Electronic – 3-phase Brushless Motor – Are Volts and Amps at (X)RPM equal/similar when used as Generator

alternatorefficiencygeneratormotorrectifier

If I have a Brushless 3-phase motor that spins at 3000rpm when given 6.0A @ 20v (no load) will it produce 6.0A and 20v (or anywhere close) when used as a generator and spun at 3000rpm??

And i suppose this comes into it too… Will a 3-phase bridge rectifier make DC more or less as efficiently as an ESC turns DC into a 3-phase signal??

….UPDATE: So this is the motor I am thinking of using now:

MOTOR: 5065
KV: 270
MAX POWER: 2200W
WIRE WINDS: 9
MAX AMP: 60A
ESC: 80/120A
MAX VOLT: 8S
RESISTANCE (Ohm): .42
NO LOAD CURRENT: 1,5
SIZE: 50 x 65 ( without shaft )
WEIGHT (g): 0,380
SHAFT: 8mm with 3mm keyway

I will use a pulley to spin it at 18000rpm hopefully resulting in about 60v..

Does anyone know what current I can expect?

And being a 2200w motor (more than the engine that is powering it (700w)) ,when i connect it to the mppt charge controller will the engine struggle to turn as the load creates effort? Or can I expect that it will be creating far fewer amps than it draws when used as a motor at this voltage and under load?…

Best Answer

Similar but not equal. All the losses that subtract from 100% efficiency will work in the opposite direction as a dynamo.

So if the motor is 75% efficient under those conditions, then its 100% efficiency speed (unloaded) might be 4000rpm and it would draw 0A. You can roughly crosscheck by monitoring its stall current at the same voltage : in this case, it may draw 24A at 0 rpm. (The motor regulation would be 1000 rpm for 6A, or 167rpm/A, or 24A for 4000 rpm)

If that's the case, then you have motor constants of 4000/20 = 200RPM/volt, and a winding resistance of 20/24 ohms = 0.8333 ohms.

Given these values - and they are based on my guess of 75% efficiency for your motor - the open circuit voltage would be 3000rpm /(200rpm/v) = 15V.

And if you drew 6A from it, you would drop 5V across the winding resistance, so you would see 15-5 = 10V across your load, instead of 20V.

The bridge rectifier would then drop 2* the diode drop (say 1.4V for silicon diodes) giving 8.6V DC. Schottky diodes or synchronous rectifiers can improve on this, but probably at more cost than is justified for such low power.

Measure the motor regulation by running your motor at different loads and measuring both speed and current, and cross-check by measuring stall current, and you can arrive at the likely dynamo performance for your actual motor.