Motor commutator arcing at 10,000fps

A request from user MrTurboTurbine, a high speed video recording of arcing on a motor commutator. The arcs are not pulled from the brush, they in fact are confined to the gaps between the comm bars.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• brush arcing
• brush
• commutator
• arc
• electric motor
• high speed
• video
• 10000fps

[thewii552]

any chance you could release the camera project?

[tesla500]

@thewii552 I could release the first camera I built awhile back, that's the only one that's in a usable state at the moment. Let me set up somewhere to upload it to.

[anthonyj777]

Hi very impressive setup there, I'm confused though; I thought the CCD you were using was only capable of 320x240 @ 940fps ? the video look to be a far hight resolution and you say 10,000 FPS?

[tesla500]

@anthonyj777 This is the new camera, which is about 10x faster than the old one. I posted a video a week or two ago showing the new camera.

[ninjaspeak]

What song is that?

Love the videos by the way. Your love of destruction reminds me of the Mythbusters.

[tesla500]

@ninjaspeak Thanks! The song is Plunge into Hyperreality by JT Bruce

[tesla500]

@Aussie50 Thanks!

I've gotta try that with the 10 MOT resonant setup. I can crank the exposure down as low as 2us, so hopefully too much light won't be a problem!

I wonder if a vacuum cleaner blower can break the sound barrier?

[Aussie50]

Really interesting indeed!. great video!.

I wonder if the camera would handle the arc light from a Universal Motor running off a MOT :D

[xmodalloy]

So, why don't they slant the brushes to have only one point of contact to the commutator when it first arcs? Or would that just make things worse? Seems like it might be worth experimentation.

[charles9655]

It's over 9000

[rocketman221projects]

Cool. What camera are you using? Thats a very good picture at such a high frame rate.

[BarneySaysHi]

Amazing video, thanks!

[superdau]

Wow, very nice! For some time of the spin up the music was also in sync with the sparks ;)

Btw. it looked as it was always the same gap that drew arcs (it has a dark spot below the contacts).

[RODALCO2007]

That is an awesome video. Top quality camera you have there.

Interesting to see the arc between two of the segments staying in tact, obviously faulty winding or carbon dust build up.

[wcocowcocow]

honestly that is the most awesome thing iv ever seen.