Lego Piston Power: Making ELECTROMAGNETIC Engines!

[@JamiesBrickJams]

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[@Jan12700]

VPNs are a Scam!

[@theslaya1576]

8:25 there are official Lego weighted bricks, and bricks are very well compatible with technic pieces so if you bought some you could attach them anywhere on the build that seems necessary to secure. Top, bottom, sides, or all!

[@JasonBorn.117]

Gyatt

[@ADtsd]

This sponsor is garbage

[@denisekyles4299]

please generate energy with sound

[@Unapersonaconunmicroscopio]

I have thought of that so long… Finally! Imagine making lego cars rc while keeping the fake engine and the engine being the motor itself!

[@justinarseneau4450]

So an lpe with tire valves basically (im pretty sure some people made some on yt)

[@TheL1zrd]

I have been waiting for this as well.

[@RobKaiser_SQuest]

Since we were kids.

[@tomasagostinho7443]

pneumatic car powered by air BROOOO

[@Unapersonaconunmicroscopio]

@ no, many lego car sets have fake engines, if those actually powered the car

[@FlammableElectronics]

Dude use a ferromagnetic core for those electromagnets like soft iron core and you can get some nice performance from the coils, for proper electromagnets you need a core,you don't just use coils,you need to place a core then you can get some real magnetic power!!! I hope you add a core in the next video!

[@JamiesBrickJams]

Hey, that's a fair point! I'm well aware ferrite cores will improve performance. To be honest, I've tried many times to incorporate various cores into my designs, but the primary issue I run into is that the cores attract these beefy neodymium magnets so powerfully that they often yank my magnets out of place during operation. I don't like using permanent fixtures like super glue on my Lego as I need to reuse all parts. Even just building the designs is a nightmare when you've got metal pulling on the magnets. So I often just sacrifice performance for the sake of making the build possible to film and operate at all.

[@FlammableElectronics]

​@@JamiesBrickJamswhy do my comments disappear?

[@notepicalsalt612]

​@@JamiesBrickJams You should try placing an electromagnet at the top of the bore to push the piston back down, improving efficiency, or create an electromagnet that is capable of pulling and pushing.

[@JamiesBrickJams]

Not sure, are there more comments that should be here?

[@kissa02]

@@JamiesBrickJams Glue the iron cores to the coils only. This way, they become a single reusable part, similar to the LEGO pieces you use in various projects. Since you seem to use similar pairs of magnets and coils, it might be worth sacrificing a LEGO piece by gluing it to a coil or magnet to create a sturdy attachment point for future use

[@doctortwilight]

I'd suggest something like what the Brick Experiment Channel does: put different motors against each other in competitions and see which one is better. As a benchmark, you could use a standard or aftermarket Lego motor.

[@andrewwatts1997]

I love this idea ! I have one tip however. Whenever you are moving something, you want it to be as light as possible, so that more energy is left over in the end. The next time, try moving the coil and keeping the magnets stationary. Seeing the coils move up an down a bit the wire should be fine. If the whole rotor is lighter it should spin allot faster!

[@dawica]

Doesn’t the presence of a flywheel make that moot, since the engine is designed to have a heavy mass moving quickly to provide momentum for the full stroke?

[@andrewwatts1997]

@@dawica The flywheel provides stored rotational energy to keep the engine moving. The pistons themselves being heavy, also being connected to the same shaft and counter balancing each other don't provide this function. But I understand what you are saying.

[@tetronaut88]

Ay, I just had a surgery, and seeing you upload has lifted my spirit, even if I am still in pain. Thank you for entertaining me.

[@rebeccacoombes2353]

Wish you luck

[@discozula4469]

your crank is way too small, you might want to give the crank a bigger stroke, this way youll get more torque. Short throws are good for speed and horsepower but not for torque. Also for the timing mechanism, you might want to try a bent nail held tight with a rubber band so its more akin to a car distributor.

[@theultimatehoomanperson6701]

0:37 yo i need this mechanism right now

[@BallisticAviation_YT]

i request knowledge to know why

[@Overkeyboarded]

I also request the knowledge to know why

[@Oil-is-here]

Oh god

[@Oil-is-here]

I’m lucky I’m the wrong type of oil

[@Overkeyboarded]

Lmao

[@matik09]

0:42 Bro violated that axle 💀

[@EmanuelSopuchsnail_gamer]

TRUE!!!

[@isml23]

İ was loking for this comment

[@jakeoff7885]

*CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CRUNCH* YEOOOOOOOOL

[@NanoTrasen-CentralCommand]

5:25 Twice 💀

[@Matrix80302]

9:01 thrice💀💀

[@Mariano.Bernacki]

Good to see the solder wick in use as contact material.

[@_1derscore]

i love that you use bluetac for holding magnets and solenoids together

[@JamiesBrickJams]

Blue tack is the best!

[@timipisoboy]

Just wire the coils that are 180 together with oposite polarity and keep the same timing, simple free down stroke. Try to use mosfets for powering the coils and hal sensor with magnet on flywheel for timing. Should be easy enough + the timing could be infinitely variable. Good thing would also be to controll the duration of power stroke, try to wire coils into higher resistance and use more voltage for power, this might produce less heat since the coil could operate more efficienty. Iron core or shield would benefit a lot. Get rid of the contactor ASAP, creates a point of high resistance plus the brushes can just float over it at higher speed or even not make contact due to impurities. Adding microcontroler would be insanely cool, a bit of work but nothing to extreme. Doubling the piston count to 4 is a no brainer imo, potentialy -180 degree of dead zone. Use hot glue, much stronger and comes right off with a bit of alcohol. Hope some of this helps. Keep up the videos

[@JamiesBrickJams]

This is all just the best advice, thanks for taking the time 🙏 Hall effect sensors and mosfets are likely the best means of scaling up to anything more than 2 cylinders. I'll definitely give that a try. I had no idea how glue could be easily dissolved or removed. If so, this could be a major win for the builds that need magnets to be secured in odd positions.

[@tankaccount2990]

@@JamiesBrickJamsyes, hot glue comes up super easily with a little alcohol, just remember to test it before you commit to using it on a build lol

[@RBMDragon]

@@JamiesBrickJams I would also suggest getting those magnets in the center of the coils. The biggest issue is distance. The stroke can also be timed such that it remains very short, as to not counteract the next stroke.

[@tdeng-h8k]

Out of all your previous creations, which were already incredible, you post one that might top it. I really love the idea of the solonoids and electromagnetism.

[@JamiesBrickJams]

Aw thanks a lot, what a great comment 😁 I never know what folks will enjoy. But I agree - there's something really satisfying about watching engines and pistons pumping away! These little things were a load of fun to build

[@Unapersonaconunmicroscopio]

Do the mini engine please!

[@JamiesBrickJams]

I'll keep working on it 😉

[@MaceJones-nf2cs]

​@@JamiesBrickJams it's been a month since this was posted. If I look at your channel and it's not there, I will be ANGY.

[@MaceJones-nf2cs]

​@@JamiesBrickJams >:(

[@Colin-x7j]

putting it on a steamtrain would be cool

[@ckrentz0925]

Looking through the comments and seeing two things I really like. One, flip the polarity of one of the coils and keep the timing the same for a free down stroke. This will prevent any “dead spots” in the engine, acting as a fly wheel. Two, using some mosfets to power the coils and trying some Hall effects sensors and a magnets on the fly wheel for timing. This means the timing would be infinitely adjustable and more reliable as well. Also as a side note, I think a microcontroller combo along with some different battery and coil choices might help. Besides that, I love your videos, can’t wait to see the “part 2” of this project!

[@JamiesBrickJams]

Great advice, thanks! Definitely electronic timing would be needed for any more than 3 or 4 pistons I think. And it probably gets much more effective using hall effect sensors to get the timing perfect. Will give it a bash 😁

[@sashair]

It is necessary to collect and maintain energy to prolong the movement, as in real cars.

[@crazyaspe1926]

The high gear reduction makes me think of an old fashioned tractor. I'd love to see you make one of those like this and see how strong it could be!

[@funniestalexv]

This was so fun to watch, made me wanna build one myself, also would be cool to sea the small lego engine run

[@jarednamlooc589]

This channel should be shown in schools to help inspire kids to think bigger!

[@Yaivenov]

It's always a magical moment when you find something fits the dimensions of lego perfectly. :)

[@JamiesBrickJams]

Agree, that's soooo satisfying

[@nebula_wolf3132]

you can have a branch off of the wires that go to the coils and flip them, then if you put them where you put the wires of the second coil you have double action, like how a steam rail locomotive produces power also there's a reason that the pistons of twin-cylinder engines are 90 degrees out of phase instead of 180, it's so the dead spot of one cylinder happens at the same time as the middle of the power stroke of the other, for single acting pistons it matters less but my point still stands i'd love to see some form of double action working, you could also try an h-type engine, where the cylinders face outwards, but are connected to the same point on the crank, which would mimic double action for cooler coils, since copper is quite a good thermal conductor, if you wind the coils very tightly then attach them to some thermal mass, like a metal baseplate or heatsink, then soak them in a thermally conductive, dielectric gel like thermal paste (for a cpu or other such thing), they should stay relatively cool which would allow for longer runtime at higher voltages

[@nobody.of.importance]

Putting springs under the coils could give you more power throughput from the coils to the pistons. Magnetic field strength drops off pretty quickly over distance, so keeping it as close to the magnet as possible will transfer the most power. You'd just need to find the perfect spring coefficient to get it working.

[@aidanstubblebine2197]

it could be worth it to make a coil such that the magnet can actually enter into the coil a bit, as that would increase the force generated by each "combustion event" since magnetism drops off with the inverse square law. I'd certainly be interested in seeing the results of that. Great video!

[@JamiesBrickJams]

That's definitely a worthwhile idea! I've been experimenting a little with homemade solenoids that would work like this. But have been struggling a little to get it working in time for this video. Love the suggestion though 👌

[@Cardthulhu]

There is a theoretically optimal timing based on the radial distance that the contact strip is taking up on the distributor as well as the strips timing with the output of the motor, in number of teeth. And you might be able to get more efficiency from these same designs by finding out the optimal timing. If the magnet is operating any kind of a pushing Force while it's on the up stroke or vice versa then you're going to get poor efficiency and the contact strips width would change that.

[@JamiesBrickJams]

That's very true, some of these required quite a lot of tweaking to get a timing that worked well. Another commenter suggested using hall effect sensors and mosfets for the timing. I quite like that idea to refine the timing electronically

[@den-m]

You only push magnets. Probaly you can upgrade mechanics for push and pull magnet, by changing coil magnetic fields

[@Profile-pictureX]

16:32 **Apple Pencil enters the chat**

[@Creeperboy099]

Glad to see you making use of the solder wick for the brushes

[@parleyk4503]

You can double the torque output of the solenoid engines without changing anything about their physical design You can do this by reversing the polarity of the coils with each stroke. The best way to achieve this is by using a what is known as an H bridge. A four transistor configuration that instead of merely turning the coils on and off, flips the polarity of the coil to both attract and repel the magnets essentially doubling the torque

[@SerialDesignationN-y8e]

Lego. Gun. Full-Auto.

[@silvory7021]

I feel like it could work really well to have an engine with multiple small pistons to help it get over the issues it had with the one piston test

[@quirinr96]

Alright, a few suggestions from me: 1. Try to get a *ferromagnetic* core for your electromagnets. (Maybe you can source iron lego axles?) 2. Try to get the electromagnets to both push AND pull the magnets by reversing the polarity of the electromagnets. (Watch out for short circuits!) 3. For 2-piston engines, put the two pistons 90° out of phase, so when one is at the dead-point, the other is pushing full-force. (Maybe add a counterweight to balance out the severe imbalance created.) (For every other piston number n=/=2, put the pistons 360/n degrees out of phase.)

[@the_oreo_whale]

I think it would be so cool to see a steam engine like configuration with these pistons!

[@Nolan_P]

2:38 thank you so much ! I'd also like to thank you, because thanks to your videos I can easily understand technical English, which helps me in my studies!

[@JamiesBrickJams]

That's awesome, glad to help 😁

[@Gamerboy12949]

10:35 when he says like and subscribe, the subscribe button glows! its so cool.

[@Leonardo-hy1fo]

I’d love seeing more lego piston engines!

[@alakabis]

why not trying to make a double duty piston by revesing the polarity of the coil when the head is comming back ?

[@JamiesBrickJams]

That's actually a great idea, that should be possible in theory! If I can find a way to secure the magnet round the middle rather than on one side

[@alakabis]

@@JamiesBrickJams or you can keep this exact setup , and add an other contact point to the other side of the timer , but with the polarity reversed , so that the one coil alternate the magnetic polarity ?

[@JamiesBrickJams]

Ah yes, that's also possible if I perhaps super glue the magnets in place. My original designs actually pulled rather than pushed, but they kept yanking the magnets out of position. Blu tack just isn't strong enough with these magnets 😅 But pushing seems to keep them in place ok

[@alakabis]

@@JamiesBrickJams have you tried hot glue, it should be better than blue tack and still be able to be removed from legos pieces without damaging them.

[@JamiesBrickJams]

I've just been hearing this, and I'm excited to give this a try. Thanks for the recommendation!

[@MikeAyt_Original]

4:32 the design is very human

[@Mateo-fr2in]

Nice

[@smartlegopower777]

Your experiments are so different, I will continue to watch your other videos

[@OopsyDaisy200]

Keep going, would love to see how small you can get it. How strong you can get it. And so many other categories. Love videos can I wait for the next one. It was satisfied to watch them run 2.

[@arcaneblackwood3602]

I suggest adding a ferromagnetic core, and also a thinner copper wire. You will be able to have more turns in a smaller space, making the electromagnet more powerful. Although not too small, else you wont be able to pump as much power through it

[@OddlyTugs]

Ooo use the lego engines at the end there was was awesome. Do that thing were you stack magnets in the right orientation to make the magnetic field stronger in a certain direction

[@__-fm5qv]

It would be cool to see an opposed pistion engine where opposing pistons are on two differnent cranks and hit top dead centre at the same time. That way you can have it so those magnets repel eachother, giving you an extra power stroke.

[@88ThePilot]

I vote you do both! I'd love to see a 4-piston boxer or even a v6 or v8, as well as an itty-bitty one! I'd also love to see you build a hit and miss engine this way! 😁

[@alysse_doll7261]

4:35 freaky engine

[@Lgwasherfan5623]

All it needs is oil for lubrication 💀

[@lucasoxtoby3300]

You should add an additional magnet and coil on the same the crank shaft so that you have an equal and opposite force on the crankshaft itself. it should help with vibration hopefully

[@andrewt9204]

One thing that would really help the efficiency (other than reducing friction between plastic parts of course) is adding counterweights on the crankshaft. It will help negate the effects of gravity with the heavy magnet pistons.

[@JamiesBrickJams]

That's actually a really cool idea! Hadn't thought of that..

[@DJgamer-sq5fq]

Ok so I love this and alittle bit of terminology the the round 2x2 brick with the copper pannel is technically a distributor allowing a current to go to each cylinder to fire so this does follow like an actual motor logic to an extent this is like a 0stroke motor since everything happens at once

[@BrickASMR777]

It's really interesting to combine LEGO and physics. 🤩🤩🤩

[@LucaLegos563]

Please make more engines!

[@JamiesBrickJams]

Sure will 😉 Currently messing around with more modified air engines and vacuum engines!

[@LucaLegos563]

@ oh cool

[@DavstrWrexham]

Really good. Here's a mega challenge for you. See if you can build one of these engines that can power an actual lego boat on water.

[@WeldingMask]

The most investment grade assembled products I have ever known

[@MarcoMartinez-Melgar]

18:03 it looks like a helicopter

[@kekersdev]

you should try making mechanism for reversing the polarity on the other half of the stroke (so that at first the coil would repell the magnet then pull it back)

[@OccyP]

@JamiesBrickJams I actually had this idea for an electromagnet engine at school once. It would use just electromagnets and purely mechanical timing with copper tape to transfer the current to turn it on!

[@katyon081]

You will double your torque and power if update synchronization mechanism with second pair of contact platforms for each magnet and set the wiring such as it will run current in the opposite side, thus both magnets will work most of the time in modes of pull-push

[@rb3020]

I think the idea of using the smaller Lego Pistons would be great for higher RPMs that could be easily geared down

[@NijiflianBustock]

Make a cylinder sleeve coil and reverse the polarity once the magnet is halfway through the stroke. It will keep the coil on longer, giving you more power per stroke.

[@TheMagpieOfBristol]

2:44 Nice, you made a two-stroke solenoid engine.

[@JaspreetSingh-dh9yq]

Not sure about this but u should try to move the coil instead of magnet because its lighter that might decrease the torque but should increase rpm a lop

[@toaststealer3684]

Something you could do to make the engine make more power is you could make a circuit that flips the current of the electromagnet when the piston is on the way up so it would both pull and push the piston.

[@Mrtom1234yunfdfRg]

I love it when he says klicktay clackaty

[@YourLocalRailfan]

In a real engine, you want it to spark nearest to top dead center as possible so try making the timing as late as possible to get the most torque out of it.

[@martinshoosterman]

You should consider making an opposed piston engine, taking advantage of the fact that your electromagnet always produces a field in both directions

[@sagetechnology4913]

For the inline 2, It might've been a good idea to make the engine a crossplane, just to make it turn over a little easier. That or making it a 1-stroke by powering both motions of the pistons.

[@kissa02]

Try reversing the polarity back and forth on the coils, then you will have 2 power strokes per revolution, as the coil will then also pull on the magnet.

[@jackindustriesanimates]

if you revisit pneumatic cylinders I recommend using a modified version of Lego cylinders that is properly lubricated and has some other modifications for better air flow, you should probably watch "running Lego engines with air" by brick technology to see what I'm talking about, really cool magnet engines though!

[@douggale5962]

It would be fun to set up a microcontroller to control the timing, so you could optimize the advance and duration for each RPM, with lookup tables.

[@AJMansfield1]

You could double the performance by making these double-acting. Magnets can both push and pull if you use multiple switches to drive the magnet in both polarities.

[@Toastedboi]

The tank wasn't working because of the fly wheel

[@ABean56]

Personally, i think you should get a 3d printers and print custom lego parts but just a suggestion

[@OddlyTugs]

oo I have a good idea: put the coils on the piston side and use the craftshaft as the camshaft also

[@Karlsverden]

I really want to see more of this idea explored in a other video

[@JamiesBrickJams]

I'll see what I can do 😉

[@willthompson9786]

Could you somehow reverse the polarity of the electromagnet on the downstroke that way you have 2 power strokes? may help with torque

[@user-random-1]

Can’t wait for part 2

[@J1414R]

Could definitely make a working gokart using this concept, instead of brush contacts, electronic control.

[@daviniusb6798]

My guess is that your flywheel is a bit on the bigger side, would be worth experimenting with :)

[@jonathanbrown4359]

A counter weight would help so much meaning less vibration and less effort from the piston on the upward stroke, for the single cylinder engines at least

[@non_tragic_npc]

i would love to see a 2 piston boxer config

[@teammodman]

This is sick!

[@Mrtom1234yunfdfRg]

Wow that looks great I like it 😊

[@DarmiGames]

You could use the solanoids, but put them in a boxer configuration. It would help with vibrations a lot. Also, you could make it in 6 cyllinder or 8 cyllinder configuration for a lot of power. I'd definitely love to see you experiment with this more

[@JamiesBrickJams]

Oh damn that's a great idea! A V6 or something with those could be a lot of fun! No idea how I'd manage the timing, but I'm sure there's a solution

[@roelreddingius3295]

4:41 bro violated that motor

[@BuilderBasti]

Try making a tracked vehicle powered by an I4, perhaps even V8! You could run magnetic clutches and forward/reverse gearboxes too!

[@ironrattlesnake3975]

whoa, so cool!

[@karma_ae]

this guy is a genius

[@DamianLeoMaximusRasonable]

The axle got violated rightly

[@grandparichy]

Could you not invert the power on the terminals so it pushes and pulls on the same stroke?

[@adam207321]

If you had some little more elctronics skills you could effectively double the torque of those pusher motors. Upon inverting the polarity the magnet is attracted rather than reppelles, so if you could make a little circuit that would not only switch but reverse the polarity of the magnets you could double the power. Additionally, The tiny piston motor sounds reasonable. You could use the cillinder itself as a coil former, and if you reverse the polarity for every stroke it does you could get a pretty efficient motor

[@Bomber-Trebor]

you can control the small Lego engine blocks with the Lego air pressure in case you don't know i believe Lego even made a adapter part for that

[@LossBH]

this is so sick

[@jcumming]

Reverse polarity on the downstroke. Put each piston under power for 100% of it's cycle instead of 50%. If you wanted to do 3 or 6 pistons you could probably run a speed controller and power the coils with a 3 phase AC signal. Essentially what you're doing is turning a brushed DC motor into independent linear phases.

[@thryoparathy]

This is so cool!

[@phoenixmg-kn7eh]

can you experiment with those small pistions and cilinder engine that runs on compressed air? those are made with tire valves.

[@chris993361]

As you said the engine is more efficient when the magnets and coil are close together. You could probably reduce coil heating by shortening the on duration of the copper strip on your timing wheel to only give any real kick when the magnet's pretty close to top dead center. That way your average current is lower but you're getting peak torque for short bursts

[@JamiesBrickJams]

That's true, there's probably a good balance to strike between efficiency and heat production. Interestingly, it's actually quite noticeable that when the coil heats up, the rpms drop. So keeping it cool is clearly beneficial for longer run times

[@dawica]

I think the “e-piston” design at the beginning could have worked fine if you had two synchronized pistons facing opposite directions, that way the shaking is canceled out. You could even have them run off the same coil to save weight/space. Switching it so the magnet is in the center and the coils are on the piston would make that savings even greater, though I don’t know if the two coils would interfere with each other. You could also do two pairs of opposed pistons with 180° timing offsets, which is essentially a “flat four” or “boxer engine” you can find in cars like the WRX and Cayman

[@JamiesBrickJams]

That's actually quite a nice idea, thanks! So it could almost be like a boxer design, with a single central coil driving two pistons on either side of it. Perhaps as others have said, it could also be made into double duty by pulling one while repelling the other. I reckon I'll give this a try. Cheers for the suggestion 🙏

[@andreaswolfesberger6140]

love this stuff - thank you

[@paolotanedo1420]

Would the dual piston engine benefit from having each piston 90 deg out of phase?

[@AlvinBjorkblom]

this is so cool!

[@johnnicholls9023]

Just a idea seen when you made the magnetic clutch instead of having them attract, have you tried it to repel just feel if it has a pulling would cause drag but if it was repelling it would take some of the drag out 🤔