The amount of current that an induction motor draws depends on the
amount of power being produced. A motor that has no load does not draw
nearly as much current as one producing the horsepower listed on the
nameplate. The neat thing is that if you put a little power into the
motor it will draw even less current. More power in and the current
drawn goes negative......That is the motor is generating electricity.

Note while an induction motor can be made to generate power when it is
not hooked to the power grid, it requires some capacitors to do so and
will not work well over a wide range of power out. But if one attaches
another power source to the rotor and have single phase power connected
to two of the wires, it will produce quality 3 phase power of 60 hz (
assuming 60 hz single phase power ). Can even be driven with a single
phase electric motor, but must be driven at slightly over the
synchronous speed ( 1800 rpm for a 4 pole motor ).
So if doing this with a electric motor you need to belt drive and have
one of the pulleys adjustable. Then measure the current drawn by the
single phase motor and adjust the pulley ratio so that the current
drawn by the single phase motor is within its rated nameplate current .

You can also use a induction motor driven with a gas engine to keep the
rpms at a constant amount. This is used with the gasolene engines with
variable compression ratio used to test octane of gasolene.

Dan


The Tagge's wrote:
Is there any way that I can rig up a phase converter such as shown below,
and attach another power source (read gas or diesel engine) to the actual
rotor, and come out with quality 3 phase eclectic power of 60 Hz?

thanks