Re-magnetising flywheels

[Graham Smith]

I took John’s flywheel for the Firefly to get it re-magnetised today.

As John said to me, it looks like something out of Dr Who!

 

[Mr. Boring]

With a touch of uncle Fester

 

[vibrac]

Was that at Villiers services?

 

[SteveF]

Interesting, I wonder if we could magnetize a Rapide's flywheels and hack some kind of generator together.

 

[Magnetoman]

That magnetizer would be hard pressed to do much of anything to an Alnico magnet. Inside the pyramid is a rectifier for the mains voltage and the bulbs are there to dissipate the power in the coils after the voltage is switched off to avoid a big spark. Since all the magnetizer has to work with is the mains voltage, and since I=V/R, the amount of current, and hence the magnitude of the field, it can generate is modest. A tired Alnico magnet will be somewhat better off after using this magnetizer, but worse off than it should be.

 

[Graham Smith]

Certainly better than it was, and more balanced.

He tested it using this.

 

[Magnetoman]

Certainly better than it was,

The placebo effect might account for some of the perceived improvement.