Re: An intersting idea for ballast.

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "D.Wightman by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dwightman-at-mmcable-dot-com>

Yes you are correct in saying that an electric motor at LRA will quickly
overheat, But you can have good results at half LRA loads. One needs to have
several smaller motors in parallel, or have one large motor to allow your
cushion. The windings in the armature are your ballast transformer, and the
rotor is your variable core. As for a braking system, That is a great idea,
yes it will generate heat, But if you apply an over pitched fan blade to the
motor , that will also obtain high RLA conditions and no frictional heat, so
I believe that this type of ballasting is quite different than resistive
ballast. I have several motors, and plan to do experiments with them. I will
compare them to my welder.