaft hole in the hub is the rolled back edge of a piece of thin brass shim material.)

$&leI
The a#le itself is a piece of A!=? diameter cold rolled steel rod. 0 hub to hold the rotor was made by cutting a A-AA!A&? diameter disc from "!A&? steel8 center drilling it for the a#le shaft to slide through8 and drilling = holes around the edge of the disc8 tapping them for A!=?-'( screws. (These holes accept the screws used to attach the rotor disc to the hub.) 0 piece of D!B? diameter rod '? long was bored to accept the A!=? shaft rod and also drilled and tapped for two A!=?-'( screws to clamp the hub to the a#le shaft. The '? long drilled rod was then welded in place over the center hole in the A-AA!A&? diameter disc to complete the hub assembly. Two A!=? 6 collars with setscrews are included to hold the bearings into their pockets and lock the a#le in place on the motor!generator frame. ,ince the ine#pensive variety of cold rolled steel rod used here is not e#act diameter8 it had to be chucked up in a drill press and buffed with emery paper to get everything to slide on smoothly.

'ra%e:
7ne end of the motor!generator frame is the armature assembly itself. The other end is another piece of "!B? plywood. The base was cut = inches long from a piece of A?#A'? board. This piece

was cut to taper from &-A!'? on the wide (armature) end to =-A!'? on the thin end8 so it would be pretty. The end pieces are held onto the base with wood screws. +ubber lamp base feet were screwed in place at each corner on the underside of the frame end pieces. (Pilot holes were drilled first to avoid splitting the plywood.)

(earings:
The bearings are high speed ball type "!=? 76 # A!=? 68 with good thrust capacity (1afnir ,"966). They are held in place by setscrew collars on the a#le shaft. The collars hold them in "!=? pockets cut into the outside faces of the frame end pieces with a 1orstner bit. -ith the pockets cut on the outside faces8 not only is the a#le locked in place on the frame8 the frame pieces are held together by the tension of the collars holding the bearings into their pockets.

Coil $sse%)ly:
The motor!generator uses twelve A.A'D? diameter8 (.'D? thick8 J( turn8 'A 0-/ enameled magnet wire round coils8 wound on the previously described coil winder around a (."ED? diameter polystyrene tube. 0ll coils were wound in the same direction and so that the last turn comes out on the same side of the coil as the first turn. (7ther than for those re<uirements8 the wire layering pattern is somewhat random.) 1or each coil8 the wire e#tending from the first turn was arbitrarily chosen to be the ?positive? coil lead8 and a small loop was twisted in its end in order to identify it after removing the coil from the winder. Prior to removing a coil from the coil winder a few inches of fiber reinforced strapping tape was wrapped around the circumference of its windings to hold them in place. The reinforced tape was chosen because it holds well8 even when moist8 and also because it tears uniformly lengthwise so that a width of tape that covered the spread of the coils but did not adhere to the coil forms could easily be obtained without having to actually try to cut the tape lengthwise. 7nce the windings were taped in place the wire e#tending from the spool was cut8 (becoming the ?negative? coil lead)8 and the coil was removed from the winding form8 with no danger of the coil unwinding itself. The (."ED? center tube was then pressed out of the coil. To keep coils from unraveling while applying the tape wrap8 the nail which holds the crank handle in the start position was reinserted in its hole in the winder frame to stop the coil form from turning8 and rubber bands were placed on the wire spool spindle so that they were snug against each side of the spool8 thereby maintaining enough drag to keep the tension in the wire from turning the spool. The rubber band tensioners were left in place during the winding

operation.

7nce twelve coils were formed8 a paste of activated polyester resin and the cast iron leavings from a break drum lathe was mi#ed and used to fill the coil center holes8 then left to harden. 0fter the coil filling paste had hardened8 each coil was dipped in activated polyester resin8 then hung and the resin allowed to drip off and leave a thin coating over the coils8 which then hardened to completely seal the coil assembly.

0fter the coil assemblies hardened8 the small loop was cut off each coil5s positive lead8 the enamel scraped back for about an inch from the cut end8 and a piece of red insulation '( 0-/ solid core copper hookup wire about A( inches long was stripped of about an inch of insulation and soldered to each barred coil lead. 0fter the positive leads were each connected to their piece of hookup wire8 black insulation '( 0-/ solid core was similarly attached to each negative lead. 0 piece of heat shrink tubing was slid down both leads of each coil and shrunk in place over the splices8 leaving the coils ready for attachment to the armature frame.

Coil Mounting:
To maintain symmetry for the electrical connections8 the coils were mounted on the armature frame backing iron ring so that the face of a coil from which the leads e#tend was placed against the frame8 and the leads all e#tended radially outward relative to the shaft hole. The coils were set in place according to a scallop cut paper patternK initially sticking them down with a glob of hot melt glue. 0fter the coils were hot melt glued in place the paper placement pattern was removed8 and a thin cardboard dam8 lined with wa#ed paper (which does not stick to hardening polyester resin)8 was taped in place8 surrounding the coils with about "!A&? clearance from their outward edges. ,imilarly a wa#ed paper covered thin cardboard tube was inserted in the shaft hole. -ith the armature frame lying flat and level8 the area inside the dam was poured with activated polyester resin to a depth of about A!B?8 making sure that the li<uid resin completely surrounded each coil. -hen the resin hardened8 the cardboard dam and shaft hole plugs were pulled away8 leaving the coils permanently attached to the armature frame. $ote in the photo showing the paper coil placement pattern8 that the armature frame has been predrilled for the coil lead wires and phase wire connection screw platforms. (This would be very

difficult to do after the coils were attached.) $ote also that the coils were placed so that their leads align with one of the two small holes between the sets of two larger holes in the predrilled hole pattern. The small holes are for passing the lead wires through the armature frame. The larger holes are for the screws which mount the phase wire connection platforms to the back of the armature frame.

Coil *ea! Connection:

The coil leads are passed through their ad>acent feed through holes in the armature frame and connected to the phase lead screw connector platforms by soldering them to tabs on the underside of the screw platforms. To allow for consistent phase lead wire connection8 the coil lead wires are connected in repeated red!black order all the way around the armature frame. The phase lead screw connector platforms themselves snap into a pair of nylon standoffs8 and the standoffs are mounted on the backside of the armature frame with =-=( brass screws and nuts. @ach platform has = solder tabs8 allowing two coils to be connected. ,o8 si# platforms total were re<uired to connect all A' coils.

'inal $sse%)ly:
The motor!generator is assembled by screwing the armature frame and the opposite end bearing support to the base block8 inserting the bearings into their pockets in the bearing supports8 sliding the A!=? steel rod a#le through the shaft hole in the bearing on one of the bearing supports8 sliding the rotor hub onto the shaft end between the armature frame and opposite end bearing mount so the rotor magnets face the armature coils8 then sliding the shaft on through the second bearing and slipping a set screw collar onto each end of the shaft8 positioning the shaft for the desired e#tension of the shaft through the bearings8 sliding the set screw collars up to the bearings and tightening their set screws to lock the shaft in place8 and finally positioning the rotor on the shaft and tightening its shaft screws to clamp the rotor in place on the shaft. 6uring assembly you need to be careful to not let the rotor magnets cause the unclamped rotor to >ump down the shaft and hit the armature coils. @ven with ferrite magnets the attractive force is significant. f you use neodymium magnets the attraction could well be strong enough to cause the components to slam together hard enough to damage the magnets8 the coils8 or your fingers (no >oke). Probably the easiest way to deal with the problem is to immediately tighten one of the rotor hub screws after the shaft is inserted though the hub and both bearings8 then slide the set screw collar on to the end of the shaft opposite the armature frame up to the bearing and tighten

its set screw. The placements of the shaft and rotor won5t necessarily be correct8 but the rotor will be trapped in place and position ad>ustments are easy to make safely from that point. 7nce everything is properly positioned8 give all the screws on last tightening check. There is an optimal distance for the separation between the rotor magnets and the armature coils. 1or the purposes of building a model like this you can consider that to be about as close as possible without the magnets hitting the coils when the rotor turns. The rotor and armature should be as parallel as possible. To improve its parallel alignment with the rotor8 a small ad>ustment of the armature frame was made by loosening the screws holding the frame to the base8 placing two narrow strips of (.(A? thick polystyrene sheet plastic face to face in the upper side of the gap between the armature frame and the base block8 then retightening the frame screws.

Phase

iring:

n a three phase system8 the phases are electrically A'( degrees apart. 2ut8 the armature coils are not (necessarily) physically spaced at A'( degree intervals around the armature frame. The total number of coils in the armature and the number of coils used for each phase affects the physical placement of coils around the armature frame. 1or the motor!generator being described here8 there are twelve armature coils8 which allows = coils to be connected in series for each of the three phases. (Thus8 each phase can provide four times more voltage than would be obtained using a single coil for each phase.) 0nd8 A' coils means they will be spaced at thirty degree intervals around the "&( degree perimeter of the armature frame. The phases are referred to as 08 28 C8 and8 starting from the right one of the topmost pair of coils on the armature frame8 the coils are identified in the clockwise direction as followsI 0A8 2A8 CA8 0'8 2'8 C'8 0"8 2"8 C"8 0=8 2=8 C=8 where C= is the left one of the topmost pair of coils. @ach inde#ed letter of the alphabet refers to one of the coils in the group of coils that comprises on phase coil set8 e.g.8 coils 0A8 0'8 0"8 and 0= are the coils wired together for phase 0. 0lthough each individual coil is only "( degrees from its closest neighbors8 the correspondingly numbered coils for each ad>acent phase are8 in fact8 A'( degrees apart8 e.g.8 four "( degree spaces separate coils 0A and 2A8 etc. Thus8 ad>acent phases are A'( degree apart8 with phases 0 and 2 being A'( degrees apart8 and phases 0 and C being '=( degrees apart8 as is re<uired for a three phase system. The number and spacing of magnets around the rotor also enters into how the phase coils are wired. To work properly8 at any instant in time each coil in a phase must be contributing current to the phase of the same polarity and magnitude. -hether a coil is being energi)ed by the north

pole or the south pole of a magnet determines the polarity of the current produced in the coil. The distance in its rotating path a magnet is from a coil determines how much it contributes to the magnitude of the current generated in the coil. (0 changing magnetic field is re<uired to generate current in a wire coil8 and motion of the magnets results in a changing magnetic field.) 2ecause there are alternating north and south magnet poles8 the separate phase coils cannot be simply connected in series8 as the resulting currents generated in the individual coils in a phase will not match. The phase wiring used for the motor!generator being constructed here is as shown in diagram below. The details of why the connections are made as they are can be found in the ?*ow5s it -ork:? section.

2esides how far away from a coil a magnet is in its rotating path8 the gap separating the rotor magnets and armature coils when they are aligned also determines the magnitude of the current generated. There are some constraints on how close magnets should be to the coils8 but8 basically8 we5re >ust going to get them as close as the wobbles in construction will allow without anything banging against anything else. ,ome of the details on determining the gap distance can also be found in the ?*ow5s it -ork:? section.

Preli%inary Testing:
,pin it and it makes wiggles. 0pparently wiggles of the correct phase separations at that!

+pgra!es:
7ver time a few features have been added to the motor!generator to make its use and testing a bit easier.

,an!crank:

,an!le:

Change ferrites to neo!y%iu% %agnets:

"#phase rectifier:

,ow's -t

ork.:

798 if you go through the whole thing8 this will seem perhaps a bit long winded and maybe a bit spotty description of how permanent magnet motor!generators work. 2ut8 the good news is if you >ust want to know how to figure out the number of coils you need for a given number of magnets and how to hook them up to successfully produce your own single-phase or polyphase motor!generator8 you5re in luck! -e5ll cover that right off the bat with a set of simple instructions and formulas. -hat follows the basic ?how-to? information >ust fleshes out the details of what you5re doing and why you5re doing it. 7ne caveat for the rote instructions. They do assume you know8 or know how to determine8 the polarity of your coil leads for proper connection. ,tore bought coils are likely marked for polarity. f you plan to wind your own coils8 (and why wouldn5t you and miss all the fun:!)8 then here8 without e#planation8 is how to establish their polarity. -ind them all identically8 all coils with turns in the same direction and filling the form you wind them on in the same way. Choose the end of the wire you started with and8 arbitrarily8 call it the positive (L) polarity lead8 and call the other end of the wire coming from the coil the negative (-) lead. 6on5t worry about which way you start making the turns in your coils8 >ust do what is easiest for your set up. Hust be consistent from coil to coil8 and all will be fine. -hy consistency without measurement works8 we5ll cover later. $ow8 the instructions and formulas given below don5t give all possibilities for coil connection and magnet arrangement you might encounter. 2ut8 they do provide the information you need to make practical8 working8 permanent magnet single-phase and polyphase motor!generators. The same formulas work whether you5re building a single-phase or a polyphase motor!generator. 2ut8 they become so simple in the single-phase case that we5ll cover the single-phase motor!generator separately from the polyphase motor!generator. 2efore getting to the actual construction instructions8 first let5s take a look at a diagramming method to show motor!generator coil connections. The techni<ue8 presented in the section that follows8 is adapted from some of the figures in a well know book on electric motor repair by +obert +osenberg F"G. 0 few other books on the sub>ect of permanent magnet motor!generator design and motor design in general are listed in the references F=8 D8&G.

/iagra%%ing %otor/generator phase coil connections:

7nce you5re decided on how many coils to use in your motor!generator8 draw a small rectangle8 one for each coil8 in a row across a piece of paper. To represent the coil leads draw a short line down from the bottom corners of each of your rectangles. ;ou can8 but it isn5t absolutely necessary8 make a dot near the left lead line to indicate the positive polarity coil lead for each rectangle. 0nd8 for each phase in your motor generator8 label the coil rectangles in a repeating se<uence. Traditionally8 phases are labeled by the letters of the alphabet. ,o8 given8 for e#ample8 nine coils to use in a "-phase system you would repeat 0828C in se<uence three times8 as 0828C80828C80828C. 7r8 if you were designing8 say8 a D-phase system8 you would label your

bo#es8 in se<uence8 with the letters 0 though @. f you like8 you can identify each phase coil group by appending numbers to the letters. n our case of nine coils in a "-phase system8 the coil bo# labels would then be8 in se<uence8 0A82A8CA80'82'8C'80"82"8C". $ow8 regardless of whether you plan to build a single-phase or a polyphase motor!generator8 due to the alternating north and south poles of the rotor magnets8 when operating8 the direction of current through each coil will be the opposite of the direction of the current through the coil that precedes it. (This is the origin of the term 0lternating Current (0C). .ore on that in the detail sections that follow.) ,o8 under each coil bo#8 between the lead lines8 draw a small arrow to represent current direction. ,tart from the left bo# with an arrow pointing to the right8 and alternate arrow direction with each bo# that follows. 0nd8 that5s it! The complete starting point diagram for a nine coil8 "-phase motor!generator is given in figure A. 1or a motor!generator with more or less coils8 >ust draw more or less bo#es. 0rmed with the base of a diagramming techni<ue for producing a simple picture of what we want to build8 we can now get on with how to actually find the number of coils we need8 and how to hook them up.

Coil count an! connections for a single#phase %otor/generator

A. 6ig through your >unk bo# and find all your magnets. '. .ake piles of the same types of magnets ". Choose the pile containing the type of magnet you want to use in your single-phase motor!generator. =. Count the magnets in the chosen pile. f it is an odd number8 toss one magnet back in the >unk bo#8 or go find another one8 so that you end up with an even number of magnets. D. .ake the same number of coils as you have chosen magnets.

&. 3ay your coils out in a row so that their positive lead is on the same side of each coil in the row8 and connect them in series so that the negative lead of the first coil connects to the negative lead of the second coil8 the positive lead of the second coil connects to the positive lead of the third coil8 and so on. The proper connection is simple to show using the diagramming techni<ue presented above. Hust draw lines to connect the coil bo#es so that the lead nearest the head of one bo#5s arrow connects to the lead nearest the tail of the ne#t bo#5s arrow (figure '). Physically making this connection relative to the positive leads as drawn on your coil diagram guarantees the alternating current flow directions in the coils do not oppose each other.

E. 2uild your motor!generator with magnets alternating north and south poles evenly spaced around it5s rotor8 and coils evenly spaced around it5s armature8 as8 for e#ample8 shown in figure " for an eight magnet8 B coil8 single-phase motor!generator.

798 there is a bit of a misleading implication above. n steps (&) and (E) above there is no differentiation between connecting coils for a single-phase motor or for a single-phase generator. The connection will work >ust fine as described for a generator. 0nd8 in fact8 as described8 the connection will also work for a motor. Connect an 0C power source to a motor!generator with an armature wired as in figure '8 and it can be made to spin via the input power. 2ut8 it will not self start. ;ou will need to give it a bump to get it to go. 0 single-phase motor can be connected to self start. -e5ll leave that discussion until after we talk in more detail about polyphase motor!generators.

Coil count an! connections for a polyphase %otor/generator:

A. 6ig through your >unk bo#es and find all your magnets. '. .ake piles of the same types of magnets ". Choose the pile containing the type of magnet you want to use in your polyphase motor!generator. =. Count the magnets in the chosen pile. f it is an odd number8 toss one magnet back in the >unk bo#8 or8 go find another one8 so that you end up with an even number of magnets.

D. 6ecide how many phases you want to use in your polyphase motor!generator. .ost everyone on the planet chooses three8 and8 5m going to choose " for this discussion8 so you might as well8 too. ;ou don5t have to choose three phases8 but at least choose an odd number. (To show this techni<ue does generali)e 5ll diagram hooking up a five-phase motor!generator after the "-phase discussion.) &. Calculate the number of coils re<uiredI 1or a given number of phases8 $8 you need $ coils per magnet pair in your $phase motor!generator. 1or a count of . magnets (often referred to as poles)8 with . an even number8 we have .!' magnet pairs. ,o8 for an $-phase motor!generator with . poles the number of coils re<uired8 C8 isI C M $N(.!'). found B magnets in my >unk bo# when set out to write this. ,o8 for a "-phase motor!generator the number of coils we want to wind isI "NB!' M A'. E. Calculate the number of coils per phaseIO2+ 1or C coils and $ phases8 the number of coils per phase is C!$. *ere8 for our B pole8 "-phase motor!generator we get A'!" M = coils per phase. This means you will be connecting three groups of = coils each in your motor!generator. B. ,elect the motor!generator wiring configurationI 1or a "-phase system8 there are two primary types of polyphase motor!generator connections8 6elta8 and ; (also know as a ,tar connection). 1or a 6elta connection8 the phases are connected in a triangular configuration. n a ; connection the phases are connected in "-armed8 or ?;? shaped configuration. The 6elta configuration is more efficient for low rpm operation8 and we5ll choose that for now. The ; configuration will be covered in the details discussion that follows these rote instructions and formulas. J. 6iagram the phase connectionsI 4sing the previously described diagramming techni<ue (figure A)8 each of the four coils in the " phase groups is connected in series >ust as in the single-phase motor!generator so there is proper current flow through the group. 6raw lines so they connect (L) to (L) and (-) to (-) polarity coil connections for each of the

phase coil groups (figure =). ;ou can use the ?follow the arrow? method with each phase group the same as described in step (&) for the series connection of all coils in the single-phase motor!generator. $ote carefully how the 2 phase starts on phase coil 2'8 not coil 2A. This is because the first 2 phase coil who5s current direction matches the current direction of the first coils in the 0 and C phase coil groups is 2'8 not 2A.

7nce the 0828 and C8 phase coil groups are connected8 then the groups are connected to form the chosen 6elta or ; configuration. 1or a three-phase 6elta connection the end lead of the 0 phase coil group is connect to the starting lead of the C phase coil group8 the end lead of the C phase coil group is connected to the start lead of the 2 phase coil group8 and the end lead of the 2 phase coil group is connected to the start lead of the 0 phase coil group8 as diagrammed in figure D. 0gain8 as pointed out in step (J) above8 note the starting lead for the 2 phase coil group comes from coil 2'8 not coil 2A.

A(. 2uild it. 1igure & shows an e#ample physical diagram for a three-phase8 B-pole8 A'-coil8 6elta connected motor!generator.

f you use your motor!generator in motor mode and want it to spin in the opposite direction from what you will find with the motor!generator design given here8 you can reverse any two of the input phase connections8 and the motor will run in reverse. -e5ll see why that is later. (0nd8 of course8 you could also physically turn the motor around AB( degrees so that the end of the shaft facing you becomes the end of the shaft pointing away from you.) There is no issue with self starting of polyphase motors. Connect three-phase power to a "-phase motor!generator and it will run as a motor without any of the startup connection tricks re<uired for a self starting single-phase motor to be discussed later.

0f %agnets an! wires an! such: /etting into the spinI

1irst thing8 magnets. .ost everyone has played with magnets at one time or another. Point the opposite poles of two magnets at each other8 north to south8 and they attract. Point the same poles at each other (north to north8 or south to south) and they repel. nteraction of the magnetic fields produced by the magnets is what causes the attraction and repulsion effects observed for a pair of magnets.

The same as it is for the magnetic field of the earth8 the magnetic field of a simple bar magnet is described as lines of magnetic flu# which e#tend from a magnet5s north pole to its south pole (figure E). ( t might be good to note here that the north geographic pole of the earth is actually a south magnetic pole. -hich e#plains why the north pole of the magnet in a compass points toward the earth5s geographic north pole.)

Considering the magnet flu# lines as drawn in figure E8 magnetic attraction and repulsion can be viewed as the interaction of the arrows (or vectors) giving the direction of the flu# lines from north pole to south pole. -hen two north or two south poles are brought ne#t to each other8 the arrows from one magnet5s pole point in the opposite direction of those from the other magnet5s pole8 and8 hence8 ?collide8? pushing each other away8 causing the repulsion effect. 2ut8 when a north pole and a south pole are brought together8 the arrows point in the same direction8 and one set ?sucks? the other set along8 much like two streams of water flowing in the same direction8 which causes the attraction effect. (This is8 of course8 >ust a description for visuali)ation purposes.) .agnetic repulsion and attraction are the basis of operation for an electric motor. 2y proper alignment and timing of magnetic fields8 the parts of an electric motor can be made to push and pull on each other so that a smooth continuous motion is obtained. 2esides having a magnet handy8 another way to generate a magnetic field is to run an electric current through a piece of wire. The flow of current through a wire produces lines of magnetic flu# around the wire >ust like the lines of magnetic flu# produced by a magnet. The lines of flu# are produced such that when you point your left thumb along the wire in the direction of current flow through the wire8 your left fingers will curl around the wire in the same direction as the lines of flu# around the wire8 i.e.8 you finger tips will point in the same direction as the arrows seen in a diagram of the flu# lines (figure B).

7bviously8 if the direction of current through the wire is reversed8 then you have to point your left thumb in the opposite direction8 and8 as shown by the curve of your fingers8 the lines of flu# around the wire will be in the opposite direction8 effectively changing the polarity of the magnetic field around the wire. -e aren5t going to get deeply into what constitutes the ?real? direction of current flow in a wire. 0s has been pointed out above8 consistency is what counts. .ake your favorite assumption8 use it without fail8 and all will be well. *ere we5ll consistently consider current flow to be from the negative terminal of a power supply to the positive terminal of a power supply. That means we5re looking at electron flow8 and not current flow as it was originally assigned to be from positive to negative for the first electric batteries8 (a concept based on 2en>amin 1ranklin5s earlier description of two types of electricity8 ?positive? and ?negative8? which8 well8 frankly8 some would say he got backwards). @ngineers and physicists can argue about what is really going on all they want8 and we5ll >ust get on with the task at hand. ,ymmetry8 which we5ll talk about more a bit later8 is the key to why8 for practical purposes8 the initial choice doesn5t really matter. n fact8 if you are more comfortable considering current flow to be from positive to negative then consistently use that idea8 and instead of using the left-hand rule as described above8 >ust use your right hand to apply the righthand rule. Then following the curve to your right finger tips will get you the same results as we5ve seen for the left-hand rule. That5s symmetry! $ow8 the nature of magnetic poles around a straight piece of wire with current flowing through it isn5t immediately obvious. 2ut8 if you turn the wire into a loop8 the orientation of magnetic poles relative to the wire becomes more clear. 0s shown in figure J8 with current flow from left to right and the loop directed into the page8 the flu# lines circulate into the top of the loop and out

of the bottom. Comparing this to the flu# lines seen for the magnet in figure E8 we can see this implies the north pole of the loop5s magnetic field is at the bottom8 and its south pole is at the top.

The effect becomes more clear when there are multiple loops stacked on top of each other to form a coil. ,ince the flu# lines produced by each loop combine in the same direction they produce a larger (and stronger) magnetic field (figure A(). This is why more turns in the coil of an electromagnet make for a stronger electromagnet.

0s can be seen in figure A(8 the same repulsion and attraction of flu# lines can be had from the coil as from a real magnet. 2y reversing the direction of current through the coil the orientation of its north and south poles is reversed. 0nd8 by taking this action in to account8 simple electric motors can be devised. 1or e#ample8 with proper timing of the change in direction of current through two coils8 a magnet on an a#le can be made to rotate between the coils (figure AA).

/oing the other wayI

798 in the last section we made it as far as a good idea of how to make a simple electric motor. 0 lot of details need to be filled in yet. 3ike8 in particular8 how to control switching and timing of the magnetic fields8 but it5s a definite start. 0nd8 with the information we put together there about magnets and wires and such8 we are in good shape to move ahead with an initial description of how electric generators work. 0s mentioned before8 the aspects of physics we5re looking at are symmetric. ,o8 >ust as running a current through a wire creates a magnetic field8 moving a magnet near a wire creates an electric current in the wire (figure A').

7f course8 the more wires a moving magnetic field crosses8 the more currents that are generated8 one for each wire (figure A"). 0nd8 when a wire is wound in a coil8 the effect is the same for each loop in the coil8 e#cept8 because the coils are connected8 the multiple currents created as the magnetic field passes over the coil windings add together. ,o8 the more windings in the coil8 the more current generated as the magnetic field passes by (figure A=). This is the basic idea behind an electric generator.

0lso8 the stronger the moving magnetic field8 the more current generated in any wire it moves by. ,o8 either by putting more turns in its coils8 or by using stronger magnetic fields8 or both8 the

more power that can be produced from a generator or utili)ed from a motor. -e5ve already see e#amples of making simple permanent magnet generators in the coil count and connection sections above. ,o8 let5s continue on and investigate a few more details that will lead us to an understanding of why we make the connections we do as previously described for single-phase and three-phase delta motor!generators8 and also how to define connections for other than single and three-phase systems.

Pick a phase1 any phase:

798 so what does ?phase? mean8 anyway: -ell8 it5s another one of those words that changes meaning with conte#t. +egarding polyphase motor!generators8 it is often used interchangeably to describe two main features. t can mean one of the multiple leads (or the lead5s associated electrical waveform) in a polyphase system8 or it can mean the difference (measured in degrees) between the peaks seen in the waveforms found in any two leads in a polyphase system. 1or the second case that difference is more correctly referred to as the ?phase angle8? which8 here8 is a term that relates to the notion of a rotating magnetic field. The rotating magnetic field concept is at the heart of any motor!generator system8 be it single or polyphase. That we are dealing with rotating magnetic fields seems easy enough to accept. The devices we5ve been discussing have magnets that spin on an a#le. ,o8 there it is8 rotating magnetic fields. Pretty unavoidable8 that. 7f course8 as always8 the devil is in the details.

,inusoidsI
+otation implies circles. 2ut8 to draw a circle covering the "&( degrees of each rotation to represent the motion over time of a motor!generator that may be spinning at thousands of revolutions per minute wouldn5t be too informative. ,o8 instead8 we draw a sinusoid8 which is >ust a way of displaying circular motion in a linear diagram. To see this8 consider a simple machine consisting of a disc with a peg at its edge parallel the disc5s center a#le8 and a ?T? shaped piece which has a slot in its crossbar. The T-bar is laid on the disc so that the crossbar slot fits over the peg8 and the upright points down when the machine is looked at in plan view. 0 guide aligned with the center of the disc is placed over the T-bar upright so that while the peg on the disc can slide back and forth in the slot in the T-bar crosspiece as the disc rotates8 the T-bar upright can move up and down8 but not side to side. ,o8 while the disc rotates8 the peg moves in a circular motion which forces the T-bar to move so that its end travels up and down a distance e<ual to the diameter of the circle defined by the motion of the peg (figure AD).

f a pencil is attached to the end of the T-bar upright piece so that it will leave a mark on a piece of paper placed under it8 then8 as the disc rotates the pencil will draw a straight line with length e<ual to the diameter of the peg circle each time the disc rotates. -e can spin the disc until the pencil wears out8 but that is all we will see8 a single vertical line. *owever8 if we move the paper parallel to the T-bar cross piece8 we5ll see something <uite different8 that is8 a repeating curve8 called a sinusoid8 which gives the diameter of the peg circle via its amplitude8 and repeats its waveform across the paper through a number of cycles that relates to the rotational speed of the disc and the speed of motion of the paper under the pencil f we know the speed of the paper8 then we can deduce the rotation speed of the disc by counting the number of cycles in a given distance across the page8 e<uating distance to the time it took the paper to travel that distance8 and dividing the number of cycles see in the sinusoid over the given distance by the e<uivalent time for that distance. The result is disc rotation speed e#pressed as fre<uency in units of cycles (rotations) per chosen time unit. f we arbitrarily designated the start (( degrees) position as when the peg is at its topmost position when the disc rotates8 and start moving the paper to the right >ust when the peg reaches that point8 then the pencil on our simple machine will trace out a sinusoid that represents the circular motion of the disc as a ?wave? that has a positive ma#imum value at the start time position8 drops to )ero when the disc has rotated J( degrees8 reaches a ma#imum negative value as disc rotates through AB( degrees8 returns to ( when the rotation reaches 'E( degrees8 and climbs back to the ma#imum positive value as the rotation goes though "&( degrees. The "&( degree rotation returns the pencil to the ma#imum positive position8 but a distance across the page that e<uates to one rotation time8 and the cycle repeats (figure A&).

The time for a sinusoid to complete one rotation cycle is referred to as its period (T). The number of cycles the sinusoid completes in a fi#ed time period is referred to as its fre<uency (f). Traditionally the time period to count cycles to determine fre<uency is one second8 and fre<uency is e#pressed in cycles per second or *ert) (*)). $ote that fre<uency is the inverse of period8 that is8 divide A by the period value8 and you get the fre<uency value8 or8 divide A by the fre<uency value and you get the period valueI . +ather than using spinning discs with sliding pencils to diagram rotations8 the trigonometric function cosine has been defined to represent >ust this motion. n a mathematical formula the cosine function is given as cos(#)8 where the argument # represents the degrees of rotation. The cosine function follows the same form of curve as described by the pencil and disc arrangement of figure A&K having a value of A for an argument of ( degrees8 a value of ( for an argument of J( degrees8 a value of -A for an argument of AB( degrees8 a value of )ero for an argument of 'E( degrees8 and returning back to A for an argument of "&( degrees. The amplitude of the curve drawn by the pencil and disc method is e<ual to the diameter of the disc. 2ut8 since we have defined things to range over plus and minus values8 and the cosine function ranges from A to -A8 we multiply the cosine function by half the diameter (the radius) of

the disc to get the proper values for the curve relative to the degrees argument to the cosine function. That is8 if the diameter of the disc is 08 then at any particular degrees of rotation value8 #8 the proper height8 h8 of the sinusoid is given byI

-e can5t make the mistake of thinking that the diameter of the disc mentioned above has anything to do with the diameter of our motor!generator rotor disc. The ?diameter? we are really talking about is simply the amplitude of the sinusoidal electrical waveforms applied to8 or generated by8 our motor!generator. n fact8 without any loss of usefulness8 we can drop the division by ' in the amplitude factor8 and >ust use the parameter 0 alone to indicate we want to allow sinusoids with an amplitude range other than from -A to LA8 assume the value of 0 will be chosen correctly when necessary8 and go with the slightly simpler e<uationI

$ow we almost have a mathematical formula that can be used to diagram the phase waveforms seen in our motor!generators. 2ut8 there is still that matter of #8 the unknown angle. f we >ust wanted to plot one sinusoid8 then varying # from ( to "&( and plotting the result for h as the y value in an #-y plot would do fine. 2ut8 that isn5t going to give us what we need when it comes to looking at the phase angle between phase waveforms. 0lso8 often we won5t want to plot with degrees on the # a#is of our plots8 but rather with time. 1ortunately8 since we are dealing with known rotation speeds8 (i.e.8 the fre<uency of the sinusoidal waveforms in <uestion8 e.g.8 the &( cycles per second (&( *)) for commercial power found around here)8 that5s relatively easy to figure out. ,o8 back to considering imaginary spinning discs and sliding pencils for a bit. 0nother way of measuring angles is in radians. There are radians in "&( degrees (making one radian appro#imately DE.'JE degrees). ,o8 one rotation of the disc in figure AD means the peg which moves the crossbar sweeps through an angle of radians. +adian measure is >ust a scaling factor different from degree measure8 and the cosine function can be defined to use radians as an argument as well as degrees. 1or the time being we5ll use that definition. t might seem an added confusion to switch from degrees to radians8 but8 that is really >ust a matter of what you are used to. -e gain something by switching to radian measure8 that is8 when coupled with the concept of radial velocity8 the ability to use time as the argument to the cosine function. +adial velocity ( ) is a measure of the speed of rotation of a disc in terms of radians per second8 rather than cycles per second. 0gain8 we aren5t really talking about speed of rotation of a disc8 but the ?speed? with which a sinusoidal waveform completes its repeated identical e#cursions. The concept of radial velocity still applies8 since that sinusoid has the same circular motion related form as the one produced by the disc and pen method of figure AD. n either case8 multiplying the radial velocity by time (measured in seconds) gives us radians as a proper argument to the cosine function8 and8 thus8 knowing the radial velocity8 we can plot our sinusoid against time on the #-a#is of an #-y plot8 rather than degrees. That brings us to a new form for our e<uationI

0 bit more work with this e#pression will lead us to the ability to check the phase angle between sinusoids at a particular time8 which is a lot easier to work with than trying to check phase angles related to portions of a cycle8 which would be the case if we used degrees and fre<uency in our e<uations8 rather than radians and radial velocity. 2efore we move on to checking phase differences8 there is one more important relationship to note8 the connection between fre<uency and radial velocity. The unit *) (cycles per second) refers to how many rotations per second we see for our rotating disc or how many full e#cursions per second we see in our sinusoidal wave form. n either case8 one rotation or one sinusoidal e#cursion8 we can e<uate the fre<uency to sweeping an angle of "&( degrees with every cycle. ,o8 for e#ample8 we could say that a &( *) signal is also a &(N"&( M 'A&(( degrees per second signal. 7f course8 that isn5t a very useful piece of information. -e need some way to relate the degrees of sweep per second for a signal fre<uency measured in cycles per second to radial velocity so that we can apply the value we know8 fre<uency8 in our e<uation that uses radial velocity and time. +adians to the rescue! To use fre<uency in our e<uation in and t8 we need to convert from fre<uency to radial velocity so that the multiplication by t will give the proper value in radians. That we can do by noting8 as pointed out before8 one revolution is radians8 and also that one cycle in fre<uency is one revolution8 then multiply the appropriate factors together so that the units cancel out to give radians per second8 the proper units for 8 i.e8

That leads us to another form for our sinusoidal e<uationI 8 which allows us to plot our waveforms against time8 while using fre<uency in the argument to the cosine function. ,o8 all that verbage >ust to e#plain a factor of : -ell8 yes and no. The warm up to e#pressing circular motion as a sinusoid will prove useful later8 when we look at making connections in a polyphase motor!generator in terms of vector sums. 0t least we are done here now8 and can get on with the ne#t phase in our discussion.

Phase vs. phaseI

5ll state in advance the discussion here may get a little confusing. This is because8 as mentioned before8 phase is one of those words that changes meaning with conte#t. The main uses for ?phase? here will be to mean one of the input!output wires to a motor!generator or one of the phase coil groups as described earlier in the polyphase coil count and connection section (these two meanings are basically synonymous)8 or also to mean the sinusoidal waveform found in an

input!output wire or phase coil group. 0nother potential confusion may come in use of the terms ?phase difference? and ?phase angle.? The phase difference is the difference between phases. (-ell8 duh!). That difference is usually measured as an angle8 and8 so8 it is often referred to as phase angle. .ore correctly8 the phase angle is the value of the phase difference8 but8 whatever8 the two terms are used interchangeably elsewhere8 and will be here8 too. ,o8 798 that being that8 we5re >ust about there. -e have a cosine e<uation we can use for generating sinusoids8 in which we can use variables we know or can determine8 time and fre<uency. $ow we need a way to include phase difference into our e<uation. The phase difference between two sinusoids is the separation in angle between the same relative point on the waveforms. -e measure the difference as an angle because the sinusoids are representations of circular motion and the difference between two points on a circle is normally e#pressed as an angle. That angle is not <uite enough information to describe the difference. -e also need to know which waveform comes first. That association is described using the terms ?lead? and ?lag.? -hen one waveform leads another waveform then the first one reaches the end of a cycle before the second one. -hen one waveform form lags another waveform8 then the first waveform reaches the end of a cycle after the second one (figure AE).

To include a lead or a lag in our cosine e<uation8 we simply subtract or add a phase angle in the main angle argument. Careful here. The relationship isn5t <uite intuitive. f we have two sinusoids rotating with the same fre<uency8 and only apply the phase correction to one of the

two8 then to force a lead by the uncorrected waveform over the uncorrected waveform we subtract the phase angle from the corrected waveform8 and to force a lag of the uncorrected waveform we add the phase angle to the corrected waveform (figure AB).

-e5ve now reached the final form of our cosine e<uationI 8 where the phase angle8 8 may be positive or negative8 and8 as used here8 should be e#pressed in radians. f is provided in degrees8 then multiply by and divide by AB( to convert degrees to radians8 which leaves us with the same basic form of the e<uationI 8 n a later section we will be introducing another multiplication factor for the argument in f and t. 2ut8 for now we5ll ignore that and move on to look at e#pressing the full set of phase angle relationships for a polyphase motor!generator via our latest e<uation. n general8 to make a set of plots for phase comparisons8 we need an e<uation for each sinusoid8 with each e<uation e#pressing the amplitude8 fre<uency8 and phase difference for its associated

sinusoid. 1or arbitrary sinusoids each e<uation would have a completely different set of arguments and multiplication factors. 1or e#ample8 the e<uation set for three arbitrary sinusoids8 0828C8 would be8 with the phase angle e#pressed in radiansI

4sing these e<uations we could compare three sinusoids of arbitrary magnitude8 arbitrary fre<uency8 and arbitrary phase angle at any point in time. 2ut8 here we make two simplifying assumptions8 that the magnitude of each sinusoid is the same8 and the fre<uency of each sinusoid is the same. $ote that with the identical magnitudes assumption we can set the magnitude factor to A in each e<uation with no loss in generality. 0lso8 note that with the identical fre<uency assumption time is no longer a critical factor if we are only comparing phase differences8 and we can make the comparisons at any arbitrary rotation angle8 say8 . -e can make one more simplification that has its origin in standard practice rather than physics8 which is when comparing phases8 we assume the phase angle for the first phase is )ero8 and ad>ust the other phase angles accordingly. That gives us8 in our three phase case8 the following simplified e<uation setI

,o8 now we >ust need the phase angles for the 2 and C sinusoids. n a polyphase motor!generator the sinusoidal waveforms found in each phase have a fi#ed angular relationship8 determined by the number of phases. @ach phase leads the ne#t one by the same angle. That phase difference8 P8 is simply one full cycle e#pressed as an angle8 "&( degrees or radians8 divided by the number of phases. 4sing degree measureI P M "&(!$. Thus8 for a three-phase system8 we get a fi#ed phase angle of P M A'( degrees. 7f course8 it would be >ust a little to simple if we could use A'( degrees8 (or A'( !AB( radians)8 for the phase angles in our simplified e<uation set. f we draw three sinusoidal waveforms8 0828C8 each leading the ne#t by A'( degrees8 (figure AJ) we can find the re<uired phase angle values for our set of cosine e<uations by e#amining the plots.

-e know we want a phase angle of )ero for waveform 0. 0nd8 traditionally8 we also use positive value phase angles. That means we will look for appropriate phase lags to define our phase angles. The positions where the phase 0 and 2 waveforms reach their ma#imum value within one full cycle8 with 0 lagging 28 is at M A'( degrees for 2 and M "&( degrees for 0. That gives us a phase difference between 0 and 2 of "&( - A'( M '=( degrees8 which we use as the phase angle for the 2 waveform cosine e<uation. ,imilarly8 the phase difference for 0 lagging C is "&( - '=( M A'( degrees8 which we use as the phase angle for the C waveform cosine e<uation. That gives us the following e<uation setI

which is the standard form for three-phase e<uations. To determine lag values from the given phase lead differences of A'( degrees without having to plot the waveforms8 we can >ust note8 as pointed out earlier8 (figure AB)8 that a phase lead relationship between two waveforms can be reversed by subtracting the phase difference from "&( degrees. ,o8 for 0 and 28 with 0 leading 2 by A'( degrees we can also say 0 lags 2 by "&( - A'( M '=( degrees. 0nd8 since there are "&( degrees in one cycle8 if 0 lags 2 by '=( degrees and 2 leads C by A'( degrees8 then 0 must lag C by A'( degrees. ,imilar analyses can be made for systems with other than three phases. 1rom a strictly theoretical point of view8 that5s it! -e have now have our complete set of cosine e<uations for three-phase related sinusoids8 which we can use in terms of angle of rotation as in the three e<uations above8 or in terms of time via the radial velocity8 which8 as we have seen8 can be e#pressed directly8 8 or in terms of fre<uency8 f8 if we include the proper conversion factor of . f we also include an amplitude factor8 98 and convert the degree value phase angles to radian values by multiplying by and dividing by AB(8 we get a general set of e<uations we can use to compare three-phase waveforms of any magnitude and any fre<uency at any timeI

-e5ll make use of these e<uations in one from or another later8 when we look at why we make the connections we do between phase coil groups in a polyphase motor!generator.

.echanical vs. electrical degreesI

0 while back mentioned we5d look at one more factor to apply to the main argument in our cosine e<uations. 0nd8 now the time has come. *ere we5ll step back a bit from the predominantly theoretical discussions and look at a result that stems from the basic physical arrangement of magnets and coils in our motor!generators. This factor is needed to properly define the phase sinusoids from our cosine e<uations if we use fre<uency or radial velocity to mean the rotational speed of our motor!generator rotor. f we use fre<uency or radial velocity to mean the actual cycle rate of our phase sinusoids8 then this factor is not needed in the cosine e<uations. This discussion assumes we are relating our cosine e<uations to rotor revolutions. -hen we relate our e<uations to the actual phase cycle rate8 (e.g.8 &( *) for 4, commercial electrical power)8 then the last set of three e<uations above are the ones we want to use for a three-phase motor!generator. -hile it is true we relate cycles in sinusoids to circular motion8 and here8 spinning of the rotor in a motor!generator does ultimately define that relationship8 one rotation of our motor!generator rotor does not e<uate to one rotation in our phase sinusoids. n fact8 for an 0C generator8 each turn of the rotor will result in a number of sinusoidal cycles in the output phase waveforms. ,imilarly8 a number of input power cycles are re<uired to produce a single turn of the rotor in an 0C motor!generator used in motor mode. Physical turns of a rotor8 as well as cycles of a sinusoidal signal can both be measured as an angle in degrees or radians. 1or the moment we5ll use degrees. To differentiate the two motions8 we call the angular measure of turns of the rotor ?mechanical degrees8? and the angular measure of cycles of the sinusoidal waveforms ?electrical degrees.? 1or a particular motor!generator design8 there is always a fi#ed ratio between the two. 1or the model motor!generator described in the first part of this web page there are eight sinusoidal phase cycles for each turn of the rotor. 3inks to the source code8 (you might want to check the comments)8 and it5s outputs8 for a program that computes and plots the electrical degree measure phase waveforms for this motor!generator are provided belowI

Those of you checking my work may have already noticed that the coil count for the motor!generator constructed doesn5t match the number you would calculate using the rote

formulas presented at the start of this ?*ow5s it work:? section. That difference is due to consideration of a matter known as cogging8 where the drag of magnet fields across the coils affects motor!generator performance. 6on5t worry about that8 we5ll get to it in a while. 1or now let5s continue the discussion by looking at the relationship between electrical and mechanical degrees for the eight magnet8 A' coil set we computed earlier for a "-phase motor!generator using the rote formulas. 7nce again symmetry comes into the picture. +eferring back to figure &8 we can define a mechanical ( degrees position for the illustrated motor!generator as the middle of the topmost armature coil8 C=. $ow say we turn the rotor so that a north pole magnet aligns with the mechanical ( position8 and define an electrical ( position to be where the north pole magnet is aligned with the mechanical ( position. *mmmm...looks like if we turned the rotor to line up another north pole magnet with the mechanical ( position8 we5d have another electrical ( position. That5s right! 0nd8 that is the answer. The rotor is radially symmetric8 so when we rotate it8 we can align it at several positions and see an identical picture. n the previous paragraph we defined ?a? mechanical ( degree position and also ?an? electrical ( degree position. Those nonuni<ue statements8 as opposed to defining ?the? mechanical or electrical ( degree positions8 were intentional. 2ecause of how figure & was drawn it is easy to see coil C= as defining a mechanical ( degree position. 0nd8 in fact8 because of symmetry8 the relationship we are about to investigate could be arrived at using coil C= to mark the mechanical ( degree position. *owever8 because we want to look at what happens over a full sinusoidal phase cycle when defining the electrical ( degree position8 we will start at the the beginning of a phase coil group8 not because it is at all necessary8 but >ust because it looks better in the figures. -e can start on any phase coil group. 3et5s choose group 08 and define the mechanical ( degree position as being marked by coil 0A8 which8 in figure &8 is >ust to the right of coil C=. 0gain we define the first electrical ( degree position to be where a north pole magnet aligns with the mechanical ( degree position. This is the position where8 when the motor!generator is in operation8 the phase 0 sinusoid will be at its ma#imum value. $ow8 as the rotor turns8 there will be multiple positions where different north pole magnets will pass under coil 0A8 and all other coil and magnet alignments will be such that the phase 0 sinusoid will reach a ma#imum. @ach time this happens phase 0 has passed through a full sinusoidal cycle8 and each of these alignments corresponds to a new electrical ( degree position. The number of full phase cycles per single mechanical rotation is always in a fi#ed ratio. That ratio will vary with motor!generator design8 but8 we can always see what the ratio is by looking at the relative alignment8 in degrees8 between coils and magnets in the design. -e can depict coil!magnet alignment in a linear diagram8 similar to how earlier we diagrammed phase coil connections as linear groups8 even though a real motor!generator armature is circular (e.g.8 figure =). n our eight magnet8 A' coil system8 there will be "&(!B M =D degrees between magnets8 and "&(!A' M "( degrees between coils. 6rawing this arrangement linearly8 with one north pole aligned with coil 0A (figure '() we can see that the rotor will have to shift (rotate) J( degrees to achieve the identical alignment of magnet poles and coils as seen for the first electrical ( degrees position.

f we see a new electrical ( degree position for every J( degrees the rotor turns then for every turn of the rotor we will see "&(!J( M = sinusoidal phase cycles. f you make the same analysis for a ten magnet rotor and use the rote calculation number of coils8 AD8 for a "-phase motor!generator8 you will come up with a ratio of D phase cycles per rotor turn. -ith a little s<uinting at the diagrams8 the general relationship for the ratio8 +8 of phase cycles to rotor turns can be seen to be the result for "&( degrees per phase cycle being divided by one-half the number of magnets divided into "&( degrees per rotor turn. That is8 if . is the number of magnetsI + M "&(!("&(!(.!')). -ith a little algebraic manipulation8 that becomesI + M .!'8 which is >ust the number of pole pairs in the motor!generator. n fact8 so long as the motor is properly designed8 the number of coils doesn5t enter into the relationship. 1or e#ample8 we know the coil count for the A& pole motor!generator constructed for this web page is not what you would calculate from the rote formulas. 2ut8 we also know the electrical to mechanical degrees ratio for that motor!generator is B8 and8 by our new formulaI + M .!' M A&!' M B. ,o8 when we use rotation speed of our motor!generator rotor in the main angle term of our cosine e<uations8 we apply the ratio + M .!' to that term to produce the proper number of phase cycles per rotor revolution8 giving us another form for our e<uationsI

021 - picke! a phase1 now what.

,o8 now we5ve got some phases spinning around8 and described then in fairly painful detail. -hat do we do with them: -hy8 we hook them up to make motors and generators8 of course! 1or a single-phase motor!generator8 we5ve already seen that isn5t too difficult. -ell8 e#cept for that bit about self-starting of single-phase motors. (-hich we5ll get to real soon now.) 2ut8 it gets a little more tricky with polyphase motor!generators. There we have multiple electrical signals going through different strings of coils that have their ends connected together. -hy doesn5t it all >ust short out and burn up: That5s where the rotations8 and more importantly the phase angles8 come in. Check this outI cos(() M A.( cos('=() M -(.D cos(A'() M -(.D A L (-(.D) L (-(.D) M (. ,o what: -ell8 those are the cosine function values for the phase angles (shown in degrees) for our previous three "-phase e<uations. That they sum to )ero is why our three-phase motor!generator doesn5t spark and smoke in normal operation. f you add the same fi#ed angle to the phase angles in our cosine e<uations8 the result is always the same. Try itI cos(BED&"=.=" L () M -(.=A"DBA' cos(BED&"=.=" L '=() M (.JJD'EB" cos(BED&"=.=" L A'() M -(.DBA&JEA -(.=A"DBA' L (.JJD'EB" L (-(.DBA&JEA) M (. Try it again if you want to8 but guarantee the result will be the same. -hat this means is that no matter what the rotational position of our phase sinusoids8 if we look at them at the relative positions defined by their phase angles8 the electrical waveforms will sum to )ero. $ow8 by no coincidence8 the connection locations for our motor!generator phase coil groups fall at the relative phase angle positions. ,o8 though the coil group ends are shorted together8 each connection is effectively at )ero voltage8 and nothing bad happens. ;ou can see this relationship in8 for e#ample8 figure AJ. Consider the ma#imum up e#cursion of any signal in the figure to be LA8 and the ma#imum down e#cursion of any signal in the figure to be -A. Then8 if you sum the observed values for the three sinusoids at the same position along the hori)ontal a#is8 you will

find the result is always )ero. This relationship will hold whether we are considering the rotation in degrees8 fre<uency8 or time. ,o long as we observe the correct phase difference8 the sum is always )ero. 0nd8 of course8 this e#tends to numbers of phases other than three. t might seem that connecting a motor!generator so that the voltages at its phase wires sum to )ero won5t accomplish much. 2ut8 these are relative voltages. f you look across the phase coil groups instead of >ust at each of the ends8 you will see a voltage difference. This is why though the connection voltages sum to )ero8 you should not go probing them with a wet finger! (7r a dry one8 for that matter.) The across phase-coil-group voltage difference relationship can also be seen in figure AJ. 3ook at the difference in voltage for each sinusoid over their specified A'( degree phase difference locations. That is8 from ( to A'( degrees for phase 08 from A'( to '=( degrees for phase 28 and from '=( to "&( degrees for phase C. n each case we see a difference of A.D (as a change from LA to -(.D). The total e#cursion for each sinusoid is '.( (as a change from LA to -A)8 so we see across each phase (.ED of the total e#cursion. There are specific mathematical relationships for the continuous values of the phase voltage differences over time. They are often e#pressed in terms of rotating vectors. -e5ll look at those as we investigate the primary types of phase connection configurations.

3ou say !elta1 - say why. Phasors don5t have to stunI

2efore we get on with looking at some of the possible motor!generator phase wiring configurations8 first lets take a look at a some notation to use for our rotating phases. 1or the most part8 we aren5t going to be concerned with the absolute angles of rotation of our phases8 but >ust with their relative phase angles8 and their magnitudes (which may be looked at in terms of either current or voltage). -e know we are talking about sinusoids all of the same fre<uency here8 so8 rather than using the cosine e<uations to formally state that8 we can >ust use a notation that gives us the magnitudes and phase angles we need. *ere5s oneI 9 The parameter 9 is the magnitude of the sinusoid8 and the parameter nnn gives the phase angle of the sinusoid relative to the )ero phase angle sinusoid. The phase angle parameter could be given in any units8 but8 here8 as indicated8 we5ll use degrees. ,o8 you can read the notation as ?9 at an angle of nnn degrees.? This notation may look familiar. f you5ve done any 0C circuit analysis it probably should. t is traditional phasor notation as derived from the comple# e#ponential representation of a sinusoid. -e aren5t going to worry too much about its derivation here. .ainly we5re >ust going to concern ourselves with how to add phasors together to see if our motor!generator designs fit the criterion we established in the last section8 that the physical connection points for our phase coil groups

are made where their phase waveforms will sum to )ero. 1or our purposes8 often that will amount to >ust adding the phase angle values to see if they sum to )ero8 where ( in degrees is defined as some integer multiple of "&( degrees. 1or e#ample8 ignoring the parameter 98 (that is8 call it e<ual to A)8 we can sum the phasor e<uivalents of our three-phase cosine e<uations asI L L M M

That is8 our " three-phase phase-angles sum to )ero. 0nd8 that summing to )ero is the condition we want8 regardless of the number of phases we are working with.

Phase arrangementsI
This section is brought to you by the letter ;. -hy do people have to do all those the weird phonetic things they do when they want to e#press the 'Dth letter of the @nglish alphabet8 ;: 5m dysle#ic. have a hard enough time getting letters sorted out using a spell-checker8 and all those things involving ?w? and ?e? people do when they want to say ?y? >ust make my head want to e#plode. ,o8 here8 when we talk about ?delta? systems8 we5ll call them delta systems8 and when we talk about ?;? systems we5ll call them ; systems. There are a lot of different ways to arrange the wiring of a polyphase motor!generator. 2ut8 they center around the two basic configurations8 the delta and the ;. n fact8 most of the alternative configurations are >ust combinations of delta and ; circuit arrangements. .ost of what we talked about so far has been while referring to delta wired motor!generators. 2ut8 the discussion also applies to ; configured systems. The same phase coil group ?head-totail? wiring method described in the rote instruction sections holds for delta and ; arrangements8 as does the notion of phase voltages summing to )ero at the phase group connection points. -hat mainly differentiates delta and ; systems is the connection of their phase coil groups. -e5ve seen the delta connection before (figure D)8 so8 let5s take a look at the ; connection. 1or our ongoing case of eight magnets and A' coils8 we would connect our phase coil groups the same as we did for our delta wired motor!generator (figure =)8 but8 rather than connect the phase coil groups in ?head-to-tail? fashion8 we connect them ?head-to-head.? That is8 if we consider the positive lead of a phase coil group to be the ?tail? of the first current arrow as drawn its coil connection diagram8 and the negative pole to be the ?head? of the last current arrow in its coil connection diagram8 then we connect the negative leads. 1or a three-phase motor!generator8 this gives us a three-armed or ?;? configured circuit8 where the free ends are our 0828C phase input!output leads (figure 'A).

4nless you look close at the wiring8 the basic physical design we5ve seen for a delta wired motor!generator (figure &) looks the same for a ; configured motor!generator (figure '').

,o8 what about that connection voltages summing to )ero thing: 6oes that still hold for the ; configuration: ;ep. Take a look. Consider driving the ; as a motor. The free ends are provided with the phase inputs8 which we already know sum to )ero due to their phase differences. ,ince the phase group coils are identical8 and we5ve connected them so that phase currents flow without interfering with themselves8 the voltages seen on the other ends of the phase coil groups will not change phase8 and8 hence8 still sum to )ero at the ; connection point. ,ymmetry dictates the same holds true when using the system as a generator. The same sinusoidal phase relationship diagrams we developed when discussing the delta wired motor!generator also hold for the ; system. 2efore we get into considerations of power and efficiency that might affect one5s choice of a delta or a ; configuration8 there is one significant difference to note between the two connection styles. The ; connection allows including a neutral line along with the phase lines if we choose to. 2y connecting a lead to the phase coil group >unction we get a three-phase =-wire connection8 while without the additional lead the connection is known as a three-phase "-wire connection (figure '").

There are a number of reasons to choose to include or not include a neutral line in a polyphase 0C system. .ainly they relate to safety and power balancing considerations8 and are not terribly relevant to the discussion at hand. ,o8 we won5t cover the issue of neutral lines more in this section8 or in any great detail later. 7ne thing that is somewhat relevant to our current discussion is the matter of power and efficiency for the delta versus a ; connected motor!generator. -ay back near the beginning of all this said something about the delta being more efficient at lower rpms and that is why it was chosen as the configuration for the initial polyphase rote design instructions. ,ome of you may disagree with that8 if you know that for a given rpm the ; produces a a higher voltage than the delta. -ell8 efficiency is in the eye of the beholder. 1or a given rpm the delta produces more current than the ;8 and8 me8 5m looking for ma#imum current8 not ma#imum voltage8 so the delta makes more sense for my purposes. 2ut8 lets take a closer look and see about how to figure out if it makes sense for your application on not. $ote that outside the standard electrical current and voltage relationships which hold anywhere8 the discussion that follows will refer to threephase systems only. -hether we are looking at a delta or a ; system8 there are two voltages to consider8 coil voltage and line voltage. Coil voltage is the voltage read across any coil8 where ?coil? means the entire phase coil group when there is more than one coil per phase coil group. 0 motor!generator5s 0828C8 phase leads are commonly referred to as the ?lines? and line voltage is the voltage read between any pair of lines (figure '=).

The following relationships hold for coil and line voltages and currents in a three-phase delta systemI Coil Coltage M 3ine Coltage N Coil Current M 3ine Current The following relationships hold for coil and line voltages and currents in a three phase ; systemI N Coil Coltage M 3ine Coltage Coil Current M 3ine Current /iven those relationships8 and the rule of thumb that the line resistance8 (i.e.8 the resistance measured between any two lines)8 in a ; system is typically about " times the line resistance in a delta system8 we can make a few calculations and look at differences in output from the two. f we measure the voltage and current in one phase of a generator8 (where here phase means one phase coil group8 or the ?coil? as described in a previous paragraph)8 independent of the other phases8 we can use those readings to calculate what the line voltage and current will be for the generator connected in either a ; or a delta configuration. ,ay in one phase of a generator we see 'B volts and A( amps. Then8 using the above relationships8 wired as a delta the generator would have the same line voltage8 'B volts (C)8 and a line current of N A( M AE." amps (0). +ewired as a ;8 the same generator would have a line voltage of N 'B M =B.D C8 and a line current of A( 0. $ow8 the power in an electrical circuit in watts (-) is e<ual to the voltage in volts times the current in amps8 ,o from any two lines in our ; configured generator we get =B.D C N A( 0 M =BD -8 and8 similarly8 as a delta we see 'B C N AE." 0 M =B= - for any two lines. *mmmm8 =BD - versus =B= -8 that doesn5t seem too significant a difference. 0nd8 it isn5t. The

power out of a generator is related to the power you put into spinning it. -hether we wire it as a delta or a ;8 if we spin our generator so in either case we get the same phase measurements8 then we are basically putting the same amount of power into it. ,o8 in that case8 we really can5t get any more power out of one configuration over the other. 798 then why choose one over the other: t comes down what you are trying to do8 and how fast you can spin. ,ay we made our above measurements at =(( rpm. 1or the delta that means =(( ! 'B M A=." rpm per volt8 and for the ; we have =(( ! =B.D M B.' rpm per volt. f we reved up to A((( rpm8 from the delta we would see around A((( ! A=." M &J.J C8 and from the ; we would see around A((( ! B.' M A'' C. $ow8 rather than choose an arbitrarily coil current8 lets use the convenient8 but not unrealistic line resistances of " ohms for a ; system8 and A ohm for a delta system and see what we get for power while we are charging a battery. 3ets cheat a little bit and ignore the need for rectifying the output alternating current (0C) voltage to a direct current (6C) voltage before applying it to the terminals of a battery for charging. 0s far as the two types of voltages are concerned8 rectification results in a known8 fi#ed multiplication factor being applied to the 0C voltage level to obtain the 6C voltage level8 so the calculations that follow are valid8 but >ust missing a multiplier. -e5ll get to rectification in a later section. The voltage (C) across a circuit is e<ual to the current ( ) through the circuit times the resistance (+) of the circuit8 that is8 C M N +. -e can manipulate that e<uation any way we like8 and8 hence8 M C ! +8 which we use with our generator line voltage and resistance to calculate the line currents. 0ctually8 to calculate the generator line currents in the case of charging a battery8 we subtract the battery voltage from the previously calculated generator line voltages because the battery is compensating for part of the measured line voltage. ,o8 for a nominal A'.D battery level charged by the ; configured generator spinning at A((( rpm we have A'' - A'.D M A(J.D effective line voltage8 which8 with the line resistance of " ohms gives us A(J.D C ! " ohm M "&.D 0 line current. ,imilarly8 for the delta we have (&J.J - A'.D) C ! A ohm M DE.= 0 line current. 0 battery being charged by a generator is essentially a series circuit8 and the current through a series circuit doesn5t change. (-e5ll talk more about series and parallel circuits later.) ,o8 for comparison of the ; and delta generator configurations8 we can look at the power output relative to the nominal battery voltage because we see the same current no matter where we look in the circuit8 and it will give us an idea of how much power we have available to charge the battery. That is for the ; we see "&.D 0 N A'.D C M =D& -8 while for the delta we see DE.= 0 N A'.D C M EAB -8 or 'D" - more power available for charging from the delta than the ; when both are spinning at A((( rpm. That more output power is available from the delta at a given rpm is an advantage so long as we have the input power available to spin it fast enough to get the re<uired output voltage. f we are constrained by input power8 and hence to lower rpm8 then the ; configuration can be an advantage when8 say8 charging a battery. To get the minimum re<uired appro#imately A".D C for charging a standard lead-acid battery8 our e#ample delta generator would need to spin A".D C N A=." rpm per volt M AJ" rpm8 while the ; would re<uire A".D C N B.' rpm per volt M AAA rpm. ,o8 though we would not be producing as much power as when spinning at A((( rpm and hence

would not be able to charge a battery as fast8 we might still be able to charge a battery with the ; configured generator when we could not with the delta generator due to rpm constraints. ,ome motor!generators take advantage of the voltage and current relationship difference between delta and ; configurations and start in the ; configuration to take advantage of higher voltage and lower current at low rpm8 and then switch themselves to a delta configuration once the line current is sufficient to energi)e a coil that creates a magnetic field strong enough to pull in a spring loaded switch that makes the configuration change. (That5s one way8 anyway8 there are other methods.) ,o long as the rpm stay high enough to maintain the re<uired voltage level8 the motor!generator runs in the the delta configuration and takes advantage of the higher available current. 7therwise the system drops back into the ; mode and maintains the re<uired voltage level at the lower rpm.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

-ell8 rotatin5 rotatin5 rotatin5 more precisely. +otating magnetic fields8 that is. -hich are at the heart of all we5ve been talking about. The notion of rotation we covered a lot already with our sinusoids and their multiple forms of cosine e<uation descriptions. Plus8 ?moving? magnetic fields have been mentioned before8 too. t5s pretty clear that the magnetic fields of magnets mounted on a spinning rotor must be rotating8 since their magnets are rotating. (7f course8 there a few more details to fill in there.) 0nd8 what about those magnetic fields created from our nonspinning armature coils when we apply phase input power: -ell8 they are rotating8 too! n the last section we talked a lot in terms of generators. *ere8 we5ll cover things for the most part in terms of motors. @verything in this and the last section pretty much applies to motors or generators8 (remember symmetry)8 but8 the phenomena are >ust easier to visuali)e as described. The key thing to note is8 like the term ?phase8? the term ?rotation? can have somewhat different meanings depending on conte#t.

.oving: +otating:
.oving a magnet obviously moves its magnetic field along with it. ,o8 rotate a magnet8 and its magnetic field rotates8 too. 79. That5s a straight forward concept. 2ut8 let5s look >ust a little bit closer. 1irst8 we5ll consider the magnetic field of a single magnet. $ote that all magnets are dipoles8 that is8 they have two components (north and south poles)8 that are inseparable. There are a number of formulae that can come into play when looking at dipole magnetic fields. -e don5t need to worry about them too much here8 and >ust note that the strength of a magnetic field near a dipole falls off as A! 8 where r is the distance from the center of the dipole. (This is different than the fall off from a monopole8 such as a positive or negative electric charge8 where field strength falls off as A! .) The A! relationship (figure 'D) applies best on the molecular scale8 but for a passable

appro#imation it will work to look at field strength from8 for e#ample8 one of the neodymium discs on the model "-phase motor!generator rotor constructed for this web page.

f we ignore the mathematical artifact where the field blows up to infinity at a distance of r M (8 and kind of fudge over the fact that our disc has a significant diameter relative to a molecule by smearing out the field over the width of the disc and plotting the field change relative to the edge of the disc8 we get something that gives some idea of the field strength near the disc. The take home message here isn5t the e#act form of the field8 but that field strength falls off fairly rapidly away from the disc8 and we are left with essentially a magnetic field ?bump? above our magnet. (figure '&).

$ow8 consider the magnets on the spinning rotor of our basic design motor!generator. -hat we have is a series of intense magnetic bumps8 with alternating poles8 evenly spaced around the perimeter of the rotor. 0ssuming the gap between the moving rotor magnets and the stationary armature coils is small enough (we5ll talk a bit about proper gap width later)8 then the ?bumps? will move through the armature coils8 creating a current in the coils. f we didn5t have the magnetic bumps8 but rather a uniform field around the rotor8 then even though the rotor was spinning8 and the field effectively moving8 the coils would not see much if any change in magnetic field8 and8 hence8 produce little to no current. t isn5t >ust that a magnetic field is moving that causes current flow in a wire8 but that the field intensity is changing8 and the moving magnetic bumps give that necessary intensity change. 1or our alternating pole rotor8 we not only see relative level changes in field intensity as the rotor spins8 (i.e.8 a changing magnetic field)8 but we also see full alternating pole magnetic field changes. This alternating of poles8 as discussed before8 causes reversal of (alternating) current in our armature coils. Coila8 0C generator! n the case of using the motor!generator in motor mode8 you can consider the magnetic ?bumps? along the edge of our permanent magnet rimmed rotor to be the e<uivalent of teeth on a gear. 2ut8 then8 what is pushing these ?teeth? to make our motor rotor spin: The answer is the rotating magnetic field produced by our armature coils when we apply power to its phase coils.

nducing synchroni)ationI
The brushless permanent magnet motor is what is referred to as a synchronous motor. That means its rotor spins at synchronous speed8 where synchronous speed is an rpm value that is a direct function of the input phase line fre<uency and the number of armature poles in the motor. 4nder normal use conditions there is no slip of the rotor in a synchronous motor relative to the rotating magnetic field created by the phase line power input to its armature coils. This is as opposed to an induction motor8 where there must be some slip of the rotor (i.e.8 its speed less) relative to the rotating armature field so that currents are induced in conductors embedded in the rotor which in turn create magnetic fields that act as the magnetic fields produced by the permanent magnets on the rotor of our brushless permanent magnet motor. The synchronous type motor makes a good motor!generator. The induction motor is not <uite so well suited to acting also as a generator. $ow8 electrical current moving through a wire travels basically at the speed of light8 which is about A foot per nanosecond ((.((((((((A second). 0nd8 since we are talking about input power fre<uencies generally of less than A(( *)8 (giving a cycle period on the order of (.(A second)8 with total wire lengths on the order of tens to hundreds of feet8 for all intents and purposes8 every coil in a phase coil group sees the same power level at the same time8 tracking the input power level as it arrives at the phase line input. ,o8 if everything seems to happen at once8 how do we produce anything like a rotating magnetic field from our stationary armature coils: -ell8 there are a few aspects to that8 in particular8 the alternating polarity wiring of the armature coils which produces opposite pole magnetic fields in ad>acent coils as current flows through them8 and also8

in the case of polyphase systems8 the phase difference between the phase line inputs which produces a lead or lag between magnetic fields produced in different phase coil groups. Probably the most commonly seen formula for synchronous speed isI , M A'(f!p whereI , M synchronous speed in rpm (revolutions per minute) f M input phase line fre<uency in *) (cycles per second) p M number of armature poles (coils). 3et5s stare at that >ust a tad and see if we can figure out what5s going on. ,ince we are using fre<uency8 f8 in *)8 or cycles per second8 and , comes out in rpm (revolutions per minute) there must be a factor of &( seconds per minute in there8 so8 we could rewrite the formula for , asI , M (')(&()f!p. $ow8 if we wanted to convert from8 ,8 speed in rpm to8 say8 $8 speed in rps (revolutions per second)8 all we have to do is toss out the factor of &( seconds per minute8 leaving us withI $ M 'f!p. 0pply a little algebra8 and we getI $ M f!(p!'). That is8 synchronous speed in revolutions per second is e<ual to the input phase line fre<uency in *) divided by one-half the number of armature poles. That is to say8 synchronous speed in revolutions per second is e<ual to the input phase line fre<uency in *) divided by the number of armature pole pairs. 798 there5s that ?pole pair? thing again. ,o8 where5s it come from: -ell8 it comes from the same place it did when we were looking at mechanical vs. electrical degrees a while back. There we had a se<uence of alternating pole permanent magnets. *ere8 due to the armature phase coil group wiring techni<ue8 we have alternating pole electromagnets. n either case8 to see the the same action at a pole we have to look at every other pole. That is one half the poles give a different action8 and one half the poles is also the number of pole pairs. *ence8 the number of pole pairs becomes an important factor in the calculations. n fact8 in a while we5ll take a look at a diagram very similar to the one we looked at when discussing electrical vs. mechanical degrees (figure '() as we further define the concept of synchronous speed. 2ut8 first8 let5s >ust take a closer look at the concept of an actual rotating magnetic field. t is actually easier to conceptuali)e a rotating magnetic field when e#amining the properties of a polyphase motor than it is when considering a single phase motor. n fact8 a self-starting single phase motor is8 at least on startup8 connected so that it actually runs as a two phase motor. (.ore on that to come.)

n general8 to establish a rotating magnetic field the number of armature poles (coils) must be e<ual to8 or a multiple of8 the number of input power phases8 with the poles being separated by the phase angle between the input power phases. 0s pointed out earlier8 the number of armature poles and the number of rotor pole (magnet) pairs are related. That is8 for each rotor magnet pair must be a set of armature coils e<ual in number to the number of input power phases. $ote how this relationship8 by default8 meets the criterion given above for the number of armature poles re<uired to establish a rotating magnetic field. ,o8 we know how many armature coils we need to set up a rotating magnetic field8 and that our properly designed motor!generator will have that number of armature coils. 3et5s finally take a look at how all this sinusoidal signal8 spinning vector8 rotating field stuff comes together. -e can look a simple case8 say a two pole-pair8 three phase8 delta configured motor. $ow8 another diagram is in order. 1or that we can use a new form of the armature coil connection diagram we5ve seen before8 same as our original linear diagrams8 (e.g.8 figure D)8 >ust wrapped in a circle to represent a more realistic motor!generator armature. 1or our two pole-pair8 three phase motor!generator we will end up with a circular figure having si# armature coils representing two three-coil phase groups (figure 'E).

4sing figure AJ as a reference for the phase relationships of three-phase sinusoidal currents8 let5s e#amine the magnetic fields that would be generated in the coils of figure 'E by application of three-phase power. Consider that a positive current through a coil wired as is coil 0A relative to

its input phase power will produce a north magnetic pole pointing inwards towards the center of the ring of armature coils. -e5ve seen that we can look at our sinusoidal signals in terms of degrees or time and get the same results. ,o8 take time )ero8 8 to be the )ero degree position for phase 08 take time two8 8 to be the )ero for phase 28 (A'( degrees for phase 0)8 and take time four8 8 to be the )ero degree position for phase 28 ('=( degrees for phase 0). $ote8 relative to the waveforms in figure AJ8 this means at time phase 0 is at a positive ma#imum8 at time phase 2 is at a positive ma#imum8 and at time phase C is at a positive ma#imum. 2ut8 let5s concentrate >ust on phase 0 for a moment. $ote while coil 0A produces a ma#imum strength north pole oriented towards the center of the armature ring at 8 coil 0'8 being wired for the opposite polarity8 produces a ma#imum strength south pole oriented towards the center of the armature ring. The physical arrangement of coils in figure 'E puts 0A and 0' opposite each other on the armature ring8 which means at time there is the ma#imum possible magnetic field strength between coils 0A and 0'. 0lso note that at the J( degree position for phase 08 or three <uarters of the time between and 8 the 0 phase value drops to )ero8 and at that time there is no phase 0 current generated magnetic field between coils 0A and 0'. 7f course8 there are two other input phases8 and8 as we already know8 none of the three are always at their ma#imum value. 0gain referring to figure AJ8 we can see that at time 8 when phase 0 is at its positive ma#imum value8 both input phases 2 and C are are at one half their ma#imum negative value. ,imilarly8 at time 8 phase 2 is at its positive ma#imum while phases 0 and C are at one half their ma#imum negative value. 0nd8 at time phase C is at its positive ma#imum with phases 0 and 2 at one half their negative ma#imum. 1or now let5s >ust concentrate on time . -e have already established that at time the magnetic field between coils 0A and 0' is at its ma#imum8 and oriented north to south from 0A to 0'. 1or phase 2 at 8 recall the rote coil connection scheme dictates that coil 2' is the phase input coil and thus wired so that a positive current generates a magnetic field with its north poll oriented towards the center of the armature ring while coil 2A is wired so a positive current generates a magnetic field with its south pole oriented towards the center of the armature ring. ,o8 with the 2 phase being negative at 8 coil 2' generates a magnetic field with its south pole oriented towards the center of the armature ring and coil 2A generates a magnetic field with its north pole oriented towards the center of the armature ring8 and develops a total field strength around one half that of the field between coils 0A and 0'. ,imilarly8 the total field between coils CA and C' is appro#imately one half the field between coils 0A and 0'8 oriented north pole to south pole from coil C' to coil CA. -ell8 at least that is what would happen if the different phase fields didn5t interact. n reality8 the full strength field e#tends between coils 0A and 0' as described8 but8 the weaker north pole field from C' is deflected by the stronger north pole field from coil 0A and connects to the weaker south pole field from coil 2'8 while the weaker north pole field from coil 2A is deflected by the field from

coil 0A and connects to the weaker south pole field from coil CA. n a simplified form8 the arrangement of flu# lines in the armature ring at time looks like the depiction in figure 'B.

-e could go on producing diagrams similar to figure 'B to show the orientation of magnetic flu# lines in the armature ring at times other than . 2ut8 that would get very tedious very fast. nstead8 we5ll switch to phasors and rotating vectors to simplify things.

/etting into the spinI

0 few sections back we introduced basic phasor notation. There we saw how it describes a vector by giving the vector5s magnitude and direction. 3ets dig into it a bit deeper and look at how it can represent spinning vectors. Phasor notation gives the direction for a vector as an angle relative to a fi#ed starting point8 the tail end of the vector. ,ince one end of the vector is fi#ed in place8 if we change the direction angle8 the vector will pivot around the fi#ed end point until it aligns with the new direction angle. 0nd8 if we change the angle value continuously in one direction the vector will spin around its fi#ed end point (figure 'J).

798 it5s clear that phasor notation can represent a rotation. 2ut8 how to make that rotation represent our motor!generator phases: -ell8 all we need do is force the angle argument to change in time with the same cycle rate as the motor!generator input phases. 0nd8 it5s radians to the rescue! (0gain.) Hust using the same angle arguments we previously developed for our cosine e<uations as the angle argument in the phasor notation vector representation gives us vectors spinning with the same cycle rate (fre<uency) and phase differences as our motor!generator input phases. f we view the rotating vectors (phasors) as something akin to the simple machine presented in figures AD and A& for converting circular to linear motion8 then the relationships for the phasor magnitudes can be deduced. ,ince our input phases are identical e#cept for their phase differences we need look at >ust one of them to determine the magnitude relationships for all. (That relationship is8 of course8 to scale the ma#imum magnitude by the cosine function. 2ut8 for the sake of drawing some more pretty pictures8 let5s soldier on a while longer.) 3ooking carefully at how the our conversion machine works8 in figure AD we can see that the position of the peg on the disc determines the amplitude of the waveform the machine produces. 0t any time in a revolution of the disc8 regardless of the angle of the peg relative to the machine5s a#le shaft8 the perpendicular distance of the peg from a hori)ontal line drawn through the center of the a#le is e<ual to the amplitude of waveform traced by the pencil attached to the end of the shaft moved by the peg. f we think of the peg in our machine5s disc as marking the head of a rotating vector (phasor) and the a#le shaft as marking the fi#ed tail point of that vector8 then we can also think of the perpendicular height of the tip of our rotating vector relative to a hori)ontal line drawn through its fi#ed tail end point as defining the amplitude of the waveform drawn by our machine (figure "().

Clicking on the thumbnail below will launch an animation demonstrating the change in amplitude with phasor rotation. The animation cycles 'D times. f you haven5t gotten bored with it before then and already hit the back button in your browser to return to this te#t8 then you can hit your browser5s reload button to run the animation again8 until you do get bored.

-e have established that our machine drawn waveform describes a sinusoid8 so8 our rotating vector also describes the same sinusoid. This means our rotating vector (phasor) sinusoid can be used to define our motor!generator phase input sinusoids8 >ust as we have already done using the cosine functions that describe the waveforms produced by our circular-to-linear motion conversion machine. -e have also shown how to graphically produce the proper magnitude for our phasors. 2ut8 we aren5t <uite done yet. -e need to apply both the direction and magnitude simultaneously to properly illustrate the phasor in action. 2y definition8 a vector8 rotating or not8 describes a length (magnitude) and the direction to point that length towards. To complete our picture8 we need to not >ust pro>ect the magnitude from tip of the vector onto a line as done in the previous figures8 but8 take the pro>ected magnitude values and align them in the direction of the vector at the time they were generated. Considering again >ust phase-08 with no phase angle8 and clockwise rotation. The phasor starts out with its positive ma#imum magnitude directed vertically up at an angle of ( degrees. The only other ma#imum is negative occuring when the vector is again vertical8 only directed down at an angle of AB( degrees. 0t J( degrees and 'E( degrees the magnitude is (. The effect is in one cycle for the phasor to scribe a figure-eight shaped path around its fi#ed tail point (figure "A).

Clicking the thumbnail below brings up an animation that illustrates the change in magnitude with rotation describing a figure-eight shaped path.

$ow8 don5t be fooled. The phasor described above isn5t really our long sought after rotating magnetic field. The phasor8 in this case8 simply describes the change over time in the magnetic field relative to the phase 0 coils8 0A and 0'. 2etween coils 0A and 0' the magnitude of the magnetic field generated due to the phase 0 input increases and decreases8 as well as changes its polarity when the input current changes polarity8 but8 in and of itself8 it doesn5t rotate. The rotation indicated in the figures and animations above is >ust really a way of illustrating the change over time. $one the less8 the ?figure-eight? magnitude change is the key to the rotating magnetic field. -e noted in describing the magnetic flu# diagram of figure 'B that8 because of the way the phase coil groups are wired8 at time the fields from each group are directed towards the center of the armature coil with the same magnetic polarity8 north to south8 but have different magnitudes8 with the strongest flu# associated with the phase 0 coil group. $o matter at what time in an input phase cycle we look8 the flu# across each coil group will always have the same polarity8 though all polarities may be reversed and which phase coil group is e#hibiting the ma#imum flu# will change. t is this shift in flu# magnitude between the phase coil groups which leads to a rotating magnetic field due to the polyphase input signals. 1or our three-phase system we have three rotating phasors8 each leading the ne#t by a phase

angle of A'( degrees. f we plot the figure-eight magnitude changes for each phasor on the same diagram8 the result provides more insight into the nature of the rotating magnetic field. 1rom such a diagram (figure "') we can see loops in the magnitude change plots for the individual phasors intersect at the center of the figure8 but each fills the gap between its ad>acent phase loops8 with some overlap. 0s e#plained in the te#t of figure "' this figure can be used to determine the magnitude and direction of the phase coil magnetic fields in our "-phase motor!generator.

,till8 we haven5t <uite got to the real deal rotating magnetic field. The animation which can be viewed by clicking the thumbnail below may help shed some light the matter. t shows the figure-eight sweeping magnitude for all three phases8 in their proper orientations8 at the same time.

0gain8 recogni)e that in the above figures and animations we are not looking at rotations in the sense of a magnetic field moving around the armature ring. -hat we are looking at is the change over time of the flu# associated with each phase coil group. The apparent rotation in the figures

is >ust a way of representing the repeating cycle of the changes. t is the combination of the changes in all phases at once that produces the rotating magnetic field.

t all adds upI

79. -e have our rotating vectors8 also called phasors8 spinning in sync with our phase inputs8 and having magnitudes representing the current flows through our phase coil groups which are proportional to the magnetic field flu#es from the armature phase coils. 0lso8 a while back8 we noted at time (figure 'B) that because of how the phase coil groups are wired the polarity of the magnetic fields from each group is oriented in the same direction towards the center of the armature ring. 0gain referring to figure AJ8 let5s call the negative ma#imum for phase C time tA8 the negative ma#imum for phase 0 time t"8 and the negative ma#imum for phase 2 time tD. ,imilarly to how we did for time to produce figure 'B8 we can take a look at the flu#es for the phase coils at time . @#cept this time instead of producing another picture like figure 'B we5ll use vectors to make our graphic representation. 0t time 8 the picture is simply the reverse of the picture at time . The magnitudes of phases 2 and C are one half the magnitude of phase 08 with phase 0 current flow negative and phases 2 and C current flow positive. 0s we saw when discussing figure 'B8 due to the wiring of the phase coil groups polarities of the magnetic fields for all groups are oriented in the same direction towards the center of the armature ring8 but this time instead of north to south from coil 0A to 0'8 it is south to north from coil 0A to 0'8 with weaker south to north fields from coil 2A to CA and from coil C' to 2'. To be consistent8 from here on we will always talk of our magnetic fields in terms of flu# from north to south. ,o8 at time t" we will say our fields are north to south from coils 0' to 0A8 CA to 2A8 and 2' to C'. $ow8 how do we represent the situation at time or with vectors: Pretty straight forward. -e know the lengths of our vectors represent magnitude8 so8 at time or the phase 0 vector will be twice the length of the phase 2 and C vectors. 1urther8 we know the orientation and wiring of our phase coils8 so we can determine the polarity of our phase coil magnetic fields and hence the direction to draw our vector arrow heads. This means at time 8 from the position of coil 0A on our armature ring we draw a full length vector representing the phase 0 magnetic flu# to coil 0'8 and8 from the same starting point two half length vectors8 one at &( degrees from the right of the full length vector and the other at &( degrees from the left of the full length vector. @#amining figure 'B8 we can see that the half length vector pointing &( degrees to the right represents the 2 phase north to south contribution to the picture (coils 2A to CA) and the half length vector pointing &( degrees to the left represents the C phase north to south contribution (figure ""0). 0t time the full length vector (phase 0 contribution) points8 north to south8 from the coil 0' position with the phase 2 contribution (coil 2' to C') at &( degrees to the left8 and the phase C contribution (coil CA to 2A) at &( degrees to the right (figure ""2).

2ut8 ?wait!8? you say. 0ren5t the phase separations A'( degrees: -here did those angles of &( degrees come from: -ell8 that5s really >ust a bit of geometric handwaving coupled with the knowledge of how our armature phase coil groups are wired. n discussing figure 'B8 we noted how the 2 and C phase field contributions are polari)ed due to their phase group coil wiring. 0 little s<uinting at figure 'B will reveal that relative to the center of the armature ring8 directly at the edge of the armature ring8 the contributions of the 2 and C phases point at &( degrees relative to the phase 0 component. The fact that the sum of the angles of the 2 and C field contributions sum to A'( degrees is really >ust a coincidence8 and is related to the number of coils on the armature ring. 0 different number of coils in the phase groups would give a similar picture8 but the angles would be different. The important thing to remember here is the phase input vectors and the magnetic field vectors are8 of course8 strongly related8 but not the same. The phase input provides current flow8 and current flow through the wire creates the field. $ote that the picture at time is simply a version of the picture at time rotated by AB( degrees about the center of the armature ring. $ot coincidentally8 AB( degrees is the amount of phase rotation we see from time to time . That is8 when our input phases have rotated AB( degrees8 it appears that so do our magnetic field flu# vectors. -e can produce the same kind of figures for times and (phase C ma#imums)8 and times and (phase 2 ma#imums)8 where the diagrams for times and will be versions of the and diagrams rotated A'( degrees clockwise8 and the diagrams for times and will be versions of the and diagrams rotated clockwise '=( degrees (figure "=).

7ne more thing to note is we are referencing our rotation to the center of the armature ring8 and what we really have is a south magnetic field on one side of the ring8 and a north magnetic field on the opposite side of the ring8 The magnetic field rotation is of both the poles. -e have been drawing our diagrams to reference the south magnetic part of the field8 but the north magnetic field part rotates along with it8 in sync8 around the opposite side of the armature ring. 0t this point we basically have our rotating magnetic field. 0t least we can see at times 8 8 8 8 8 and we have the same magnetic field flu# pattern rotated at &( degree increments around the armature ring8 where &( degrees is the amount of phase rotation seen between each time step. 0nother important thing to note in figure "= is that it is not the flu# vector for phase 0 that is rotating around the armature ring. ;ou can see in the figures for each time step that the main flu# comes from which ever phase is at its positive or negative ma#imum value. f you compare the phase group coil layout around the armature ring of figure 'B with the time step diagrams in figure "=8 you can see that the spacing of the coils results in the e<ual spacing of the direction of the flu# vectors around the armature ring. ,ince we can5t really tell one flu# vector from another8 what we see is an apparent rotation of a single flu# vector with time. 1or the complete picture we would need to look at what happens between the points of phase magnitude ma#imums. 2ut8 for this discussion8 that is really more than we need to do here. The bottom line is as the phase inputs vary for times away from the phase input ma#imums8 the flu#es from the phase group coils will sum up as vectors to create a total flu# picture which looks

basically like what we see for the phase magnitude ma#imums8 but with the head and tails for the main sum vector directed somewhere between the phase group coils8 rather than directly through an opposing set of coils. (+emember8 the diagrams we have seen are simple representations of a more comple# picture.) n the end we have a magnetic field flu# vectors generated by the phase coil groups which vary so we end up with a set of north and south pole fields moving around the armature ring such that they appear to smoothly rotate. -hew! 1inally! 0 rotating magnetic field. -ow8 that was kind of like pulling teeth8 wasn5t it: -ell8 as 2laise Pascal once said8 ? made this letter long because didn5t have time to make it shorter.? may clean this up a bit someday. 2ut8 don5t hold your breath. 1or now8 lets continue on the trail of that oft promised8 but yet to be seen self-starting single-phase motor.

'in!ing $nother

ay:

The final key to understanding the self-starting single-phase motor is seeing why a polyphase motor spins in a given direction8 and how it can be made to spin in the opposite direction. The direction of rotation is determined by the se<uence order of the input phases. t will also be helpful to understand a bit more of the possible wiring configurations for a motor!generator. ,o8 first will take a look at series and parallel wiring arrangements8 then we5ll get on with the matter of direction of rotation.

,eries and parallel and suchI

-e5ve hinted at other possibilities for armature coil phase group wiring configurations before8 noting that wiring coils end-to-end8 with proper consideration of phase angles8 allows addition of the voltages generated in each coil. This means that besides putting more turns in our coils to generate higher voltages8 which can make motor!generator construction problematic due to large coil si)es8 we can also use smaller coils wired end-to-end (formally called a series connection) to achieve higher voltage outputs. 1or a single-phase motor!generator such as the one illustrated in figure " this is simply a matter of adding more coils to the armature ring8 and an e<ual number of magnets added to the rotor disc. n the case of polyphase motor!generators like the ones depicted in figures & and ''8 to increase output voltage we would add e<ual numbers of coils to each phase coil group8 and add magnets on the rotor disc following the constraints given by the design e<uations provided in the rote formula discussion.

Phase se<uencesI

1orward!reverseI

,plit phase startI

yatayatayata...

Slogging Through Cogging:

eddy currents and such...

Rote Re4isite!:

To be continued...:

References:
(Clicking reference numbers here returns you to the te#t you came from.) FAG httpI!!www.otherpower.com!woodmill.html F'G httpI!!www.alton-moore.net!windPturbines.html F"G @lectric .otor +epair. +obert +osenberg8AJ=&. .urray *ill 2ooks8 nc. F=G 6esign of 2rushless Permanent-.agnet .otors. H.+.*endershot Hr. and T>e .iller8AJJ=. .agan Physics Publishing and Clarendon Press. FDG Permanent .agnet .otor TechnologyI 6esign and 0pplications8 ,econd @d.8 +evised and @#panded. Hack 1. /ieras and .itchell -ing8'(('. .arcel 6ekker8 nc. F&G*andbook of @lectric .otors8 ,econd @dition8 +evised and @#panded. *amid 0. Toliyat and /erald 2. 9ilman (eds.)8'((=. .arcel 6ekker8 nc. Last updated 03August2008 Alan Swithenbank, alans@cuervo.stan ord.edu