Poormans Gaussmeter and Dynamometer

Welcome! , This simple page hopes to explain some of the videos and experiments that i have posted on youtube. Ok, We all know that Newtons Conservation of energy law means that a perpetual motion device is impossible. The laws of physics as we know them at present will not allow it. But Magnets are such charming things to experiment with, you can be forgiven for thinking that perpetual motion machine is possible. To help you on your way with magnets a gaussmeter or teslameter  is very useful, below i will add plans and devices that you can find on a shoestring to get you experimenting. Data-loggers to record over time what is happening in the field are also required and i will mention them later. My youtube channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/Eltimple

Allegro do a wide range of hall sensors the most popular being the a1301 and the a1302 these are easy to wire up and can be plugged in straight to your USB port and signals viewed using a freeware scope program. Only a 5 volt rail is required, which can be taken from a usb socket directly. Thats the simple setup i used in the video i made showing magnetic viscosity. As a piece of ferrite spins past a fixed magnet it becomes magnetized. Not for very long though! This is where oscilloscopes come in handy to see these these things. Lucky , nowadays your sound card can be turned into a scope very quickly. Although these scopes are limited in what signals you can put in them ie, low signal ac , small boards are available that plug into the sound card. These protect the sound card from over voltage and allow dc measurement of voltages.

Tachometers are essential bits of kit too. Simple non contact tachometers can be found on ebay for 15 dollars and after a little conversion can be used to provide a signal into a sound card for data analysis. Dataq, a great company do a very nice range of data loggers that are just plug and play, ranging from a 4 channel for 25 dollars up to many hundreds. Although it is possible to convert a usb mouse to do the same see below..

And opened up to get the signal out

And last but not least for today, here is my Mouse conversion to a Dynamometer.  works surprisingly well although you might have to experiment with the resolution you need by altering number of black lines per rev..

http://sci-spot.com/Mechanical/dyno.htm