Understanding the Orbo principle by JL Naudin
created on december 27, 2009 - JLN Labs - updated on february 13, 2010
Toutes les informations et schémas sont publiés gratuitement ( freeware ) et sont destinés à un usage personnel et non commercial
All informations and diagrams are published freely (freeware) and are intended for a private use and a non commercial use.

Cliquez ici pour la version FRANCAISE

You will find below 3 very simple experiments which can help you to understand the hidden principles of the Orbo motor from Steorn. The experiments proposed here and their explanations are only based on my personnal interpretation only of the Orbo working principle presented to the public through videos and photos by Sean McCarthy in Dublin and may be differ from the official Steorn explanations. These experiments presented here are the tests results of all my researches about the Orbo device from Steorn.

These experiments are very simple to do and you can check these facts by yourself with few equipement. So, these key experiments are intend to demonstrate the main effect in the Orbo device which can produce free energy from moving magnets.

To conduct these experiments, you need these parts:

• 2 plastic boxes (the size of mines is 62x82x32mm),
• 2 strong neodymium magnets (I have used NdFeB 27 MGoe magnets, 22 mm diam, 10 mm thick),
• 1 toroidal coil, with a ferromagnetic core (grade 3E25) specific inductance Al=3820 (23x14x7 mm) (µ=6000) wound CW with 7.5 m of 4/10 mm copper wire,

The 1st plastic box is used to install the moving magnets which will be used to simulate the rotor magnet. The neodymium magnets are installed as shown in the photo below :

A 3 mm foam spacer has been added so as to set an air gap between the boxes.

The 2nd plastic box is used to simulate the toroïdal stator coil of the Orbo. The coil has been installed in the box as shown below :

Two sheets of carbon have been fixed on the sides of the box to maintain the alignement with the moving magnet box.

The final setup is shown below :

The coil MUST BE PERFECTLY ALIGNED BETWEEN THE TWO MAGNETS. This is very important !!!

There is a 8 mm air gap between the magnets and the toroïdal coil.

The measured coil Rdc is 1.1O ohms.

1 - First key experiment : Demonstrating the inductance changing effect

One of the key point of the Orbo principle is the change of the inductance of the toroïdal stator coil while the magnets approach it. To conduct this experiment, you need only to connect an inductancemeter to the output of the coil.

Without the magnets the measured inductance is 236 mH. This will be named the REF position.

When the magnets box is placed on the side of the stator box, the measured inductance drops to 179 mH.
This will be named the TDC position (Top Dead Center).

This very simple experiment demonstrates that there is an inductance change effect when the magnets box is at the TDC position. It is very important to recall that the toroïdal stator coil must be very precisely aligned between the two magnets, if this is not the case the following experiments won't work correctly.

The first Orbo effect has been demonstrated with this 1st experiment.

2 - Second key experiment : Demonstrating that the magnetic attration force is canceled by the pulse.

This experiment is very simple, you need to hold the stator box vertically while the magnets box hangs magnetically under the stator box. You may notice that the magnets box is attracted by the ferromagnetic material of the toroïdal coil due to the magnetic energy. This is here a FREE ENERGY MAGNETIC FORCE, you don't need to power the coil to attract the magnets.

Now, if you power the coil at about 6 Volts DC, the magnetic force attraction vanishes and the magnets box drops to the ground...

This is an important key experiment here to understand the Orbo working principle: Contrary to a common motor, in the case of the Orbo motor, when you apply current to the stator coil, it is only to release the magnet AFTER it has produced FREE MECHANICAL WORK !!! Think about this...

The second Orbo effect has been demonstrated with this experiment.

3 - Third key experiment : NO EXTRA POWER is needed to release the magnet from the TDC position to the REF position

Here, a bit more complicated experiment, but this is one of the most important experiment about the Orbo principle.

A function generator is connected on the optocoupler input of my Steorn Orbo v4.1 driver. The function generator has been programmed so as to send the same shape of pulse sent by the motor at full speed. Below you will find the diagram.

Look at the video of the test below, you will notice that the alignment of the stator coil with the middle line of the magnets is very critical at the "TDC position".

The voltage and the current have been measured across the coil with a digital oscilloscope at the REF position (no magnets) and at the TDC position (with the magnets).

Below you will find the results.

Below, the current curve at the REF position (white curve) has been memorised and superposed to the current curve (yellow curve) at the TDC position. You may notice that the two current curves are identical...

The Power (V*I) has been computed for the two positions ( TDC and REF ) and you may notice that the power curves are also identical...

You may also notice the fast rise of the current and then its horizontal shape.

The third Orbo effect has been demonstrated with this experiment.

A precisely machined device and a very fine alignement of the toroïdal coils is the key of the success...

To summarize

It is very important that the toroïdal stator coils must be perfectly aligned with the middle point between the two magnets :

• The magnets must have the equal strength,

• the rotor must be perfectly balanced and must not have a wobble,

• the rotation axis of the rotor must be frictionless.

These KEY EXPERIMENTS about the Orbo motor principle presented here demonstrate fully that :

• KEY 1 : The coil inductance decreases when the magnet goes from the REF position (far from the stator coil) to the TDC position (close to the stator coil).

• KEY 2 : The mechanical power is produced only by the attraction of the magnet by the ferrite of the stator, this is a FREE WORK produced by the conversion of the magnetic potential energy into kinetic energy. The current used to power the stator coil is used only to release the magnet AFTER it has produced a free mechanical work.

• KEY 3 : The electrical power (Current * Voltage ) needed to energize the toroïdal stator coil at the TDC position is EQUAL to the electrical power for the REF position and this is fully independant of the position of the magnet of the rotor Vs the toroïdal stator coil. The electrical input power is fully decoupled from the output mechanical power.

• KEY 4 : When the magnet leaves the TDC, there is a magnetic energy gain in the stator coil because the current remains constant during the increase of the inductance.

Importants tips for the best tuning :

• Use two strong neodymium magnets oriented N-S towards the toroïdal coil.

• The plane of the toroïdal coil must be perfectly aligned with the middle point of two magnets.

• The gap between the coil and the magnets must be tuned with a scope so as to find the point where there is no change in the shape of the current curve between the TDC and the REF position, this tuning is very critical.

• Use high permeability ferromagnetic material ( high permeability ferrite core or better Nanoperm core ).

Don't forget that the free mechanical power produced by the magnetic attraction of the magnets towards the ferromagnetic core has no link with the electrical power spent to release the magnets.

You will find below, the full video of these KEY EXPERIMENTS

Interesting document to read:

Email : JNaudin509@aol.com

I am not affiliated with Steorn Ltd. Orbo is trademarked by Steorn

return to the Steorn motor page