By David Mason - More Information Here!
The Mark 3 Generator
This generator works on the same principle as the previous model. It is a cylinder which contains a motor and shaft. Attached to the shaft is a disc with 4 magnets attached to the lower side. There a four coils under the disc, so as the disc spins the magnets pass over the coils with around a 1-2mm air gap.
This is a very high speed motor. The flywheel at the top weight 145 grams/5oz. This serves two purposes. The first is to smooth out the vibrations which occur at high speed rotation. Its second function is to keep the generator spinning when the motor is shut off. A 555 timer and transistor are used to switch the motor on and off every 1 second. So the motor kicks in again before the flywheels inertia starts to slow down.
I used several coil designs in the generator and several type of magnets, including NIB magnets, these however were so strong that they kept the disc still over the coils to the point that the dc motor which spins the disc would burn out.
After several attempt I could not get 12V out of with the required current. 12V was easily achievable, but the current was so week that the free-running period, i.e. when the flywheel was spinning the generator without the assistance of the motor, It would have to spin much longer than it could on its own. So a heaver flywheel could be used to increase the self-run period, but then more current is taken by the DC motor to spin the unit. So as you increase one thing everything else increases to cancel out your efforts. My research in this type of design has come to a close since I no longer believe it can work.