23 ms·
A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor
- hoosieree 4y agoI don't know how this motor works, but it instantly reminded me of my mentor's vintage guitar amp with a field coil speaker[1]. The key idea was that copper was cheaper than magnets, so they make an extra coil of wire on the speaker which generates a magnetic field. Then the voice coil drives the speaker by modulating that field. This article[2] seems like a decent introduction to the topic. The thing that struck me about the amp was how lightweight it was. While newer amps may use rare earth magnets (which pack more magnetic field per gram) vintage amps usually had to use heavy inefficient magnets. [1]: http://www.preservationsound.com/2010/10/the-field-coil-guitar-amplifier/ http://www.preservationsound.com/2010/10/the-field-coil-guit... [2]: https://www.edn.com/field-coil-speakers-obsolete-or-the-future/ https://www.edn.com/field-coil-speakers-obsolete-or-the-futu...
- faangiq 4y agoVery cool congrats to him.
- londons_explore 4y agoA tesla Model 3 motor already is partially a reluctance motor. This youtube video describes it rather well, and I'd recommend giving it a watch [1]. Notice the air gaps - thats the reluctance part of the rotor. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esUb7Zy5Oio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esUb7Zy5Oio
- b3nji 4y ago> A tesla Model 3 motor already is partially a reluctance motor. This youtube video describes it rather well, and I'd recommend giving it a watch [1]. Notice the air gaps - thats the reluctance part of the rotor. > [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esUb7Zy5Oio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esUb7Zy5Oio I dont think he's using air gaps? "Instead of using air gaps, Sansone thought he could incorporate another magnetic field into a motor."
- DFHippie 4y agoThat makes it sound like this could be used to improve Tesla's motors.
- viggity 4y agoif you watch the video, tesla puts the magnets in the air gaps. (around 6m 40s)
- tromp 4y agoAir gaps are the traditional way to make a reluctance motor. Sansone is exploring a different way to make a reluctance motor, improving performance at the cost of added complexity.
- theincredulousk 4y agodoes anyone know how it works that towards the end of the video, it shows the resulting torque curve of the motor is actually negative for a decent span. Does this mean the motor actually resists rotation for that arc during every rotation? Wouldn't that be a significant hit to efficiency, or do the benefits simply outweigh it for a net gain?
- elihu 4y agoI think the idea is that the inverter's job is to always be continually changing the current to the motor's stator windings such that you'd always have close to the optimal angle between the rotor and the magnetic fields created by the stator. Kind of like how a gas engine might backfire if you fired a spark plug at the wrong time so a well designed engine would avoid doing that.
- ssizn 4y agoIt’s always the same, “<minor> creates revolutionary thing”. And then nothing comes out of it.
- barroomhero 4y agoWaiting for the "yeah, but..." comments now.
- olivermarks 4y ago'Could'...
- asciimov 4y agoThat's because the "rest of the story" isn't as good. With a little digging you often find <minors>'s parent(s) are a researcher that studies that exact <thing> <minor> was building, or <minor> somehow got a job working at a lab that works on <thing>, or <minors>'s <thing> isn't as novel as article leads you to believe often with <thing> being known and unused due to some obvious flaw.
- keepquestioning 4y agoVery true. I bet Sam Zeloof's parents are rich as hell.
- gedy 4y agoThat's fine, as long as it's not some phoney PR thing like "...well and their parents happen to world experts of the same thing", or own a business around this, etc.
- katkatkatkatket 4y agoUsually because <minor> has made a prototype of an already well-established phenomenon, and the really difficult part is making a production-ready design. A bit like the "10-year-old makes a heart pump for just $10" stories. It's really easy to hook up a motor to some pipes, it's absurdly hard to make that pass medical regulations.
- picture 4y agoWhat exactly is novel about this? I've participated in ISEF before and the amount of marketing/hyping and the lack of knowledgeable judges is frustrating. ISEF also clearly have a thorough fetish with patents. If you check the box on your form suggesting you may look into patenting in the future, your project performs a lot better.
- jbay808 4y ago> Instead of using air gaps, Sansone thought he could incorporate another magnetic field into a motor. This would increase this saliency ratio and, in turn, produce more torque. This appears to be the novel part. It's an SRM but it appears to replace, or augment, the airgaps using some additional technique to increase the saliency ratio. The text sort of implies that it's using a rotor winding, but I'm not sure; that would arguably make it no longer an SRM. Maybe he's added conductors into the airgaps to exclude magnetic fields via eddy currents. Or maybe something else! Whatever it was, it's very impressive to be making and testing motor prototypes on one's own, at his age or any age. There's a ton of work that goes into every little detail, like coil winding, or bearing alignment. Definitely great work!
- gnramires 4y agoThe only thing that saddens me here is the patent aspect. I really wish we had a more open and effective IP mechanism.
- callumprentice 4y agoInspiring story all round but this paragraph stood out for me: “I didn't have a mentor to help me, really, so each time a motor failed, I had to do tons of research and try and troubleshoot what went wrong,” he says. “But eventually on the 15th motor, I was able to get a working prototype.” I imagine most 17 year old would not have kept going 15+ times until they arrived at something which worked.
- strikelaserclaw 4y agohe will have learned at some point that most valuable skill one can learn is self reliance in the face of adversity.
- c22 4y agoReally? In my observations only 17 year olds have the time and patience to do crap like this.
- furyofantares 4y agoBoth things ring fairly true
- mrexroad 4y agoOnly if their parents have blocked TikTok, most of YouTube, and PlayStation. </sarcasm of parent of kids faced with endless parade of distractions>
- WarOnPrivacy 4y agoWhat kids do depends on lots of things, including the makeup of the kid. None of my 5 were heavy into social media, even tho I was for 15 years. One followed my skillset and became heavy into computers/electronics (8y-now) and old cars (19y-now). The other 4 didn't pickup strong hobbies. I believe it's because there weren't available examples that fit their abilities. Two settled on gaming (one now a technician tho). One does music and graphic art.
- VLM 4y ago
- zzzeek 4y ago> Instead of using air gaps, Sansone thought he could incorporate another magnetic field into a motor. This would increase this saliency ratio and, in turn, produce more torque. His design has other components, but he can’t disclose any more details because he hopes to patent the technology in the future. ah well great, we'll all just twiddle our thumbs waiting on that then instead of collaborating on how to integrate the good ideas here into existing large scale manufacturing.
- emacsen 4y agoWhile many of us are against certain types of patents, this is exactly what patents are for- protecting the invention of an inventor for a very limited time (20 years, it used to be 7 if I recall). In return, society gets the invention "source code" in the form of what is essentially exactly how to reproduce the invention.
- happyopossum 4y ago> ah well great, we'll all just twiddle our thumbs waiting on that then instead of collaborating on how to integrate the good ideas here into existing large scale manufacturing. So what's your alternative? Inventors are required to share everything freely, and never profit from their work?
- zzzeek 4y agoFirstly, I didn't indicate anyone is required to do anything. Secondly, you present a false choice. I innovate with software every day, have published millions of lines of code with almost no restriction on re-use, I certainly "profit" via my employment and donations; I'm just not a billionaire. This inventor is certainly in a great space to get incredible, lucrative job offers via his fame and notoriety. put another way, what if instead of him inventing a novel way for a motor to be enhanced, he instead were a physicist who discovered some new property of physics that basically allowed the same thing to occur? Do scientific discoveries get "patents" that prevent anyone else from making use of that new information for 20 years?
- rm_-rf_slash 4y ago
- vidanay 4y ago"I heard some guy invented a car that gets 100mpg and lasts for 30 years, but the auto industry and oil industry had him killed."
- perf1 4y agoAren't most anti aircraft missiles heat seeking? Could also be a reason why 60% of the engine energy need to go into creating heat. Otherwise cheap gas engine drones that can't be intercepted and can fly thousand of miles could be really dangerous.
- throwaway14356 4y agostan meyer (infamous for claiming his dune buggy ran on water) did a hilarious talk where he described pvc tube rockets filled with water used both as the propellant and the explosives. Mass produced they would cost 5 dollar[sic] The war we could give..
- aaaaaaaaaaab 4y agoYes, it's called Carnot's conspiracy.
- justapassenger 4y agoThere's this car that runs on WATER, man!
- whatshisface 4y agoIt adds to the humor that the two numbers you quoted might actually be achievable.
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoMy own conspiracy theory is that the only reason this story got traction is because it carefully sends the message "EVs are not sustainable, and might never be". There's enough people being paid to tell clear lies that I don't feel I'm paranoid to suggest that writing such an article (which seems very careful to not be particularly positive about current EVs) might get you money from fossil fuel interests and/or they'd hype it for visibility.
- perf1 4y agoWhy are there no improvements in traditional petrol engines? They basically convert 60% into heat. Like use the heat to run a steam engine?
- iiv 4y agoThere have been huge improvements since the first petrol engine, and huge improvements in the last 20 years as well. Petrol engines are some of the most studied and meticulously engineered things ever created.
- yreg 4y agoThere has been a myriad of improvements in traditional petrol engines?
- wizofaus 4y agoYet our cars still can't fly, and still emit greenhouse gases...
- jwitchel 4y agoRobert Sansone, great job! So many young prospective engineers read HN every day. Let's find comments that are encouraging or thought provoking or point readers in helpful directions Like @londons_explore did. Bringing the beatdown is bad for everyone. Especially bad for young engineers. This kid is impressive, straight up impressive. Let's encourage him and others like him. HN shouldn't someone's supervillain origin story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqMCYdqaFCQ&t=41s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqMCYdqaFCQ&t=41s
- justsocrateasin 4y agoI had a hunch this would link me to The Incredibles. Great reference and I totally agree with the sentiment.
- throw_m239339 4y ago> Bringing the beatdown is bad for everyone. It's healthy to question media narrative as the media tend to sensationalize and embellish stories for clicks or views. It's disingenuous to try to make people feel guilty about it arguing if we question that story that child will turn bad or something, in an post-truth era. Nobody is attacking that kid, just how the media cover these stories with a template.
- cheschire 4y agoWill the kid understand that's everyone's intent, I wonder?
- Silverback_VII 4y agoHe surely will have to understand that to be exceptional creates a lot of headwind (certainly in his own field). "The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly."
- tiahura 4y agoBeing a curmudgeon isn't a virtue.
- ordu 4y ago> If his motor continues to perform with high speed and efficiency, he says he’ll move forward with the patenting process. Is it a wise move? Shouldn't he just file a patent application instantly? (It is not a kind of a sarcasm or something. I really do not know, and I'd like to hear from people experienced with patent applications.)
- BaseballPhysics 4y agoProbably. Given some years back the US moved to a first-to-file system, getting an initial patent application filed to establish that date is probably not a bad idea and isn't too terribly expensive.
- djbusby 4y agoCan be done for just the filing fee. But you'd likely want to have council help, about $6k last I looked.
- BaseballPhysics 4y agoYou don't need a completed application to get a provisional going. A suitable written description is enough, and is something an individual can probably do on their own. The USPTO even has a whole section providing resources and assistance for folks to do this: https://www.uspto.gov/patents/basics/using-legal-services/pro-se-assistance-program https://www.uspto.gov/patents/basics/using-legal-services/pr... That said, promoting that to a full non-provisional application is not something most people should do without a patent attorney as it takes real skill in the art (ha!) to get the claim set right.
- foobarian 4y agoJust make sure to use the phrase “or plurality of” a lot.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Reason077 4y ago> "The video explained that most electric car motors require magnets made from rare-earth elements" For years, Tesla exclusively used induction motors with no permanent magnets. It's only relatively recently (when the Model 3 was released) that they started using permanent magnets in order to gain a few % better efficiency. Even now, dual-motor cars often pair an induction motor with a permanent magnet motor. This configuration has various advantages: the induction motor can spin freely with no resistance when no power is required, so using one of each provides the best combination of efficiency and power.
- DakotaR 4y agoI really like the EESM motors cars like the Renault Zoe use. It's basically a permanent magnet motor, but the rotor uses electromagnets that are energized through wireless power transfer.
- causi 4y agoBEVs like Teslas already have a rare-earth-free induction motor in them. They use an additional rare earth motor for efficiency, which in the Model S and X gets them ten percent greater range. The way this article conveniently ignores that fact leads me to believe there's no chance of the modified synchronous reluctance motor exceeding the efficiency of the induction motor and therefore will have no impact on the electric car industry. Mighty impressive work from a teenager, though.
- Comevius 4y agoThis is always the case when these young and wealthy prodigies are being covered by the media. They always invent a toy that the industry already tried or keep trying to make practical. Practical as in not just performance, but cost too.
- causi 4y agoFrankly you could filter out every HN submission with the phrase "-year old" and miss absolutely nothing of value.
- idiotsecant 4y agoYeah, stupid kids learning about things with real world projects. They aren't state of the art at all!
- goldenchrome 4y agoI get what you’re saying but the headlines tend to imply that they’re state of the art (like this one). It always takes a knowledgeable someone in the comments to bring this fact to light, which makes me think it’s usually clickbait. Kudos to the kid, but less kudos to the journalist.
- Double_a_92 4y agoThe kid is absolutely not stupid. But the media sensationalizing trivial stories is. Most likely this is an already existing design, which is rarely used because of something that makes it impracticable on a bigger scale. But because some smart kid happened to toy around with it, it's suddenly the new technology that will revolutionize the car business.
- zackmorris 4y agoThis is great, I'm happy for him! But I miss the creative aspect in myself. I used to be so creative like him, with so many half-finished inventions scattered around the house. Today there's nothing. I finally managed to carve out a day or two per week away from my job to work on personal projects after many years of failed attempts to get away at great personal expense. But the last 3 days that I went to work on something, I picked up the metaphorical brush and there was nothing there. No creative impulse, just worries about chores/bills/obligation and painful memories from 20 years of negative reinforcement after failing at business or going through traumatic life events in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019 and during the pandemic. Probably many more that all blur together. Now I just project my frustrations onto the world with negativity and accomplish no forward progress towards my life goals. Does anyone know a way to truly rekindle the creative spark after it's completely died? I feel generally happy and capable, but in borderline crisis that I can't self-start anymore or do work that isn't demanded of me externally. I'm coming to terms with the harsh reality that I'll likely never accomplish even one thing of any importance in all of the remaining years of my life. There's only work now and the daily grind. Pedal to the metal in first gear. Like I started out as Wesley Crusher but today am Paulie from Rocky with no prospects, only long slow decline.
- zackmorris 4y agoThank you everyone, I'm blown away by your responses, which are too numerous to address individually :-) After sleeping on it, I think what's going on with me has to do with midlife changes in perception. For example, a young artist might dabble in oil painting and not think about things like the carcinogenic effects of paint thinner or the sustainability of pigments. But at my age, I see opportunity costs in everything I do, which stifles my creativity. Even if the risk is simply the time cost of doing something and missing out on the chance to do nothing and rest. My struggle seems to parallel the larger crisis humanity is facing in how we have to still go to work as the world burns. Like to save the world, we have to stop thinking about it for a time and do what we can with what we have. And this tough love concept applies to our individual realities. Somehow I have to suspend disbelief long enough to get ahead of my hangups. It's a bit like switching from technology back to magic. Or from science to religion. I know it works because I've felt the love and oneness of being in the zone for extended periods over much of my life. But so much of my psyche is grounded in survival now that reconnecting with my inner child feels decadent. Yet I must do it or the rest of my life is forfeit. The only conclusion I can come to is that my belief system is sabotaging my goals so I must change myself before I can change the world. A bit pithy perhaps, but hopefully helpful to anyone in the same boat who happens to read this.
- eterevsky 4y agoSo, how is it in terms of efficiency? The article mentions that it's 31% more efficient than existing reluctance motors, but doesn't give a comparison to the traditional electric motors.
- phkahler 4y agoThat's a very good question. I have an EV motor control and calibration background so lots to say here. First off, peak efficiency tends to occur at mid to high speed and mid to high torque, in other words high power. Most EVs spend very little time operating anywhere near their peak power. It may take as little as 4kW to drive down the highway at constant speed, but a motor may be capable of 100kW or much more. Efficiency at 500 to 1000 RPM is important, and reluctance machines tend to be very poor at those speeds and low torques. So maybe he increased efficiency from 30 percent to 61 percent, which would be really good. Or maybe he increased efficiency from 50 percent to 65.5 percent (65.5/50 = 1.31 but I hate looking at percent change of a percentage). What he did not do is increase the max efficiency significantly at an already efficient operating point where most motors are already over 90 percent, and that's OK because like I said we don't operate up there very often. BTW, IMHO the best way to characterize electric machines like this is not to look at their efficiency, but to look at their losses. There's a really nice way to plot losses but it's a bit hard to explain in a comment. He also doesn't seem to have a dyno which makes taking data and testing a lot easier. Anyway, he did a great job and will undoubtedly continue doing so!
- choonway 4y ago>He also doesn't seem to have a dyno which makes taking data and testing a lot easier. how do you test without a dyno? and isn't it easy to set up a electrical generator tied to a high wattage variable resistor to do it?
- phkahler 4y agoWe often want the a dyno to maintain a given speed and do torque control with or motor under test. These roles can be reversed too. When working on water pumps I didn't need a dyno, as the fluid provided sufficient load. It was a bit tricky to make before/after comparisons though be cause getting the exact same operating conditions (torque and speed) was not simple.
- bckr 4y agoThis is inspiring, and let's look at why so many of us have the impulse to figure out what the flaw or missing part of the story is. For me, it's because I hadn't done something so cool at 17. That makes me think, huh, I wonder if I'm not a "natural born engineer". I start going through my life story so far and beating myself up for playing too many video games, or not going deep enough on my interests. Then I start thinking about the ways my life is different from his. I start to feel resentment about the opportunities I didn't have, the resources that weren't available. What could I have done if things had been different? Next I start to resent how society scores us on things that can contribute to the economy, or things that look particularly cool, and things that we accomplished at a young age. And then I start to imagine the difficulties that this young inventor will have. "Oh yes", I think, "He'll find out soon enough what the REAL world is like." And these thoughts are not who I want to be. But I can reflect and learn something about myself from them. And I can choose to go another way. I can decide that, if a 17 year old kid with the right resources and a crazy idea can make something really cool, then I, as an adult with more experience and resources can make something at least as cool if I want to. And I'm going to. It's not like my life is over because I'm older than 17. And if this article is making you spiral with insecurity, I hope you make a similar decision. A decision to be inspired instead of intimidated.
- PaulHoule 4y agoIf you want to be cynical about it see https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/why-science-fairs-arent-so-fair/387547/ https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/why-sc... (of course that is another clickbait article from a magazine that was good before the web but now specializes in clickbait)
- ad404b8a372f2b9 4y agoI remember when I was in high-school agonizing for over a year over the 100$ fee to publish an app on google play. Ultimately it's hard to ignore the pattern when you see the stories about these precocious kids on the news, they always come from wealth.
- BirAdam 4y agoI normally try to avoid posting a comment that echoes others, but I will make an exception this time. I am old enough to remember issue after issue in the 90s of Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Scientific American, and other magazines wherein there’d be a breakthrough that promised to revolutionize the world. Then, you’d read news off Yahoo or Fark that would describe a young wiz kid’s new invention. Nothing happened. Ever. Due to this inevitable hype train that lacks any kind of stopping ability, paranoid types would start thinking that the oil industry must be involved in stopping them. Not a bad assumption given things that megacorps have done in the past, but it is generally bad policy to invent large nefarious schemes with zero evidence. As a younger guy, I was always intrigued and would then start drawing and writing about the world to come! It was so enjoyable and the crushing disappointment would come over the months as nothing more was heard or seen. I awoke to the reality that people run risk calculations on business, on machinery, on changes, and if the financials aren’t viable, things don’t happen. Additionally, young inventors are often seduced by patent purchase offers. Then if megacorp X has a bad culture that can’t produce a truly new product… it dies. Beyond all of those challenges, you have regulators to convince as well. Of course, here in the good ol’ USA, regulators don’t seem to care toooooo much about safety. Paper thin cars with zero crumple zones? okay. SUVs without doors, roofs, accurate steering? okay. Trucks and SUVs with very high rollover potential? sure. Non-lockable differentials? absolutely. Massive lithium batteries that catch fire somewhat easily? Why not. Note, I am actually fairly libertarian and don’t support regulation in general, but I hear very frequently that automobile regulation is big reason for innovation being stifled, and in this case I do not see how that could be even remotely possible.
- EgoIncarnate 4y agoImpressive to come up with this on his own, but possibly already patented. Tesla has been using magenets instead of airgaps in their Internal Permanent Magnet - Synchronous Reluctance Motor back in 2020. Hopefully his other inovations are more novel. https://uk.motor1.com/news/462107/video-tesla-model-3-electric-motor-explained/ https://uk.motor1.com/news/462107/video-tesla-model-3-electr...
- boxmonster 4y ago
- dang 4y ago"Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community." - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Even if you're right, it only makes things worse.
- boxmonster 4y ago
- jedberg 4y agoAs a parent, my first question is what did his parents do to foster this and enable it, and can I do it too? I know my kids may not be interested in engineering, but I want to at least give them the chance. And I suspect whatever his parents did is applicable to other interests too.
- skapadia 4y agoIf I had to guess, they probably let him try whatever he wants, without that knee-jerk impulse of saying "that's crazy, no way!" or "stop what you're doing and clean your room" or "you're always in the garage. go out and play, or get a part time job". Now it's possible he's able to do this because his parents can afford to let him spend time on this, but still. It's really easy as a parent to just say "no", but much harder to put your own prejudices and assumptions aside and say "yes". My daughter is 10yo and spends hours in her room drawing, painting, and making miniatures of everything out of cardboard, paper, and whatever scraps are around. She hoards all that stuff. So many times I say, no let's throw that away or you're spending too much time on art. Her best creations are when we leave her completely alone. I recognize my own hypocrisy, because I'm a far better developer when there are few meetings - when I'm left alone.
- Foobar8568 4y agoOh god I can related to this with my daughter. Our flat is an open garbage thanks to her hoarding of scraps, paper scraps, parcel cardboards etc.
- wyre 4y agoI’m not a parent, but I had a less-than-supportive teenagehood. I think an unconditional support of your child’s interests and growth will go a long way. Be a yes man/say no as little as you can. I imagine this kids parents provided a lot of financial support from his parents too. "Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their children than the unlived life of the parent." — Carl Jung Good luck! I wish you the best!
- rdl 4y agoWow. This is inspiring — will be interesting to see what else he does in the future. Selfishly I hope he stays focused on innovative hardware stuff rather than getting dragged into advertising optimization or some other big software project.
- karaterobot 4y agoAll the objections to this that I have are from the breathless tone of this article, and the many others in the past that have made big claims for the sake of precious, precious clicks. Whether or not this particular design revolutionizes the field is beside the point. As we know, most things do not. But if he's made something novel that expands our understanding, and he's done it in a garage without institutional backing, or investors, or even a mentor, then it's an impressive achievement.
- gigatexal 4y agoKudos to this kid and all his accomplishments to this point. Here’s to a future of many many more. I sure as hell wasn’t this accomplished at 17.
- robertlagrant 4y agoThis is how we do it. Not 30-somethings in STEM for the cash and clout, or Twitter warriors frantically retweeting, or the green PR industry, or authoritarian rules. More people like this lad, motivated, smart, and hard-working, and we'll become sustainable. Just need to get out of their way.
- dymk 4y agoWe do "it" (what's "it"?) with... 17 year olds' spare time, for free? Maybe they get a patent if it all pans out?
- robertlagrant 4y ago> (what's "it"?) "It" is this: > we'll become sustainable > with... 17 year olds' spare time, for free? With: > More people like this lad, motivated, smart, and hard-working, and we'll become sustainable. Just need to get out of their way.
- mattkrause 4y agoPart of the problem is that there's very little cash in the S or M parts of STEM.
- pontifier 4y agoThe article teases by opening with a casual mention of "high speed running boots" but I'm having a devil of a time finding any info about that. I've thought about this a bit myself. About 15 years ago my unpowered prototype allowed me to speed walk about as fast as I could sprint. Only problem was my ankles kept hitting each other... Very painful. Sounds like a very inventive and interesting guy rather than a one trick pony. Good luck!
- russellbeattie 4y agoThis next generation is finally fulfilling the promise of the Internet in my opinion. Every book, article, research paper and millions of high quality instructional videos, lectures and courses are there for the taking. And the Zoomers really are using all that information. It's like water to fish - it's all around them. I've personally seen my son and his friends get into and then become proficient in a bunch of different topics, like motorcycle maintenance, programming games, film and video editing, drone racing/building, music and a ton of other real-world useful skills, all without a mentor being involved. I've personally learned more about a bunch of different topics I never had a handle on before, like physics and math, where my education was stuck at an 11th grade level until the past few years. Compared to my teen years, the difference is breathtaking. I think the result will be a better society and a bunch of people doing what they really love for a living.
- barefeg 4y agoI wonder how much classical education hinders this kind of people. I can see a point in networking, however creating a network of randomly assigned people doesn’t seem so effective. It might be better to create a network from clubs, etc. I never created anything so impressive while young but I was always curious and building or taking apart stuff. I always felt school got in the way. in the end I stayed all the way until PhD and later changed careers, but that’s a different story
- Animats 4y agoSomebody sign him up for YC. $500K is enough to build some good prototype motors and find out if this is commercially viable.
- kayfhf 4y ago
- tunesmith 4y agoNow I want to know more about his "high-speed running boots".
- rob_c 4y agoGood luck if he gets a patent and helps improve the world. This feels like another story on a revolutionary battery which is 20% better but has 3x parts and is 10x the final cost. I hope it's just bad reporting.
- dieselgate 4y agoCool article, engineers gonna engineer! Two things that jumped out to me: it’s incredibly seeing copper being compared as the “cheap” alternative! Obviously it would be compared to rare earth but copper is typically “expensive” in general or household applications. Also, I had no idea Tesla motors spin at up to 18k rpm that’s just bonkers. Guess it makes sense because they’re single speed(?) Dang, old diesels (kind of an extreme example, I acknowledge) redline at like 3500 rpm.
- t_mann 4y agoMinor grammar point: I assume the engineering professor was consulted by Tesla. 'Consulting with' would mean that he asked them for help, which would be somewhat less remarkable.
- mywacaday 4y agoWhen I first began using social media I was excited at the potential ability in the future to look back over my life. In reality I have almost completely abandoned social media and I am very happy with the Google photos remember this day feature which for me goes back at least 15 years. The only worry is how long Google maintain Photos
- justusthane 4y agoWhat? Wrong post, maybe?
- mywacaday 4y agoYup, thanks, was supposed to be posted here.
- hbarka 4y agoTesla’s electric motor evolution is an interesting journey that has taken them at this point to the permanent magnet synchronous reluctance motor (PMSRM). Their history is very interesting. The early Model S was RWD using an induction motor. The AWD Model S then got a smaller induction motor on the front, keeping the larger sibling in the rear. They then ditched the larger rear motor and just used the same smaller motors front and rear. All the while they were also evolving the software to optimize for torque split, acceleration, and range. They released a feature that they called torque sleep in which the rear motor would pulse off leaving just the front motor driving the car during low torque conditions. The AWD was effectively FWD during these moments, squeezing additional range. When the Model 3 was released, it had a completely new motor, the permanent magnet synchronous reluctance motor. Various names and acronyms called it PMSRM, IPM-SynRM, PMa-SynRM, but the main difference was that now Tesla was moving away from the asynchronous induction motor (and no permanent magnet), to the PMSRM. Having permanent magnets now allowed it to have true “one-pedal” driving, where the car can bring itself to a complete stop without using the physical brakes. With the magnetless induction motors, the driver has to induce a brake hold during a stop, then release, which was still better than keeping the foot on the brake, but one-pedal driving was the luxury feature to have if just for the lazy look-ma-no-pedals stop. Wait there’s more. Tesla in its genius still had inventories of the induction motor, so at first they created an AWD configuration that had the extra-large watermelon-sized induction motor in the rear and cantaloupe-sized PMSRM on front. Software was used to optimize for power or range. Stomp on the power pedal and electricity went to the induction motor. Cruise for range and this load was tasked to the PMSRM. There was enough combined torque and power to go around that Tesla could make these modulations hundreds of times a second. They also sold these combinations as the Performance or Plus version. There was also the LR for Long Range, the LR Plus, the Standard Range, Standard Range Plus). You can guess as to which combination of AWD, RWD, induction, or induction + PMSRM each car model had based on the badging. They did this for a few quarters then went all in on purely PMSRM front and rear. Some Tesla old-school purists still scour the used car listings to find the pure induction models. If you haven’t experienced it you have to try how smooth the Tesla motors are when it comes to one-pedal driving. It’s really good compared to other makers. One-pedal driving isn’t unique to Tesla but there’s something different in their recipe. It’s available in the latest Model S, 3, X, Y with PMSRM. Tesla engineers are a brilliant lot and maybe Robert Sansone can join them and continue the arc of motor evolution and who knows maybe go back to motors without a permanent magnet someday.
- wizofaus 4y agoImpressive...we might actually get our next Tesla or Edison...as I've noted here before, why there's not more such prodigies these days with genuine determination and obvious ability given today's population, existing knowledge base and access to education and resources still somewhat eludes me.
- tartoran 4y agoBright youngster indeed and very hard working too. Congrats!
- tartoran 4y agoSmart kid indeed and very hard working too. Congrats!
- tartoran 4y agoBright kid indeed and very hard working too. Congrats!
- hellohowareu 4y agoThis is awesome. He mentions not having a mentor... "“I didn't have a mentor to help me, really," But I am skeptical about that claim-- I think good guidance by good parents is arguably mentorship. A quick google search yielded a family run HVAC company, Sasone-AC in St. Lucie, Florida, which is essentially a suburb next to Fort Pierce, Florida, where Robert Sasone resides. Nicolas Sansone is an owner & Vice President of Sansone-AC. Nicolas Sansone who is related to Robert Sansone. I think it's likely this kid's father, mother, uncle, etc. is an engineer and/or entrepreneur/business person (or engineer/scientist of sorts) and mentored him. https://www.spokeo.com/Joseph-Sansone/Florida/Fort-Pierce--Port-St.-Lucie-Metro https://www.spokeo.com/Joseph-Sansone/Florida/Fort-Pierce--P... https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-sansone-25111132/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-sansone-25111132/ https://www.sansone-ac.com/about/meet-the-team/ https://www.sansone-ac.com/about/meet-the-team/ That said, Robert's Sansone's accomplishment here is really awesome. My dad was an alcoholic doctor and all I turned out to be is a software engineer (I say this with sarcasm and jokingly :P). All kidding aside though: I think having parents who offer good guidance does make a difference.
- Nomentatus 4y agoCertainly Einstein's being born into a highly competent engineering-company family didn't hurt him any. Parents do know that if you teach well, the kid's think they did it all themselves. I'm highly amused that you're being downvoted for having done some research that provides context. That'll teach ya :) I voted for ya, but it didn't change the color of your comment.
- worldmerge 4y agoThat's so cool! Nice job!
- zoom6628 4y agoThis is just so damn impressive. He has considered things from materials science, physics, making I.e. the reality of building things that others have funds of millions$ to try. Hats off to him for this amazing achievement. It’s a path-making achievement and wish him every success.
- SCAQTony 4y agoIf it does not pan out for cars it sure will for sailboat engines, golf carts, lawnmowers and more! That is a lot of magnets taken out of the rare earth equation.
- djmips 4y agoEven if it's never used commercially, this is still so cool. He made his own synchronous reluctance motor! That's super fun!
- davidwritesbugs 4y ago“But eventually on the 15th motor, I was able to get a working prototype.” me, on 3rd try: "Nope. FTFAL, Ima watch a film."
- MrPatan 4y agoSupercool, keep at it, never mind the bollocks!