MAKE presents: The Inductor

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By Collin Cunningham
Posted 2009/11/09 @ 12:36 am
Category Electronics, General

The deceptively simple coil proves incredibly useful in the world of electronics – the inductor’s ability to store energy in an electromagnetic field is the key to making transformers, electromagnets, and many more components work. It truly is an awesome device!

I knew little of how inductors worked before starting out on this vid. In fact, none of the circuits I’ve built ever called for them specifically. But after a bit of research, I was honestly amazed to learn how they work. The process of mutual induction even inspired this little action-painting/diagram -

As always, feel free to leave a comment with your ideas/experiences/corrections/take on the matter.

Download the m4v file or subscribe in iTunes

14 Responses to MAKE presents: The Inductor

cinsel sohbet on November 9th, 2009 at 4:46 am said:

Very good. Thanks..

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Marc de Vinck on November 9th, 2009 at 5:56 am said:

Another great video Collin…Love it!

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Odin84gk on November 9th, 2009 at 6:49 am said:

Interesting video. The editing and presentation of these concepts have gotten more professional and interesting. I can’t wait until you get into more challenging concepts, such as core saturation.

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Anonymous on November 9th, 2009 at 7:13 am said:

How do you figure out how many fewer coils you need on one side of the transformer to drop the voltage a certain amount?

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- Inventorjack on November 9th, 2009 at 11:07 am said:
  
  It’s all about ratios. If you have 100 turns on one side, and 10 on the other, it’s a 100:10 (or 10:1) transformer. So if you input 50 volts on the side with 100 turns, you’ll get 5 volts (1/10th) out the side with 10 turns.
  
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Marty on November 9th, 2009 at 8:06 am said:

Great instructional video! I wasn’t able to find any info about how you guys are licensing it, though (if at all). Can we reuse/remix/etc. this content?

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Mouseclone on November 9th, 2009 at 8:39 am said:

would it be possible to get a air coil video? I have been wondering about how these work for a while now.

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- jammit on November 9th, 2009 at 9:28 pm said:
  
  An air coil works the same as a coil with a core, except the air core has less inductance than the one with a core. As an example, if you have a cored inductor with 100 turns, and it measures 100 milli henries, another coil with the same number of turns but without a core might be 100 micro henries. The only thing a core does is to give a place for the magnetic field to stay. If the core is “nice” to magnetic energy and can hold a stronger magnetic field, then there is more potential energy that can be stored in it. I like to think of an inductor as a storage device and converter. It converts electrical power into a magnetic field and store it for a while, and can convert a magnetic field into electrical power.
  
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Anonymous on November 9th, 2009 at 11:37 am said:

This was well explained. I hope you continue making these.

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S on November 10th, 2009 at 9:11 am said:

What is that blue box in the video? What does it do? How do I make one?

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- Collin Cunningham on November 10th, 2009 at 8:45 pm said:
  
  That’s a WP-20, more infos here:
  http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/06/the_wp20_minisynth.html
  
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Inventorjack on November 11th, 2009 at 1:55 pm said:

Very nice presentation on inductors, Collin. I like how you break it down so nicely. Trying to get my non-technical friends to watch and learn!

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Leesam on November 13th, 2009 at 11:15 am said:

Any info on the Square wave generator?

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Jodex on December 15th, 2009 at 8:33 am said:

Could you make one video like this about crystal oscillators? It would be cool to see one video like that!

-Jodex

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