Electronic rustproofing/Sacrificial Anode

[jtanguay]

Has anyone ever tried to build one of these circuits? I'm very interested in the possibilities. It could be added to any time of wind/hydro generator to reduce rusting, and even on cars. The component 910 is a mystery to me though. Looks like a capacitor but I'm not great with circuits.



More information on the above circuit here

What do you guys think? These units sell upwards of $200 in the stores. Of course they do come with low battery voltage protection, but that shouldn't be too difficult to add right?

[SilverToGold]

I remember way back in the 1980's, I built some circuit for a company that did this exact same thing. Basically, it a really simple pulsing circuit that just sent square waves to the car's body through the anode. Nothing more fancy than that. A 12V or so square wave with about a 50% duty cycle.

It's so simple, no reason a simple 555 timer circuit wouldn't work.

The 910 are probably just 910 ohm resistors. They're just showing the part of the circuit that connects to the output of the 555 timer. 12V pulsed square wave.

[jtanguay]

I remember way back in the 1980's, I built some circuit for a company that did this exact same thing. Basically, it a really simple pulsing circuit that just sent square waves to the car's body through the anode. Nothing more fancy than that. A 12V or so square wave with about a 50% duty cycle.

It's so simple, no reason a simple 555 timer circuit wouldn't work.

The 910 are probably just 910 ohm resistors. They're just showing the part of the circuit that connects to the output of the 555 timer. 12V pulsed square wave.

That is some excellent info. Thanks! I think these little devices could be produced for about $10 in electronic components. Stainless should work for the anode right? The 555 timer will also give the ability to shut off when the battery voltage gets too low, which is a bonus.

Thanks!

[SilverToGold]

I made a little mistake. The Anode (+) goes to the sacrificial metal, the one that rusts in preference to the one you're protecting. The Cathode (-) goes to the car body or whatever it is you want to protect.

I don't think that stainless steel would be a good choice. I could be wrong here but my understanding is that the anode corrodes. So you should use regular steel, aluminum, copper or some material that will corrode.

But the actual circuit itself could be build with $10 or less and trip to your local Radio Shack.

Maybe a joule thief could even be used to make this work. You could do it very cheaply and run it till the battery literally dies. This would be even cheaper than the 555 and more robust to boot.

[sucahyo]

Some believe that negative HV polarity can prevent rust, never try it yet. Should be implementable with simple JT. The circuit may need to be completely isolated from the rest.

[jtanguay]

Some believe that negative HV polarity can prevent rust, never try it yet. Should be implementable with simple JT. The circuit may need to be completely isolated from the rest.

If this method was to be used then a secondary battery with an isolator should be used as not to drain the primary battery (even though the JT shouldn't require too much juice). I bet the JT could run the circuit for months on a suitable battery.

I've also been thinking about running water in cars, and this would really help prevent internal rusting. Not to mention the rusting that forms in the cooling system... Could it prevent scale/rust buildup in the coolant passages? That would be interesting to know, but require much testing... (too bad the scale/rust buildup takes years to form, unless the engine was filled with plain tap water maybe?)

[sucahyo]

If this method was to be used then a secondary battery with an isolator should be used as not to drain the primary battery (even though the JT shouldn't require too much juice). I bet the JT could run the circuit for months on a suitable battery.

We can also use it while the car is in garage. Making the car as giant negative electrode with wall powered HV output.

[jtanguay]

We can also use it while the car is in garage. Making the car as giant negative electrode with wall powered HV output.

If that can work (and not damage sensitive electronics) then I think we're in business. Maybe some type of device could be used somewhere on the car to 'syphon' excess voltage to protect the ECU?

I was just replacing someones brakes and rotors the other night and thought to myself how fast it would've been if there was no rust. The rotor was rusted on so tight I had to bust out the blow torch and hit it with repeated wd30 sprays. Eventually it came off but not without a fight. Now I did wire brush it and apply some nickel anti seize so it is likely not to happen for a very long time, but preventing it before it happens is a big plus.

I've heard of guys running JT circuits on virtually no battery power for months. I've also heard of the anti rust units draining the battery in less than a week. I think the JT circuit will work perfectly.

Can you post a circuit diagram sucahyo?
Thanks!

[sucahyo]

Here is mine:


Put HV diode at output to make sure the output is DC.

I think two electrode is stronger. The one become positive electrode will rust. So we connect the car to negative output.

On Mallory promaster car coil, the negative is connected to source positive. The HV output will have mostly negative polarity.

I think some commercial anti rust HV circuit use 80mA input.