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Hello all. My name is Peter and I'm a student of mechanical engineering. For my thesis I decided to construct and test an electric pulse motor. I chose the keppe motor design for its simplicity and for the fact that it's already in production in the fans the keppe motor group makes (official site: Keppe Motor - Tecnologia Sustentável | Keppe Motor - Sustainable Technology and patent: http://www.google.com/patents/US20110298326). Most probably it won't be an exact replica but will be tailored to the materials available to me as well as my own construction skills. The purpose of this thread is to share my progress and get feedback from anyone interested on the subject. In the second post I detail my progress up to this point.
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I have built a small model (shown in the first picture) in order to get a basic understanding of it's operation and to test out a few things. Ideally I would like to capture the collapse of the magnetic field when the coil shuts off and reroute this energy back to the motor for usable torque, and do this in the simplest way possible partly because my knowledge on electronics is rather limited. To do this so far I used the circuit on the second picture. The transistors I use are TIP32C and TIP31C, the source is usually 12V power supply, the diodes are 1N4007 and the capacitor and resistors I vary. I used this circuit on a simple pulse motor design (shown in the third picture), consisting of a skateboard wheel with 4 magnets glued on it as a rotor, a coil as the stator and a reed switch for triggering (instead of the optical switch shown in the schematic). With this motor the circuit works fine. With the feedback loop the input power drops by ~30%, the rpms increase slightly and the transistors remain cool. In the keppe motor model though there doesn't seem to be any difference if the feedback loop is closed or not, and the transistors get hot, especially the NPN TIP31C. The behaviour is similar whether I use an optical swith or a reed switch. With the optical switch the duty cycle is about 33% and the waveform across the coil is shown in the fouth picture. Also when I load the shaft of the motor the input power remains stable independantly of the load. -
Hi harctan. I will be interested to hear how you make out with this project, and see what kind of efficiency numbers you measure. The Keppe Motor appears to be fairly similar to a Joseph Newman Motor, developed back in the 1980's I believe. Joesph Newman is a bit of an odd character, and, from what I have read, he was denied his patent application for the Newman motor because he claimed over unity, and also his explanations about how everything worked seemed like pseudo science to the examiners. Keppe seems to only refer to his motor as having high efficiency in his patent application, so he is more likely to be granted a patent, although the patent should maybe not be granted to Keppe because his design appears to me to be similar to the Newman motor design. You can search for 'Joseph Newman' on youtube for more information about his motor, for comparison purposes, if you are interested.
This video on the Newman motor may be of interest to you:
Newman motor 1 - TheDaftman
He demonstrates that having two stator coils, one underneath and one overtop the rotor, seems to
give higher RPM's and less current draw from the power supply.
You may also be interested in this video of a pulse motor by Jack Scholze:
Orb Weaver Pulse Motor - Jack Scholze
He shows his schematic for his pulse driver circuit. He is using a MOSFET for the pulse driver transistor, and a hall effect sensor for the timing pulse to fire the MOSFET. He is experimenting with a Tesla style bifilar pancake coil as the stator motor coil (and he has another coil on there as well), but you should be able to use an ordinary coil for the motor stator coil with this circuit as well.
Last edited by level; 04-11-2013, 05:41 PM.levelComment
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The Robert Adams motor is very well worth considering
as is that of Charles Flynn:
http://www.free-energy-info.co.uk/Chapter2.pdfComment
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Hello level. I am aware of the similarities between the keppe motor and the newman motor as well as the bedini-cole window motor. Here is an explanation from the keppe motor group about this subject: Basic Differences between Newman and Bedini-Cole Motors and the Keppe Motor. As far as I have understood the keppe group claims that the motor implemented in the fans they manufacture is highly efficient (up to 70%), especially considering the simplicity and the low cost. They have made claims about overunity results using a more advanced system, which they call turbo system, that uses relays. As far as I'm concerned I just want to build the best that I am able to and conduct some proper tests to measure efficiency. Thanks for the videos. The first one I am already familiar with. The second I hadn't seen and looks interesting. I was thinking that at some point I should probably replace the transistors with mosfets, it's just that I understand how to use transistors better. Also in his circuit the energy recovery is external, meaning that it goes to charge a capacitor or a battery or light up a neon bulb and not rerouted back into the motor. My goal is to reuse this energy back to coils of the motor as to increase it's efficiency.Comment
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Hello wrtner, thanks for the input. I'm aware of the Adams and Flynn motors. As I explained in my first post the reasons that I chose the keppe motor is for it's simplicity compared to other designs (something that appeals a lot to a novice like myself) and the fact that it's already in production, even if still limited.Comment
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In production? What COP are they getting?Originally posted by harctan View Post
A well made Adams, based on the rotor's iron being attracted to the
stator magnet, and the coil around this stator magnet being bathed
in a field to allow the rotor to sail on, should get around 8.Comment
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The efficiency of the production unit have been measured by themselves at 70% (Keppe Motor :: The Energy of Life ::) but they claim their more advanced system (turbo system), which is not yet in production, can go even higher. Here is a post explaining in detail: http://www.energeticforum.com/renewa...html#post53189 and here is the video manual: VIDEO MANUAL KEPPE MOTOR on Vimeo. I believe other motor designs like Adams motor, Orbo from Steorn, Tinman's rotary transformer (International Alternative Energy Center - The rotary transformer project - Powered by ForumCo.com - The Forum Company) and many others are definately worth researching but I haven't seen any proper efficiency measurements yet. Also as I stated earlier they look to me a little more complex for my novice skills.Comment
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I didn't notice that it says above: 70%. Hopeless. I suspect thatOriginally posted by wrtner View Post
the average outrunner motor is way ahead. Why bother?Comment
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The keppe motor is in constant development and with further modifications it's efficiency could increase. And if that doesn't happen, that's ok too. I find the project well suited for my skills and since I have to do my thesis on something it might as well be something that interests me, even if it doesn't prove to be groundbraking. Just the experience that I gain from this will be worthwhile for me.Originally posted by wrtner View PostComment
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Hi Harctan
I like your method of harvesting the BEMF, why did you use the lower isolating diode instead of charging the battery ? higher efficiancy ?
I'm making another Keppe version with 2 sets of coils 90 deg apart & want to use as a stepper motor, however 2 H bridges raises the complexity.
PeterKComment
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Hello PeterK. I usually run the motor from a power supply so no need for charging. Also even when I use a battery, from what I have read from Bedini technology, it's not very efficient to charge the battery the same time as it's discharging, though I haven't tried it myself. Anyway the circuit will probably change as I progress so any ideas are wellcome. I was also thinking at first about 2 sets of coils but I decided to keep it simple for now. I will be interested to know how your project evolves.Comment
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Hi Harctan
I have two versions planned, a low voltage stepper for Solar Heliostats
also a larger Line voltage version as in furnace fan. each will use a Pic micro
but switching the high side & useing all N Fets is the issue, thinking of a 1 Mhz gated clock into a ferrite step up transformer for isolated gate drive.
I have used something similar for years on motor drivers for Back Gauges,
Actually thinking of winding tiny transformer with 10T on primary & 25 T sec. then mixing ground up ferrite with epoxy & potting.
I'll let you know what kind of rise time I get on the gate.Comment
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Your designs sound much more advanced than mine. I'm still trying to figure out how to replace the transistors with mosfets to see if there'll be any difference.Comment
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We are having the same problem using Fets, I'll just need more because of the other coil @ 90, needing two H-bridges.
On a PCB I did previously I used 1 pot core & wound 5 wires @ once giveing me 4 isolated secondaries, then Opto isolators for switching, but the board ended up 3" * 4" with a piggy back board containing micro ! that's twice as big as I need. each of the 8 Fets needs a fast diode re slow body diode, also I use a Zener on each gate. I'd like it all to fit in a Nema 17 foot print.
Looking for Kiss method.Comment
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