Can a magneto be used as a motor?

[Jeff the Green]

As the title. I seem to remember learning that it could be, but I'm having trouble actually finding somewhere that says so.

[thorgrim29]

Well, by himself Magneto wouldn't be much better then an average 80 year old as a motor, but give him enough metal and he can totally propel you forever. Hell I bet he can even make a motor run without gas just by making the cylinders move.

[Eldan]

Do you mean a magnet? It is used in electrical motors, but not on its own. You also need a current, like from a battery.

[Aquillion]

Magneto could presumably cause metal to rotate as long as he desires, and you could use it to power stuff. But I suspect you would have trouble convincing him to stay around.

[SowZ]

Well, by himself Magneto wouldn't be much better then an average 80 year old as a motor, but give him enough metal and he can totally propel you forever. Hell I bet he can even make a motor run without gas just by making the cylinders move.

A single magneto would be capable of moving whatever it is the motor is designed to power, and so could replace the motor entirely. Multiple magnetos would just be overkill.

[factotum]

Hmmm. Amazing how many people don't seem to know that a "magneto" is actually an old-fashioned device used to generate electrical current, rather than a Marvel super-villain, isn't it?

To answer the question: given how a magneto works, I don't think it *could* be used as a motor. It doesn't have a commutator so supplying it with DC current would just cause it to rotate to a locked position and then stop there, and AC motors require the generation of a rotating magnetic field, which a magneto can't do because it uses permanent magnets.

[Illogictree]

OK, serious answer time... Generally, electric motors and electric generators operate on the same principle of induction, but in opposite ways. So, yes, an electric motor can be used as an electric generator and vice versa. That's how regenerative braking in hybrid cars work. A magneto is just a generator that uses permanent magnets to produce alternating current. i don't see anything appreciably different in one from a normal motor. You would just have to wire it up backwards. (Probably not a great idea if you don't know what you're doing, but yeah, possible in theory)

[thorgrim29]

Hmmm. Amazing how many people don't seem to know that a "magneto" is actually an old-fashioned device used to generate electrical current, rather than a Marvel super-villain, isn't it?

Huh, I just thought is was an amusing typo. Damn now I feel much less clever.

[factotum]

OK, serious answer time... Generally, electric motors and electric generators operate on the same principle of induction, but in opposite ways. So, yes, an electric motor can be used as an electric generator and vice versa. That's how regenerative braking in hybrid cars work.

If you fed a magneto AC current you might be able to get it to spin at a fixed speed relating to the frequency of the input current, but put any sort of load on it at all and I bet it would slip out of synchronous speed and immediately stall. Proper AC motors pretty much invariably work by generating a rotating magnetic field in the stator--I've never encountered one which used a permanent magnet stator and an electromagnet rotor, which is what you get in a magneto.

[ace rooster]

OK, serious answer time... Generally, electric motors and electric generators operate on the same principle of induction, but in opposite ways. So, yes, an electric motor can be used as an electric generator and vice versa. That's how regenerative braking in hybrid cars work. A magneto is just a generator that uses permanent magnets to produce alternating current. i don't see anything appreciably different in one from a normal motor. You would just have to wire it up backwards. (Probably not a great idea if you don't know what you're doing, but yeah, possible in theory)

The question then becomes how do you wire up an AC device backwards? It is not as simple as just switching the wires around, as then it would still be AC, but 180 degrees out of phase. What wiring it up backwards means is supplying current in the opposite direction at all times, but with the added complication that the wrong current at the wrong time might reduce the fields, vastly reducing the efficiency. It might require complicated power electronics to make it work, and even then it might interfere with the magnetic field generation in the rotor. I don't know enough about them to say it is not going to work, (though I would stick my neck out and guess that it would at least need the rotor to be initially rotating, in order for there to be any significant field in the rotor at all) but I would not expect it to be simple. It would probably be very design specific how well it works.

[FireJustice]

So, If i understand correctly, a magneto use a magnetic flux to generate current.

The magnetic flux is genereated using moving magnets, and you move those magnets with your arm or any other form of mechanical movement, right?


So, yes, it's possible. Not efficient at all, but possible.

use this build, but change the ring with a magnet
and the magnets with a eletro-magnets using AC