Mendocino motor

Short description: Low-power solar-powered electric motor

The Mendocino motor is a solar-powered magnetically levitated electric motor. With a very low power output, they are generally used as technical demonstrations only, but are a popular construction project with electronic enthusiasts.[1]

## Contents

* 1 Description
* 2 History
* 3 References
* 4 External links

## Description

Mendocino motors, showing their rotors magnetically levitated over their bases. The most effective creating of Lorentz force is a coil laying parallel under two opposite solar panels.(see mounting instruchtion on https://klose-mendocinomotor.de/) Here you can see the modificated version. Easy to build but less effective.

The motor consists of a rotor shaft with an array of (typically four to eight) solar panels and electromagnetic coils arranged in a barrel shape around the centre of the shaft; this rotor is horizontally mounted in a frictionless radial bearings over a central magnet on the base plate of the motor. The final 6th degree of freedom, the axial or thrust direction, is not levitated, but rather supported by a steel ball point of contact (low friction).

An original Mendocino Motor is a light commutated motor. Two opposite solar panels are connected plus to opposite minus and minus to opposite plus. A coil is switched between these bridges. The solar panel in the sun/light produces more electricity than the solar panel in the shadow. So the solar panel in the sun dominates the flow of electricity. The coil and the base magnet create Lorentz force and so a movement that leads the next solar panel into the sun/light, thus maintaining the rotation. If the rotor is well balanced the rotor will start itself with enough light. Even a candle light could start a very well balanced rotor.[2][3]

In a modification, new constructors used one coil each supported by one opposite solar panel. It's easier to produce but this design isn't as favorable as the light commutated version. Many of these motors need an initial impulse to move.

## History

The idea of a light-commutated motor, where solar cells power the individual coils of a motor, was first described by Daryl Chapin in an experiment kit from 1962 about solar energy.[1] The kit was distributed by Bell Labs, where Chapin together with his colleagues Calvin Fuller and Gerald Pearson had invented the modern solar cell eight years earlier, in 1954.[4] Chapin's version of the motor uses a vertical glass cylinder on a needle point as a low-friction bearing.

A magnetic suspension of the rotor was added in 1994 by eccentric inventor Larry Spring to create "Larry Spring's Magnetic Levitation Mendocino Brushless Solar Motor"[5] \- more commonly called "Mendocino Motor" with a horizontal rotor. The name comes from the location of his workshop on the Mendocino coast of California.[5]

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Daryl M. Chapin (1962). Bell System Science Experiment No. 2: Energy from the Sun. Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated. p. 77.
2. ↑ Wang, Yo (2020-05-01). "【Fun Science】The Mystery of the Mendocino Motor (Perpetual Motion Machine?)" (in zh-tw) (video). Taiwan: Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LH6QHrEdo4.
3. ↑ Wang, Yo (2020-11-06). "Mendocino Motor Type-A (Made for Beyond Torii Type)" (in zh-tw) (video). Taiwan: Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLpnICgYWLM.
4. ↑ "Bell System Memorial: Bell Labs Science Kits (Energy From The Sun)". http://www.porticus.org/bell/belllabs_kits_se.html. Retrieved 2009-11-24.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Berger, Kévin. "Solar Electric Motor on Superconducting Bearings: Design and Tests in Liquid Nitrogen". IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01398145/document. Retrieved 29 May 2019.

## External links

* Detailed description of construction
* a 3D printed version of a tiny Mendocino motor

* v
* t
* e

Electric motors

* AC - Alternating current
* DC - Direct current
* PM - Permanent magnet
* SC - Self-commutated

Fundamental types|

* AC motor
* DC motor

DC motors|

* Homopolar
* Electrically-excited field or PM field brushed DC
* Unipolar

AC SC mechanical
commutator

* Repulsion
* Universal

AC SC electronic
commutator

* Brushless DC (BLDC)
* Switched reluctance (SRM)

AC asynchronous
(induction (IM))

* Shaded-pole (single-phase)
* Dahlander pole changing motor
* Squirrel-cage rotor (SCIM)
* Wound-rotor (WRIM)
* Linear induction

AC synchronous (SM)|

* Hysteresis
* Interior / Surface PM (IPMSM / SPMSM)
* Reluctance (SyRM)
* Wound-rotor (WRSM)

Special magnetic
machines

* Doubly-fed
* Linear
* Servomotor
* Stepper
* Traction

Non-magnetic|

* Electrostatic
* Piezoelectric
* Ultrasonic

Enclosure Type

* Hermetic
* TEFC

Components and
accessories

* Armature
* Braking chopper
* Brush
* Commutator
* DC injection braking
* Field coil
* Rotor
* Slip ring
* Stator
* Winding

Motor controllers|

* AC/AC converter
* Amplidyne
* Adjustable-speed drive (ASD)
* Cycloconverter
* Direct torque control (DTC)
* Metadyne
* Motor controller
* Motor soft starter
* Motor starter (engine)
* Power inverter
* Thyristor drive
* Variable-frequency drive (VFD)
* Vector control
* Voltage controller
* Ward Leonard control

History, education,
recreational use

* Timeline of the electric motor
* Ball bearing motor
* Barlow's wheel
* Lynch motor
* Mendocino motor
* Mouse mill motor

Experimental, futuristic|

* Coilgun
* Railgun
* Superconducting machine

Related topics|

* Blocked-rotor test
* Circle diagram
* Closed-loop control
* Electromagnetism
* Open-circuit test
* Open-loop controller
* Power-to-weight ratio
* Torque and speed of a DC motor
* Two-phase system

People|

* Arago
* Baily
* Barlow
* Botto
* Cook
* Davenport
* Davidson
* Dolivo-Dobrovolsky
* Faraday
* Ferraris
* Froment
* Gramme
* Henry
* Jacobi
* Jedlik
* Lenz
* Maxwell
* Ørsted
* Park
* Pixii
* Saxton
* Siemens
* Sprague
* Steinmetz
* Stimpson
* Sturgeon
* Tesla

See also|

* Alternator
* Electric generator
* Inchworm motor

SI electromagnetism
units

* C \- Capacitance (F)
* Q \- Charge (C)
* G, B, Y \- Conductance, susceptance, admittance (S)
* κ, γ, σ \- Conductivity (S/m)
* I \- Current (A)
* D \- Electric displacement field (C/m2)
* E \- Electric field (V/m)
* ΦE \- Electric flux (V·m)
* χe \- Electric susceptibility
* U, ΔV, Δφ; E \- Emf (V)
* L, M \- Inductance (H)
* H \- Magnetic field (A/m) strength
* Φ \- Magnetic flux (Wb)
* B \- Magnetic flux density (T)
* χ \- Magnetic susceptibility
* μ \- Permeability (H/m)
* ε \- Permittivity (F/m)
* P \- Power (W)
* R, X, Z \- Resistance, reactance, impedance (Ω)
* ρ \- Resistivity (Ω·m)

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