Re: Synchronous AC motors...

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Christoph Bohr" <cb-at-luebke-lands.de> 

Hello all.

 > transformer laminate that surrounds a shaft which is nothing but a
 > steel rod with some circular transformer laminate on it.

Huh!! sounds odd....there should be something that looks like aluminium
casting....maybe a type of induction motor I haven't seen jet.

 > Is this a
 > synchronous motor and if so is 1/6 HP at 1550 RPM enough?

If the label says 1550 rpm this is definitely not a sync motor ( unless you
live somewhere, where they have a _very_ odd line frequency.....doubt that
;-)

1/6HP is pretty weak, only a very small and well balanced disk will work
here with low drag electrodes. Maybe a motor like this woul better be used
as a propeller gap ( search the archives )

 > How do I position
 > the disk with electrodes to make sure it fires at the top of the cycle
 > etc?

You can use magnetic or other sensors to determine the relative position "on
the fly" but most people I have seen guestimate a position to start with and
refine the settings by trial and error....

hope this helped a bit


Sincerely

Christoph Bohr