Thats that old rotary to three phase conversion system. One motor is needed to get another motor going first. Its very inefficient and cumbersome.
I use a different approach. The units I make fit right on the side of the motor or very near by it thats doing the actual work and work directly with the main motor itself not separate from it.
Thats the part the so called phase converter experts seem to have an issue with. Apparently the components, values, and circuits I use are not supposed to work that way according to them. Demonstrations of actual in use applications be dammed! Its just not supposed to work that well or efficiently. There just not enough expensive and inefficient parts being used!
As far as working with non inductive loads it works great but an actual three phase motor does still need to be used to produce the actual three phase power for such loads at that point.
It works as a phase angle autotransformer of sorts if that makes any sense.
It uses the rotating motion of the rotor to create the needed phase shifting effects between the three sets of windings in order to get the balanced three phase output.
What I designed was first intended as a rotary drive system with direct mechanical output from the motor being the primary application.
However if you dont mind running a three phase motor as the phase generator and giving up a slight amount of system efficiency because of it it does work well as a true three phase power source!
Depending upon the size of the load and what type of loads, there are a few factors that require a set of PF capacitors values to be changed in order to keep the phase angles and voltages stable on the two generated legs.
I and several friends of mine have ran them for many years as power converters for industrial welders and other large three phase powered industrial equipment that needs a solid three phase source but only have single phase power available.
Thats more of the primary use of them as converter units. Everything else is just for allowing a cheap and often large (15 - 20 Hp) three phase motors to work effectively on single phase power sources.
Perhaps I will make a thread some time in regards to building your own! I have no problem sharing my formulas and circuits.
I however have issues with others trying to build their own and then using what ever parts and pieces they may have lying around (usually condition unknown) despite there being somewhat forgiving but still critical values of components that must be used per each application.
They usually mess it up once or twice and skip the test and tune all together and then blame me for it not working right or at all in their intended application.
Thats where I make my money. On the knowing how to tune them properly for the intended application.