Best electric machinery books according to redditors

Yeah, I was going to joke that you make it infinitely long. Power/torque is proportional to L*D^2 so the longer you make it, the more you'll get out of it. Practically speaking, you don't want your length to be more than about 2-4X your rotor OD for manufacturability.

Here are two good books for learning about motor design, neither will really tell you how to actually select the geometry of the laminations or the winding configuration. Speed is a good piece of software for analyzing that. Maxwell is also good, but that is going to be out of the price range for individuals.

Are you looking for low-level info (ie how do motors and drives work) or higher level ( how do you take off the shelf units to combine them into a system)?

If the first, Electric Motors and Drives by Austin Hughes and Bill Drury. If the second, any drive manufacturer’s manuals should be more than sufficient.

This is one of my favourites, although it is more heavy on theory than it is on real-world applications. But if you can get through it, you will have a great understanding of how motors work. Covers DC and AC asynchronous/synchronous motors, servos, as well as stepper / reluctance motors, and a heavy discussion on VFD's, both in the V/Hz and PID modes.

A great book if you want to really understand, electromagnetically, what is going on "under the hood" with motors & VFDs. There is not a ton of chat about non-VFD control, but they do go over other starting methods. It's not super technical, but if you want that, you want Hughes, which covers some of this plus a million other things.

EDIT: Also covers some odd-ball stuff like cyclo-converters and such.

The first answer is incorrect.

Radar measures how far away something is by the time delay between the transmitted pulse and the reflected pulse returning. Power indicates the size (electrical size not physical size) of the thing that is reflecting the power (aircraft for instance). While the power IS also a function of range (the power falls off as the signal goes out and back (by R^2 each way) that measure of size does not in itself give range as noted above. If you knew the cross section (electrical size) you could conceivably measure power and compute range but cross section fluctuates several orders of magnitude based on aspect ratio so its probably unrealistic.

The comment that doppler shift is used to determine distance is also wrong. Doppler shift gives velocity information and no range.

Jamming can be denial (hiding the aircraft) or deceptive (confusing the radar with more attractive things). This can be playing back recorded data or just using a modulated noise source.


This page has a good list of jamming types:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_jamming_and_deception

I would recommend (EW101/EW102) for more info
http://www.amazon.com/EW-102-Second-Electronic-Warfare/dp/1580536867

LOVE this book.

Ok, so if you really have to build your own motion/motor controller, here is how you could proceed (Disclaimer: I have never actually built a high power motor controller myself):

The first step is to select an appropriate motor. In your case, I think, you will end up having to use a brushless DC motor (also called EC motor, three-phase motor, ...). However, using a brushed DC motor would make your job a lot easier.

Maxon has some good resources to get the big picture of motor drivers. Note that you can't transfer everything 1:1 to larger motors (losses in the power electronics become more important (!)), but the basic principles are still the same. The document about BLDC motors is probably the most interesting one for you, especially starting from page 11.

/u/wolfcry0 summarized the things you need to know about your system pretty well :). If you want us to help you, you should also share them with us. Also consider if you require a speed controller (with feedback).

Once you know the basics, you should also look at some of the available motor controllers out there. I think there are four main sources for you:

• Books. I have no real recommendation, but this looks like a reasonable start.
  
• Commercial motor controllers. These will generally be of high quality and applicable to your specific requirements. The main problem will be the lack of documentation.
  
• Open source motor controllers. There are a lot of open source brushless motor controllers out there, especially from the model flight community e.g.. Keep in mind, that these people are often hobbyists, and might have some mistakes/problems in their designs. On the upside, you get a complete solution, which you can analyze.
  
• Datasheets and application notes for motor driver/pre-driver ICs (e.g. for the one used in the open source project). Read these and stick closely to their recommended designs, if you don't know what you're doing. The problem with these is that they often leave out important details, because, presumably, everyone knows them.
  
  You will also need to know, how to design and build your own PCB. Maybe there is a class for this at your university? I also suggest that you have someone to guide you through the design, who has experience with PCB design. Don't forget to allocate enough time for bug-fixing, software development and a second revision of your hardware....

All I've got for you a very dense textbook that my co-worker lent me:

Reliability Evaluation of Power Systems by Roy Billinton and Ronald N. Allan. Definitely not light reading, but my co-worker told me it is basically the Bible when it comes measuring, calculating, and understanding the reliability of electric generation, transmission, and distribution, from both an engineering and economic standpoint.

Probably not what you're looking for, but just thought I would throw it out there in case it struck your fancy.

I believe the field you want to look into is electromechanics. Although motors are a significant aspect of it, the more general umbrella term "electrical machines" also encompass things like mechanical relay switches, transformers, and other electro-magnetic devices. Its good that you have some background in control systems. I would advise you to also explore power electronics as a related discipline that is intimately related to motors and motor control.

This has be something that took a couple of years for me to wise up to. As an engineering student exposed to coursework heavy on the microelectronics side, till recently I never really encountered what I've come to realize is more toward the mechanical side of engineering. This book by Sen is the textbook for the electromechanics class at my school. As you explore other titles, keep in mind that books on fields and waves may appear similarly described but actually are presented with more emphasis on the generation and propagation of EM signals more relevant to microwave and communication engineering.

https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Electric-Machines-Power-Electronics/dp/111807887X/ref=nodl_?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-iphone-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=111807887X

Powerflow: Steveson/Grainger

System Dynamics: Kundar

Protection: Blackburn

The protection bible is by blackburn. It covers a lot of the theory, hows, and whys.

https://www.amazon.com/Protective-Relaying-Principles-Applications-Fourth/dp/1439888116

You will need to bow up on your sequence component theory. A strong foundation in it is a prerequisite for developing settings.

Its a very abstract discipline, but it is what I love about it. That and the job security! :)

Title: Rewinding Small Motors

Authors: Daniel H. Braymer & A. C. Roe

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. New York & London. 1932.

Copyright, 1925, 1932. Second Edition, Nineteenth Impression. 263 pages.

​

It is a fantastic technical resource, with much in depth data and techniques. It covers AC and DC motors. There is even a section on two phase motors, which are long obsolete now. It includes innumerable technical drawings, blueprints, and photographs.

​

EDIT: Found it!

https://www.amazon.com/Rewinding-small-motors-step-step/dp/B0008603Q2/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=rewinding+small+motors&qid=1574906359&sr=8-2

The book used in my courses on electric motors use this book (Amazon), and it provides all the theory and background.

Both Mohan and Krause et al. have great books on the subject as well. The Krause book is the IEEE reference! Mohan is a boss dad, and if you like power electronics, you should get every one of his books.

Electric Motor Controls
This book has what you need.

Despite that these references are more for "industrial applications" though:

http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Motors-Drives-Fundamentals-Applications/dp/0080983324

http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Motor-Control-Stephen-Herman/dp/1435485750

http://www.amazon.com/Electrical-Machines-Drives-Systems-Edition/dp/0131776916

You may be able to find a preview on Google Books to confirm suitability for your application.