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Actual air temperature a few minutes ago was 103 degrees F. When you factor in the humidity, the "feels like" temperature is at 112 here now. This is 6 days in a row, and tomorrow the news folks are saying more records are going to be broken. I am ready for cooler weather! George

Here is the latest update on my Mendocino Motor exploration. I though it would be better to start a new thread rather than continue with the old one that is over 4 pages long. You probably remember the "Pink Foam" armature from the previous posts. This is the continuing story of my build from...

I got mine on eBay, here is the address: http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Neodymium-Magnets-3-4-x-1-8-x-1-8-inch-Ring-N48-/150298579095?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item22fe7e5097 The 1/8 center hole fits my brass shaft very nicely. George

Ian, great, nice that it now runs. Yes, balance is very critical to having it run in low light. Now you have it running, you can tune and tweak to make it better. Ken I, that is a very interesting supposition. I would expect you could prove that by knowing where it stopped, last time in the...

Hi John, I would expect that would probably work just fine. Would be heavier than foam but all you would need to do is find the right magnet spacing for levitation. I am not going to continue building them out of foam, that was a sort of proof of concept piece. My next will be a more solid...

Hi Ian: I used 150 turns of #30 wire, per coil. Each turn is about 9 inches That makes each winding about 112 feet long. The AWG wire table shows #30 wire is 100 ohms per 1000 feet so that would make the coil resistance about 15-17 ohms. I did not measure the actual resistance, but that should...

Nice job Ian, very nice looking frame and armature. I had just about the opposite experience, as far as windings go. My first armature had 120 turns in each coil. It would run but took a lot of light. My second has 150 turns and runs right along with just the ceiling lights in the shop. My cells...

I have tried getting it to levitate in two planes as well, just can't be done! I find that Earnshaw's theorem wins out every time. On the rubber cement on the pink foam, I tried it on a piece of the foam, and no matter how thick and wet I put it on, it does not effect the foam. It just dries...

Hi Ken, that is one very beautiful little motor. One of these days I am going to start something that complicated. Again Ken, congratulations on being the June 2012 project of the month winner. Great Job! ! ! ! ! George

Hi Don, it is really surprising that there are not hundreds of these under construction. Ken and I both started around the same time, incidentally, on opposite sides of the world. I think that both builds show not only how simple the overall project is, but how versatile you can be with the...

You are right Ken, will always be a work in progress, probably right into the next model. And I do love the challenge of doing it better, building new experience with every step of the process, forward or backward, the goal is always in sight. Today I really did a lot. I started by widening the...

Thanks John, did not realize that. Probably just exactly what i need to hold the cells in place permanently. Your web picture, looks like a T6. Just had a good friend and his wife crash a T6. He will be OK, but lost his wife. That makes two of my friends have lost their T6's this past year. George

Well gang, the learning curve continues and is very steep! The armature shown in the pictures above was a complete failure, for many reasons. I had it perfectly balanced, or so I thought. You learn by doing dumb things. First dumb thing, DON'T USE STEEL SCREWS to balance the armature! Once I...

Thanks for all the comments guys, this has been a lot of fun so far. Don't be afraid to tackle a project like this, one piece at a time, it will come together. Ken, yes, balance is going to be a challenge. I noticed that my magnets wobbled a bit on the shaft, even that threw the balance out of...

Hi Ken, yes, there are a lot of variables that one can play with on this kind of a project. But flying by the seat of the pants is a lot of fun too! Well today I got a lot more done on the project. As winding the Armature is the next project, I started by making a stand to hold the roll of...

Beautiful job, congratulations on the first runner! It is the one that you will always remember. George

Here is the next step in my process of building a Levitating Motor. This is the Armature Core for the motor. I machined it out of rigid pink foam. Boy, does that stuff ever machine nice! The notches in the corners are where the windings will go around. There are two milled out areas on each of...

Hi Ken, great job! I just hope I can be as successful as you have been with your project. George

Ken, I attempted to calculate the weight of the solar cells and wire to get an approximate weight of the finished armature. As I am going to make the armature core out of foam, I think I got it quite close. The brass weight is about twice the weight of what I calculate for the finished armature...

Hi Ken, very nice project description and build. Your final design really does run great! I have been a fan of these kind of motors for some time, and started putting one together just this week. Gosh, do you think we can convert this group of engine builders to Mendocino builders? These...