Need some resistance

My younger son and I were playing with it last night, and looking to make it better, or at least safer.

It draws too many amps - or that's what I assume as the 18ga wire gets hot quickly, and the battery gets drawn down quickly.

Can I put a resistor of some kind in the circuit to cut down on amperage? Would that cut down the strength of the electric fields?

The motor works nicely when we have the commuter (is that the right term?) is put together right - if we were to spend much time on an upgrade, a more reliable commuter and brushes (with less friction) would be the first task.

Thanks again.
Tim

The problem you have is twofold:

1. Using 18 gauge wire, you don't have enough turns in the winding to generate significant back EMF at low speed.

2. The motor doesn't generate very much torque due again to the small number of windings. Without any sort of bearings, there's just too much friction for the motor to spin up to speed with the low torque it generates.

Your best bet is to rewind it with a smaller gauge wire so you can get more windings. More windings equals more torque and more back EMF.

It's good to see that some folks still build stuff like this with their kids. Good luck.

TES Sure you can add series resistance which will lower the amperage through the combined series (motor and resistor) circuit

YES the lower curent will produce less magnetic field strength in the motor

BUTTTTT TTTTT youre gonna be wasting energy in the form of heat dissipation in the resistor versus in the energy of a magnetic field which is what makes the motor turn remember!!!!! !!!

If you wanted to draw less current Id make up more resistacne by more turns of wire where you can good from it in the form of the magnetic field it genetrates versus pure resistive heat losses in an external resistor.

HOWEVER Since this is just a hobby motor and as long as it turns is all that matters, of course just add series resistance UP TO THE POINT WHERE CURRENT IS LIMITED BUT SHE STill has sufficient magnetic field strength to make her turn yayyyyy yyyyy

John T