A solenoid-operated (electrical) radial engine.

[230RN]

Well, "motor," actually.

http://www.break.com/video/radial-solenoid-engine-the-home-game-2884116



I guess it's equivalent to a two-stroke fueled engine... one pulse for each stroke.

Also a lot of sparking off the cammed switches.  

He used a timing belt.  (Well, I guess you ain't gonna wreck the valves if the belt breaks!   )

And hey, no blasts of oil smoke like in starting a gas-powered radial!

He wound his own coils.  I wonder if there's off-the-shelf solenoids available.

He did a lot of machining to make the engine "crankcase" or frame.  I suspect it would be easier to just use 5 L-brackets to mount the solenoids, but that's just my inner cheapskate talking.

Anyhow, funsies for whatever funsies are worth.

Terry, Radial Engine Freak

[Nick1911]

Not bad.

Would be neat to have a hall effect sensor monitor crank position, then feed that to a micro-controller.  Fire the coils off with power transistors from the micro's output.  Use a constant voltage and vary pulse width to control output power (and speed).  You'd have to be mindful of the back emf of the coils, but that could be shunted with diode.

But, the brass switches are simple and give it a steampunky feel.

Like you, Terry, I would have made my crankcase differently.  Probably from welded plate.

[230RN]

Would be neat to have a hall effect sensor monitor crank position, then feed that to a micro-controller.  Fire the coils off with power transistors from the micro's output.  Use a constant voltage and vary pulse width to control output power (and speed).  You'd have to be mindful of the back emf of the coils, but that could be shunted with diode.

When I quickly saw a still image of it before looking at the video, I thought it was going to be a home-made brushless motor.

Actually, I guess without the requirements of self-starting and variable speed, you wouldn't need the µcontroller, just the hall effect sensors and simple power amps for the coils.

(A seekrit little dream of mine has always been to build a motor out of office staples.  Actually, it would be easier to build a capacitor (instead of magnetic) motor that small.  I mean, like where ya gonna get wire that fine, Terry?  Out of your Rolex?)

[Devonai]

The technology peaked with the R-2800 Double Wasp, and everything else is just navel-gazing ephemera.

[230RN]

Ommmmm..... ommmmm..... ommmm....

[Angel Eyes]

Ohm . . . Ohm . . . Ohm . . .

[RoadKingLarry]

[brimic]

It even sounds good.
only a guy would build something that useless and complicated- just because he could.

[230RN]

Road King Larry, that was hilarious !  And if I remember my color codes right without looking them up, that's even a 1-ohm resistor.

Next up, the Deltic engine:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Napier_Deltic_Animation.gif

Would need only one coil per piston pair.  But the gearing between crankshafts is a bitch.

Multi-bank version:
https://ixquick-proxy.com/do/show_picture.pl?l=english&rais=https%3A%2F%2Fs15-us2.ixquick.com%2Fcgi-bin%2Fserveimage%3Furl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.3d-meier.de%2Ftut16%2FNapier%2FAnimation1.gif%26sp%3D9cdf04c7244723980140bb4a86fad77d

^ Note gearing.

(Could not short-cut to these images. )

Terry

REF:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_Deltic

[HeroHog]

In the Navy my ship ran 4 12-278A GM Diesel powered generators.



Basically the same engines used in a locomotive.

At "C" School at Great Lakes they had an assortment of cut-away engines on display there including an opposed piston engine. Strange creatures!