Trying to generate power from a coil and magnet

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
TS is missing some vital pieces of information which make this experiment futile.

1) Any generated voltage will be AC. TS does not fully understand how to convert from AC to DC. The standard way is to use diode rectifiers. 1N4001 type diodes have forward voltage of about 0.7V. Schottky diodes such as 1N4817 have a forward voltage of about 0.3V. In either case, the voltage from the coil has to exceed the diode forward voltage before rectification will occur.

2) The gentleman in the video connected an ammeter to the coil in order to measure current. He did not measure voltage.
An ideal ammeter is a short circuit. The voltage across the ammeter is practically zero. Power generated = μA x 0V = 0W,
The experimenter needs to connect a load to the coil and then measure current and voltage.

3) The induced voltage is directly proportional to the number of turns in the coil. In order to generate any appreciable voltage you need lots of turns, into the ten's of thousands. In order to maintain a reasonably physically small coil, you need magnet wire of very small diameter. When you do that the DC resistance of the coil increases. Power generated is wasted as heat in the resistance of the coil.

4) TS does not know how to arrange the poles of a magnet in order to optimize the changing magnetic flux in the coil. If you want to learn how to get the maximum induced voltage study how a loudspeaker is designed, They are designed for maximum efficiency and power transfer.

5) The magnet will oscillate freely when there is no load connected to the coil and no current is generated. As soon as you connect a load to the coil a back EMF is generated which opposes the motion of the magnet. This is basic physics and the law of conservation of energy. Apply a heavy load and the magnet will stop oscillating. Have you ever tried to pedal a bicycle when the dynamo is engaged and the headlight is on?

This is my last word on this.
Yes there are a lot of details that have to be filled in or else some well designed experiments.

I was going to next suggest using a microphone which would generate small currents, but your post reminded me that a small speaker would work too.
It would not generate much current but then again we dont know for sure how much is to be generated for this project, and how many speakers could be used.

Here is a quick drawing, the SHAFT connects to the center of the speaker cone., and the other end of the SHAFT connects to the part of the originating device that moves left to right...
MuscleWireGenerator-4.png
 
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