[...] Flexible Stators might be an idea too.

- Nick

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I apologize for the length of this post, but I have an idea that I think is kind of exciting... If anyone out there with a MXLO device would humor me and give this a shot, I’m hoping it may help us all understand the device better and possibly even get them (all of them!) functional.

We all know that the specs on the MXLO device were not particularly detailed, so it is very likely that most of us have slightly different performance characteristics for our devices.

Most people have been concentrating on the strength, positioning and even the plating on the magnets, and the dimensions and proportions of the parts but there is another factor that has been essentially ignored... The elasticity of the dielectric material of the device. I think the flexibility of the rotor blade in particular might be important.

I propose that we try slightly thinner versions of the rotor blade or different types of materials and note any changes in the characteristics of your device when you attempt the painstaking process of the "Slide adjustments".

My theory is that the materials that we are using may be more rigid than the materials used by the MXLO folks. Thinner rotor blades made from our existing materials or the same thickness but with a less rigid type of plastic might allow the rotor blade to very subtly flex up and down as it travels around the magnet paths inside the stator.

If the rotor is trying to move out of one of the "sticky" spots in the stator at the same time that the rotor blade is flexing up or down, then the elasticity of the rotor blade itself my subtly change the orientation of the rotor magnets enough to make a substantial change in the way the device behaves.

This would work a little bit like the way very small motions of a penguin’s wings help it "fly" through the water with amazing efficiency... Our device would be flying through the magnetic currents.

This would also explain the enormous difficulty in starting the device... it would be very difficult to coordinate the position of the rotor within the stator (The "sweet spot") as well as getting the rotor flexing to the right rhythm while sliding the stator around by hand.

It is also very possible that the rotor may need to hit a certain minimum speed in order to match its harmonic period of the flexing rotor to correct areas of the magnetic fields of the stator.

That speed would vary based on its harmonic period... which is determined by how "flexible" the rotor is. The more rigid the rotor blade, the faster (and smaller) the flex, the faster the top speed of the motor, and the harder it would probably be to start!

This would imply that when starting the rotor, you would want to slide the stator around enough to get the rotor spinning fairly well, then hope you can slide the stator to the sweet spot before the rotor speed spins down too much and catch everything just right.

Once the device is going, it would cruise along at a speed determined partially by the strength of the magnetic field interactions, and partially by the flex of the rotor blade until you stop it.

Here's an interesting thing... once you stopped it, it would not automatically start up again even though it would be in the spot you know works. You would need to induce the correct speed AND rhythm into the rotor again in order to start it, Of course, if you got it to work once and marked the base appropriately, it would be much easier to slide the stator to the sweet spot after coaxing the rotor into motion and get a complete restart!

I plan on scrounging for new materials to try and I'll let you all know if anything comes of it. I hope you all do the same and keep us all posted!

Good Luck!

- Nick

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