Hurray! I succeeded with my first homopolar GENERATOR! Photos below will help a brief explanation.
First, I designed a simple motor using a 1" diam neo magnet with metal casing, held magnetically to a short/fat bolt. (Extra mass helps keep it spinning during the generator phase.) This in turn holds to a screw which I punched through a box to hold the system from above. The screw-tip provides a good "bearing".
1.5 V is applied from a DC power supply shown, and the 1.77 A is typical for revving up the motor. +1.5V to the screw, ground via contact wire to the rim of the magnet-disk.
Then, with the magnet+bolt spinning magnet spinning and power supply disconnected, it now has a potential due to {E = velocity X B effects} -- that is, it serves now as a generator. Yes, even with the magnet co-spinning with the bolt.
To measure the effect, I have connected one probe of an ammeter to the screw and the other via a separate contact wire, touching the rim of the spinning magnet. One hand holds the contact wire, the other hand holds the camera -- and you see 0.9 mA measured on the meter produced by the simple homopolar ammeter, demonstrating output power from the homopolar generator.
This experiment was repeated several times. About 1mA current was typical. The voltage will be small with such a small diameter rotating magnet and has not been measured, but current generation has been demonstrated and measured.
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