Grumpy,
Yes, it can be frequency specific and often is, even on a diesel driven generator. As far as magnets and pulses go, the pulses may put energy into the rotation or additional drag upon it. The magnets would net to zero. If that wasn't true then he should have dropped the motor part and continued with the magnets. I'm speaking of his efforts to prove extra energy by shorting his coils.
I stayed pretty silent during Thane's efforts. There was a point where I thought he found a way to cause a delayed magnetic connection to create gain. I applauded him for that and hoped he would continue to learn and share the workings. For some reason he shot off on another direction so I remained silent. He puts more into his experimenting than I can so I had no right to provide anything negative.
MH,
Very much so. That step of applying real load never seems to happen. I still get interested when there is an increase in speed, even without load with no increase of input. While motor power is only measured during slip (load) and steady-state, I can vouch for the fact that this standard of measurement is only valid for that situation.
We've already had the argument about work being done
As far as I'm concerned, motors turning with no load are using energy. Since they are also moving it is still work being done, unless you can remove all friction.
The one weird thing I learned performing those tests had to do with generator shaft current. This doesn't happen often anymore. Modern designs prevent it.
We had to measure shaft current between the rotating shaft & bearing. I remember one 400 or 500kW machine had 6.3VDC measured from the center of the shaft to the cast bearing support. I don't remember exact details but when the resistance was thrown into the calculation the current came to more than the generator capacity.
Yet, this had no effect upon performance of the generator - I imagine it would have if I hadn't failed it for excessive shaft current
The bearings would have spalled from the heat and caused destruction. During training we were told such a problem has caused warped generator shafts from heat related to the high currents.
Can you imagine how many amps are needed to heat a 3" dia. cold-rolled steel shaft to the point of warping?
What I couldn't figure was how closed circuit radial magnetic fields could cause directional current flow in the center of rotation. Since then I think I've figured it. Now we have folks using a nail to light lamps with that nail as the core of a large bucking winding.
Basically - a cylinder style homopolar generator
I must still applaud Thane for his efforts. I like my longterm marriage too much to dive that deep.