Re: Solar powered electrostatic motor drone ??

On 7/19/24 12:00, Phil Hobbs wrote:

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:
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john larkin <jlarkin_highland_tech> wrote:

On Thu, 18 Jul 2024 19:21:23 +0200, Jeroen Belleman
<jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:
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On 7/18/24 18:42, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:
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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...

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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.

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I think Philips dabbled with them many decades ago.  A report will be
somewhere in the Philips Technical Review.
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Thanks for that hint. The Philips Technical Review is a treasure
trove of interesting stuff.
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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>.
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Jeroen Belleman
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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?
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The main problem for outdoor use is going to be leakage, I expect.
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Could be useful if you forget where you parked your car at the airport. ;)
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Cheers
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Phil Hobbs

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

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…in a universe where there are magnetic monopoles. ;)
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Cheers
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Phil Hobbs
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Where did that come from? Why do you think monopoles should
be involved?
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Jeroen Belleman
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 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
 

OK, true, but I don't see why that affects the practicality of
electrostatic motors. In fact, if you remove the motor drive of
a pelletron, it will happily run in reverse, driven by the
acccumulated charge on the high-voltage electrode.
(I'm not suggesting that a pelletron is an optimal configuration
for an electrostatic motor.)
Jeroen Belleman