Re: Solar powered electrostatic motor drone ??

Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:

On 7/19/24 00:54, Phil Hobbs wrote:

Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:

On 7/18/24 23:59, john larkin wrote:

On Thu, 18 Jul 2024 21:49:14 -0000 (UTC), Phil Hobbs
<pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:
 

john larkin <jlarkin_highland_tech> wrote:

On Thu, 18 Jul 2024 19:21:23 +0200, Jeroen Belleman
<jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:
 

On 7/18/24 18:42, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:
 

On 7/18/24 07:46, Jan Panteltje wrote:

Researchers build ultralight drone that flies with onboard solar Bizarre
design uses a solar-powered motor that's optimized for weight.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/07/researchers-build-ultralight-dro
ne-that-flies-with-onboard-solar/
 
Well, ehh, unlimited flight time if any sun..
Looks funny.
4.5V to 9 kV power converter...

 
I wonder if electrostatic motors would have been as practical
as electromagnetic motors if the history of motor design had
taken a different turn a century or two ago.

 
I think Philips dabbled with them many decades ago.  A report will be
somewhere in the Philips Technical Review.
 
 

 
Thanks for that hint. The Philips Technical Review is a treasure
trove of interesting stuff.
 
I found a paper by B. Boll¥ on electrostatic motors:
<https://pearl-hifi.com/06_Lit_Archive/02_PEARL_Arch/Vol_16/Sec_53/Philips_Tech_Review/PTechReview-30-1969-178.pdf>.
 
Jeroen Belleman
 

 
I wonder how many orders of magnitude an electrostatic motor is worse
than a magnetic motor, in some criterion like power per volume or
power per dollar. 6 maybe?
 
 

 
The main problem for outdoor use is going to be leakage, I expect.
 
Could be useful if you forget where you parked your car at the airport. ;)
 
Cheers
 
Phil Hobbs

 
Seems to me that an electrostatic motor will need switching of many
kilovolts into the electrodes. Charging and discharging, efficiently.
 
https://www.c-motive.com/
 
That alone seems messy to me.
 
 

 
 
I was thinking of stacks of many stator disks with conductive sectors,
interleaved with as many rotor disks. Running voltage would be a few
hundred volts, maybe up to a kV. Commutation can be mechanical or
electronic. If fed with AC, commutation is implicit, but some tricks
would be needed to create a starting torque.
 
Leakage in humid condition can be dealt with by covering the disks
with an insulating coating. The problem is not so different from
magnetic motors

 
…in a universe where there are magnetic monopoles. ;)
 
Cheers
 
Phil Hobbs
 

 
Where did that come from? Why do you think monopoles should
be involved?
 
Jeroen Belleman
 

Magnetostatics and electrostatics are not the same in our world, because
there’s no free magnetic charge (i. e. monopoles) to cause magnetic
leakage.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs  Principal Consultant  ElectroOptical Innovations LLC /
Hobbs ElectroOptics  Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics