Patent ID: 7528583

Claim:
A brushless generator comprising: a coil array having m phase magnet coil groups, where m is an integer equal to 3 or greater; a magnet array having a plurality of permanent magnets; n magnetic sensors associated with n phase magnet coil groups among the m phase magnet coil groups, where n is an integer equal to 2 or greater but less than m, wherein the n magnetic sensors are used for detecting relative position of the magnet array and the coil array; and a regeneration control circuit that utilizes the sensor outputs of the n magnetic sensors to regenerate power from the coil array; wherein the regeneration control circuit includes: a rectifier circuit for regenerating power from the coil array; and a regeneration control signal generator for generating a regeneration control signal that controls the rectifier circuit, wherein the regeneration control signal generator: generates n sets of regeneration control signals for the n phase magnet coil groups associated with the n magnetic sensors using the respective sensor outputs of the n magnetic sensors; and generates (m−n) sets of regeneration control signals for the (m−n) phase magnet coil groups not associated with the n magnetic sensors, using one or more of the sensor outputs of the n magnetic sensors in generation of each of the (m−n) sets of regeneration control signals.