Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

smithsonianmag.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 296 posts

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#31

Post by jbay808 »

picture wrote: post #5

What exactly is novel about this? I've participated in ISEF before and the amount of marketing/hyping and the lack of knowledgeable judges is frustrating. ISEF also clearly have a thorough fetish with patents. If you check the box on your form suggesting you may look into patenting in the future, your project performs a lot better.

> Instead of using air gaps, Sansone thought he could incorporate another magnetic field into a motor. This would increase this saliency ratio and, in turn, produce more torque.

This appears to be the novel part. It's an SRM but it appears to replace, or augment, the airgaps using some additional technique to increase the saliency ratio.

The text sort of implies that it's using a rotor winding, but I'm not sure; that would arguably make it no longer an SRM. Maybe he's added conductors into the airgaps to exclude magnetic fields via eddy currents.

Or maybe something else!

Whatever it was, it's very impressive to be making and testing motor prototypes on one's own, at his age or any age. There's a ton of work that goes into every little detail, like coil winding, or bearing alignment. Definitely great work!

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#33

Post by throw_m239339 »

ssizn wrote: post #3

It’s always the same, “ creates revolutionary thing”. And then nothing comes out of it.

Because most of these stories are sensationalized omitting a lot of facts around who's that kid, who are his parents and how much help did the provide him. It's also often a PR stunt to promote an underlying company or organization. This kid didn't developed anything in his parent's garage, he had access to sophisticated industrial equipment and you bet someone helped.

Of course, there are outliers, but most often it's borderline fake news.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#34

Post by throwaway14356 »

perf1 wrote: post #21
vidanay wrote: post #8

"I heard some guy invented a car that gets 100mpg and lasts for 30 years, but the auto industry and oil industry had him killed."

Aren't most anti aircraft missiles heat seeking? Could also be a reason why 60% of the engine energy need to go into creating heat. Otherwise cheap gas engine drones that can't be intercepted and can fly thousand of miles could be really dangerous.

stan meyer (infamous for claiming his dune buggy ran on water) did a hilarious talk where he described pvc tube rockets filled with water used both as the propellant and the explosives. Mass produced they would cost 5 dollar[sic]

The war we could give..

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#35

Post by johnohara »

callumprentice wrote: post #6

Inspiring story all round but this paragraph stood out for me: “I didn't have a mentor to help me, really, so each time a motor failed, I had to do tons of research and try and troubleshoot what went wrong,” he says. “But eventually on the 15th motor, I was able to get a working prototype.” I imagine most 17 year old would not have kept going 15+ times until they arrived at something which worked.

My experience teaching high school kids was just the opposite. Quite a few will stay with a problem long after most so-called "prudent" adults have moved on.

As adults, we forget that 17 year olds are still living their lives in a world of what they don't know, not in what they know. And once they do know they can be very insistent about being right. Because, it's all they know.

It's also how a team of 16-17 yr olds can somehow manage to win when the odds are completely against them. All they know is what they want to see happen. And they will keep trying until they succeed, the clock runs out, or the other team makes it painfully obvious by completely routing them.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#36

Post by kwertyoowiyop »

perf1 wrote: post #14

Why are there no improvements in traditional petrol engines? They basically convert 60% into heat. Like use the heat to run a steam engine?

Drive a car from the 1980s for a little while, then come back and we can discuss how much better engines are today.

Lots!

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#37

Post by BaseballPhysics »

ordu wrote: post #27

> If his motor continues to perform with high speed and efficiency, he says he’ll move forward with the patenting process. Is it a wise move? Shouldn't he just file a patent application instantly? (It is not a kind of a sarcasm or something. I really do not know, and I'd like to hear from people experienced with patent applications.)

Probably. Given some years back the US moved to a first-to-file system, getting an initial patent application filed to establish that date is probably not a bad idea and isn't too terribly expensive.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#38

Post by DFHippie »

b3nji wrote: post #12
londons_explore wrote: post #2

A tesla Model 3 motor already is partially a reluctance motor. This youtube video describes it rather well, and I'd recommend giving it a watch [1]. Notice the air gaps - thats the reluctance part of the rotor. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esUb7Zy5Oio

> A tesla Model 3 motor already is partially a reluctance motor. This youtube video describes it rather well, and I'd recommend giving it a watch [1]. Notice the air gaps - thats the reluctance part of the rotor. > [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esUb7Zy5Oio I dont think he's using air gaps? "Instead of using air gaps, Sansone thought he could incorporate another magnetic field into a motor."

That makes it sound like this could be used to improve Tesla's motors.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#39

Post by mhh__ »

callumprentice wrote: post #6

Inspiring story all round but this paragraph stood out for me: “I didn't have a mentor to help me, really, so each time a motor failed, I had to do tons of research and try and troubleshoot what went wrong,” he says. “But eventually on the 15th motor, I was able to get a working prototype.” I imagine most 17 year old would not have kept going 15+ times until they arrived at something which worked.

I built a niche little bit of tech (not really invention as much as applying a old idea to a backward field) when I was 19, I could've kept going but I ran out of money on the 2nd iteration because RF is an expensive hobby.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#40

Post by mhh__ »

c22 wrote: post #10
callumprentice wrote: post #6

Inspiring story all round but this paragraph stood out for me: “I didn't have a mentor to help me, really, so each time a motor failed, I had to do tons of research and try and troubleshoot what went wrong,” he says. “But eventually on the 15th motor, I was able to get a working prototype.” I imagine most 17 year old would not have kept going 15+ times until they arrived at something which worked.

Really? In my observations only 17 year olds have the time and patience to do crap like this.

Lots of time but no money.

Like the guy who makes his own chips. Super impressive but there's no way in hell I could've ever afforded to do that (I did look into it when I was 18)

Post reply on HN