Motor-generator

A motor-generator (an M-G set or a dynamotor for dynamo-motor) is a device for converting electrical power to another form. Motor-generator sets are used to convert frequency, voltage, or phase of power. They may also be used to isolate electrical loads from the electrical power supply line. Large motor-generators were widely used to convert industrial amounts of power while smaller motor-generators (such as the one shown in the picture) were used to convert battery power to higher DC voltages.

Low-powered devices such as vacuum tube mobile radio receivers did not use motor-generators. Instead, they would typically use an inverter circuit consisting of a vibrator (a self-exciting relay) and a transformer to produce the B+ voltages required for the vacuum tubes.

While a motor-generator set may consist of distinct motor and generator machines coupled together, a single unit motor-generator will have both rotor coils of the motor and the generator wound around a single rotor, and both coils share the same outer field coils or magnets. Typically the motor coils are driven from a commutator on one end of the shaft, when the generator coils output to another commutator on the other end of the shaft. The entire rotor and shaft assembly is smaller in size than a pair of machines, and may not have any exposed drive shafts.

Read more about Motor-generator:  Electrical Power Handling, Conversions, Variable AC Voltage Power Supply, High-frequency Machines, Motor-generators Used To Increase Ride-Through, The Motor-generator Today, Modern Use of The Term Motor-generator