19 Oct
2007
19 Oct
'07
3:22 a.m.
From a UK point of view 'motor' as in motor-generator would be
taken to
some form of internal combustion engine.
I have heard lots of references to 'motor-generators' but never an
'engine-generator'.
Devices used for AC to DC, DC to AC and voltage conversion using a
electric motor coupled to a generator would be referred to as 'rotary
convertors'.
No, when I've talked to people (in the UK) about a rotary converter,
they were talking about a large 3 phase motor wired up with big
capacitors so that it could be started on a single phase supply and
once turning, the other two windings would provide the other two
phases whilst the pulses to the first winding would keep it running
at the right speed. Of course for a 10kVA supply, I would have needed
at least a 30kVA motor as only one phase was actually driving it.
It may be
European vs US usage, but in the US "motor" almost always
means electric motor in this and other contexts. So what you
That tends to be UK usage too. The thing under the bonnet (OK,
hood) of
a car is called an 'engine' over here. 'Motor' for that would be very
uncommon.
To me, a 'motor generator' is just that. An electric motor driving an
electric generator, to be used to convert voltage/frequency, etc. A
'rotary converter' (or 'Dynamotor; if oyu go back far enough) is a
simialr thing with common field windings/frame/etc rather than 2
separate electrical machines with the shafts coupled.
Yes, but generator also means a machine converting a turning motion
into DC. Cars prior to the mid sixties had generators, after that
they have alternators with a bridge rectifier.
call a "motor-generator" would be here
just plain called a
"generator"
A 'generator' over here is either just the mechanical-to-electircal
energy converter or , as you said, a heat engine coupled to such a
machine. Certainly if you hired a 'generator' (as somebody
suggested we
should do for a VCF-type event), you'd expect to get something with
the
engine included. I don't know how common these other term are
across the Pond, but an
'alternator' is an AC-output geneterator, a 'Dynamo' (short for
'Dynamo-electric machine' is a generator, normally DC output, with a
wound field, and a 'Magneto' (short for 'Magneto-electric machine'
is a
genatore with a permanent magnet field. Which means the common bicycle
dynamo (as it's normally called over here' is in fact a magneto....
I agree with all but the last part. A magneto is a coil mounted next
to a flywheel, the flywheel having a permanent magnet attached which
when it moves past the coil, generates an electrical spike which
drives the spark plug at exactly the right point in the engine cycle
for a two stroke engine, or for a four stroke, one spark is just
wasted, though it would be possible for the magneto to be run off the
camshaft. The Magento was in turn was a big advance on the old hot
tube ignition, but thats another story.
Roger Holmes
ICT 1301
UK101
Apple 2,3,Lisa and Macs