Hi all,
I'm currently enjoying the climate in the south of France and have lots of time to think and study while lying on the beach. After studying some of the writings of a.o. Tesla and Dollard, I took a fresh look at Gray's schematics:
It struck me that the "spark gap protection device 42" is not a protection device at all. IMHO, it is actually the main spark gap that forms a classic spark gap discharge circuit, very similar to what Tesla was using for primary of his Tesla coil. It's discharge path goes from HV cap 16 trough spark gap 42 (which has been drawn a bit strangely, to say the least), induction coil 36, cap 38 and battery 18.
With that in mind, we can find Gray's actual secret, the production of extreme pulses of magnetic foce using a negatice resistance device, in Eric Dollard's "Condensed Intro to Tesla Coils":
http://www.tuks.nl/pdf/Eric_Dollard_...Coils(OCR).pdf
What makes a negative resistance device so interesting for steering coils into resonance for applications in magnetic motors is that the current trough a practical negative resistance device, like a spark gap or lambda diode, is always positive! See for example the I-V curve of a typical lambda diode circuit:
Lambda diode
That means you can get a coil into a resonance mode where you have a superposition of a DC current and a complex AC wave going trough it, such that the magnetic field is directed into one direction. In other words: there are no areas in the coil where a reverse direction of the magentic field occurs. So, this DC offset is very important for the application of resonating coils in attracting/repelling motors. What happens is that besides the normal DC current going trough the coil, generating a magnetic field, you get additional wave-like impulses going trough the coil, which travel at a much greater speed than electrons (DC current), and therefore generate an extremely powerful magnetic field inside the coil, which you can harnass using magnetic attraction/repelling in a motor as well as by capturing the BEMF when allowing the magnetic field to collapse.
So far, so good.
Now of course the question is: what is the purpose of the CSET?
If you look at the older 1975 Gray patent, you won't find a CSET, nor do you find one in the "fuelless engine" documents circulating around the internet, which are basically a variation of Gray's earlier patent. Now the problem with spark-gaps is that this negative resistance effect is caused by the temperature variaton of the arc plasma due to the current going trough it, which is very sensitive and difficult to control. According to Mark McKay, in earlier versions Gray used "spark gaps placed around the periphery of the motor shaft and triggered by moving contacts that come into register. A novel speed control mechanism was provided that shuttled between different spark gap contacts to advance or retard the HV firing sequence." McKay also states that the first, even earlier, sixties prototypes only ran briefly. So, in earlier versions, Gray used very complex rotating spark gaps, which undoubtly gave him lots of (stability and scale-up) problems, given that Dollard already found a single spark device difficult to operate:
Like Dollard, Gray's associates apparantly also went looking for a more simple and controllable spark gap device. How about using a fixed spark gap, not unlike a standard automotive spark plug, and somehow trigger that one at the right moment? Still very difficult to keep under control, but a walk in the park compared to controlling and operating rotating spark gaps around a rotating motor shaft in their very sensitive negative resistance mode of operation. IMHO, that's where the CSET comes in. It also has a spark gap, but this one only fires very shortly, cause it's immediately shut off. All it needs to do is to emit one single pulse, which is capacatively coupled from the main rod to the grids and then fed to the main spark gap, in order to fire the main spark gap. And that's all it does, it's a triggering device. If the main spark gap is normally kept in a state whereby it almost fires, it apparantly can be fired pretty easily using a single pulse from the CSET. Since the spark gap in the CSET only has to switch once, it does not have to be operated in it's negatice resistance region, so it is easily controlled.
It seems obvious that the principle of using a negative resistance device in order to energize a coil much more effectively can also be applied to Bedini's monopole motors, like the school-girl circuit. A modern implementation of a negative resistance device is a so-called lambda diode, actually a circuit consisting of two transistors:
Also see:
Lambda diode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lambda diode
http://users.tpg.com.au/users/ldbutl...esDipMeter.htm
http://www.tuks.nl/pdf/Reference_Mat...%20Devices.pdf
http://www.epanorama.net/sff/Compone...e%20device.pdf
When you put such a circuit in series with the trigger transistor in Bedini's circuit, you should be able to utilize the same principle, only at lower voltages and using an easy to control negative resistance device. However, I do think it is important to use voltages as high as practible, because the sharper the rising/falling edges, the higher harmonics you can get in your coil, so the more pulses will go trough it and therefore the stronger the resulting magnetic field.
Of course, this is untested and I am not be able to test this any time soon, if only because I don't have a Bedini motor. So, if anyone feels like playing around with lambda-diode circuits and Bedini's stuff, just go ahead and please keep us posted.....
I'm currently enjoying the climate in the south of France and have lots of time to think and study while lying on the beach. After studying some of the writings of a.o. Tesla and Dollard, I took a fresh look at Gray's schematics:
It struck me that the "spark gap protection device 42" is not a protection device at all. IMHO, it is actually the main spark gap that forms a classic spark gap discharge circuit, very similar to what Tesla was using for primary of his Tesla coil. It's discharge path goes from HV cap 16 trough spark gap 42 (which has been drawn a bit strangely, to say the least), induction coil 36, cap 38 and battery 18.
With that in mind, we can find Gray's actual secret, the production of extreme pulses of magnetic foce using a negatice resistance device, in Eric Dollard's "Condensed Intro to Tesla Coils":
http://www.tuks.nl/pdf/Eric_Dollard_...Coils(OCR).pdf
The formation of the energy impulse involves the discharge of a capacitor with the highest practical stored energy into an impedance (inductive) of the lowest practical value, and the discharge path is coupled to an energy supply through a negative resistance device. This negative resistance is classically a spark discharge, but a superior plasma device needs to be developed to enhance efficiency. Under optimal conditions the exponent of oscillation amplitude will be positive over a sustained period of time.
The net result of this system is the production of an extreme impulse of M.M.F. (magnetic force).
The net result of this system is the production of an extreme impulse of M.M.F. (magnetic force).
Lambda diode
That means you can get a coil into a resonance mode where you have a superposition of a DC current and a complex AC wave going trough it, such that the magnetic field is directed into one direction. In other words: there are no areas in the coil where a reverse direction of the magentic field occurs. So, this DC offset is very important for the application of resonating coils in attracting/repelling motors. What happens is that besides the normal DC current going trough the coil, generating a magnetic field, you get additional wave-like impulses going trough the coil, which travel at a much greater speed than electrons (DC current), and therefore generate an extremely powerful magnetic field inside the coil, which you can harnass using magnetic attraction/repelling in a motor as well as by capturing the BEMF when allowing the magnetic field to collapse.
So far, so good.
Now of course the question is: what is the purpose of the CSET?
If you look at the older 1975 Gray patent, you won't find a CSET, nor do you find one in the "fuelless engine" documents circulating around the internet, which are basically a variation of Gray's earlier patent. Now the problem with spark-gaps is that this negative resistance effect is caused by the temperature variaton of the arc plasma due to the current going trough it, which is very sensitive and difficult to control. According to Mark McKay, in earlier versions Gray used "spark gaps placed around the periphery of the motor shaft and triggered by moving contacts that come into register. A novel speed control mechanism was provided that shuttled between different spark gap contacts to advance or retard the HV firing sequence." McKay also states that the first, even earlier, sixties prototypes only ran briefly. So, in earlier versions, Gray used very complex rotating spark gaps, which undoubtly gave him lots of (stability and scale-up) problems, given that Dollard already found a single spark device difficult to operate:
Due to the immense difficulties surrounding the spark device, a simple method and one of much greater control is shunt feed of the primary network by an A.M. radio transmitter of special design such as the unit at building number one.
It seems obvious that the principle of using a negative resistance device in order to energize a coil much more effectively can also be applied to Bedini's monopole motors, like the school-girl circuit. A modern implementation of a negative resistance device is a so-called lambda diode, actually a circuit consisting of two transistors:
Also see:
Lambda diode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lambda diode
http://users.tpg.com.au/users/ldbutl...esDipMeter.htm
http://www.tuks.nl/pdf/Reference_Mat...%20Devices.pdf
http://www.epanorama.net/sff/Compone...e%20device.pdf
When you put such a circuit in series with the trigger transistor in Bedini's circuit, you should be able to utilize the same principle, only at lower voltages and using an easy to control negative resistance device. However, I do think it is important to use voltages as high as practible, because the sharper the rising/falling edges, the higher harmonics you can get in your coil, so the more pulses will go trough it and therefore the stronger the resulting magnetic field.
Of course, this is untested and I am not be able to test this any time soon, if only because I don't have a Bedini motor. So, if anyone feels like playing around with lambda-diode circuits and Bedini's stuff, just go ahead and please keep us posted.....
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