Homopolar Motor Revisited

Hi there,
so this is a quick project you can make in a few minutes. It's so easy and simple that

A small kid could do it. If you ever run out of ideas it could be a nice presents you

could make for someone you like or for yourself as decoration. So kids if you don’t know

what to make for fathers or mother’s days make him or her a custom homopolar motor and

am pretty sure they will love it. I’ve got one myself siting on my desktop. Without further

ado let’s get started. First of all you will have to gather the required materials.

As you can see the list is not long and you most probably already have these at home.

Step 1: get
the materials you’ll be needing

For the homopolar motor:

a battery – I’m using a AAA

Copper wire - about 20 cm

Neodymium – about the same diameter of the battery(here 1 cm),

For the small figurine :

Capacitor,

6 X resistor

LED

For the
copper wire, I took a piece of coaxial cable that was lying around and peel.

You could also use electrical wires as long as these are made of copper and have the required thickness (~1mm).

Step 2 : For
the second step you will have to bend the copper wire in an spiral form. For this

you can use a hard cylindrical object which should be a little bigger than the battery you are going to use, and a plier. Cut the end of the wire which look like a hook to an angle, this will make it sharp and thus cause less resistance while turning.

Step 3 : You
can use a hammer and nail to make a dent on the surface of the battery so that

The wire does not slip off it while turning. This will make your construction much stable.

Step 4: Now
you can weld your small figurine made of a capacitor, 6 resistors and an LED like

Shown in the picture below.

Finally you
just assemble it like in the video below and picture. You can bend the figuring so

as to make different poses and use it to fine tune the homopolar motor. If your motor is not turning, you will have to adjust the spiral until it is completely loose and can spin freely. Small frictions may prevent it from turning.