Stomping in Clown Shoes

I put another quart of Slick 50 in my car’s engine.  It’s a brand of motor oil that is saturated with polytetrafluoroethylene.  I did it when I got the car at 10K miles, and here I’ve done it again at 67K miles, which is about right.  I’ve always reapplied it at 50K mile intervals, and I think that’s what is recommended.  I drive a vanilla 2001 Volvo S60, no turbo.  It is blue.  No, it didn’t come with an “Abba” CD.

Basically, you change your oil… drain the old oil, replace the filter cartridge, and put in the right amount of new oil minus one quart.  Then with the engine running, you pour in the quart of Slick 50 oil, put on the oil cap, close the hood, hop in, and drive for about 30 minutes.  This shears the Teflon and the rest of the oil together, and the Teflon gets burnished into the metal of the inside of the engine.  I’ll let it ride for a regular oil change interval (which in my case is like 6K miles), then replace the filter and oil again.

I’ve been using the stuff for 30 years.  I’ve never not been impressed.  Back when I had a pretty old car (in the 80′s I had a 1968 Ford Mustang with a 289 cid V8), the effect was just shy of miraculous, and I’ve got friends who also have seen pretty amazing results.  The internet is full of claims and counterclaims on Teflon motor oil, I’ve always only used the original Slick 50.  I also looked up the quoted magazine article by ‘Consumers Digest’, using a microfilm reader as this was before the invention of the World Wide Web.

I did the research, I gave it a try, and it’s terrific.

I do believe in the engine additive self-fulfilling prophecy… when you put some snake oil product into your car, you unconsciously alter your driving habits in tiny ways which make the claims of the product come true.  Get some macho guy pouring a pint of DDT Carburetor Ointment in your gas tank and hell… it’ll even make your girlfriend’s tits seem bigger.  I don’t use a lot of that junk, all I’ve ever seen any of it do is glop up my spark plugs, and I don’t need a pseudo-sexy sports car to get happy.  (Wait, maybe I do.  I saw a ’68 Jaguar on the road recently.)

Okay, so it seems to me that on my 30 mile 75MPH drive I didn’t have to push down the gas pedal quite as far as I previously had to push it to go the same speed.  Nothing definite, nothing scientifically provable, no… I didn’t measure the amount of travel with a micrometer… it just didn’t seem like it needed as much gas to go.  Improved gas mileage has been the most noticeable effect for me, the Mustang got 21 MPG before and more like 25 MPG after I used it (yes, back in the early 80′s I got better mileage than I do now).

I’m not selling the stuff.  I don’t care if there are tons of articles on the ‘net that say it can’t possibly work.  I’ve used it, I know it does, so there, neener neener nyeah.  I’m saving my gas receipts and writing down the mileage, so I’ll have some hard data on the gas mileage.  There won’t be any way to prove that the oil is what caused it, but *I* will know.  I’ll post the results here when I do the math.

Drawbacks?  I sometimes wonder if my engine will ever wear out so I have an excuse to buy a new car.

To the makers… Gentlemen, thank you for this wonderful product, once again, it’s paying for itself.  For me.

Squinky.

Today is just too adjective-challenged for a previously existing word, we need a new one… and the word for today is squinky.  It replaces smarmy.  All forms are currently available (squinkfulness, squinkitude, squinkalicious, et cetera).

Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a LIFE for you? Hmmmmm?  Wouldn’t you really rather be involved in a series of colorful time-wasting trends?

I highly recommend Air France and the Hôtel Au Manoir St Germain des Près in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.   I also recommend French Coca-Cola, it’s made with real sugar, not high fructose corn syrup.   What else…?  Oh, nutella crepes… I must learn to make nutella crepes.  Here are a few pics.

The Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris, photograph taken from the south

Close-up of the north rose window of Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris

A statue in Pére-Lachaise

In the Ossuary of the Catacombs of Paris

A view of the Tour Eiffel

A view at night from the Tour Eiffel of the Trocadéro.
This photograph is interesting in that the top of the Eiffel is so high, you can plainly see the curvature of the earth at the horizon (no, it’s not just the camera lens)

A view from the Arc de Triomphe with the Tour Eiffel visible.

I took about 700 pictures, so these are just a very few. We were blessed with wonderful weather, a little cool… but no rain during the short, short time we had. The hotel room was state of the art and not small, I never met a rude person (even the beggars were polite), the security at Charle-De-Galle airport was slow (but polite and efficient), and we had a marvellous time. Quite frankly, the flights on Air France were the best I have ever flown. We will be returning soon.

My enchilada recipe is pretty much completed.  It took a while to work it all out, exchange the ingredients and such, get the assembly process figured out.

I’m originally from the area around the mouth of the Brazos river to the Gulf of Mexico.  I don’t live there now, but I never could quite find the right “home tastes” after relocation to Michigan.  Eventually I realized that I’d have to do it myself, and started with a basic recipe and expanded on it.  I’m not a purist, this doesn’t start out with “Step One, purchase a small ranch”, it uses canned and jarred foodstuffs.  The combination and assembly are really all I bring to it.  For lack of a better name, I dub thee the Brazorian Enchilada Casserole recipe.

1 to 1 1/2 pounds of lean ground red meat
garlic powder
salt and pepper
2 small or 1 large chopped sweet yellow onion (about 1 cup)
3 7-oz cans of diced green chili peppers (18 – 20 ounces total)
1 12-oz can of green enchilada sauce
1 to 1 1/2 pounds of shredded soft cheese (Chihuahua, Muenster or mild Cheddar)
large package of corn tortillas (NOT flour!)
1 12-oz can of red enchilada sauce
1 to 2 cups prepared salsa
1/4 cup butter

1. Brown the beef in a large saucepan.  Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, and pepper while browning.  Drain off the fat and recycle.
2. Turn off the heat and add half of the chopped onion, all of the green chilis, and the can of green enchilada sauce.  Simmer on low heat for 15 – 20 minutes stirring occasionally.
3. While the filling is simmering, coarse shred the cheese.
4. Prepare a large casserole dish by coating lightly with butter, then apply 2-3 tablespoons of the canned red enchilada sauce to the dish and tip back and forth (or spread with a spatula) to coat the bottom.
5. Melt some butter in a dish, and warm the package of corn tortillas.
6. When the meat and chili filling is well blended, turn off the heat and take a break before you start assembly.  It’s important to simmer in order to mix the flavors in the beef and the chilis and the green sauce, but if it’s too hot when you perform the assembly, you’ll burn your hands.
7. Place all of the ingredients on a counter so that you can easily access them: tortillas, bowl of melted butter, meat filling, cheese, chopped onion, salsa, and casserole dish.  Keep a rag or sponge handy for spills.
8. Take one tortilla and use a spatula or brush to lightly coat one side with melted butter.  Hold in curve of hand and add (to the buttered side) a large spoonful or two of meat filling, a three finger pinch of cheese, a two-finger pinch of onion, and a spoonful of salsa.  Roll into a cylinder and place into casserole dish with seam down so that it’s weight holds it closed.  Repeat until dish is filled.  Use all of the meat filling and 2/3 to 3/4 of the cheese.
9. Pour remainder of can of red enchilada sauce evenly over the top of the rolled tortillas, use spatula to ensure the red sauce gets in and around the sides of the dish and the tortillas.  Sprinkle on the rest of the cheese and onions.
10. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes until cheese melts and sauce is bubbling.

Notes:

• Step 8, the assembly step, requires practice or at least some experience to get right.  The amount of the ingredients, the size of your casserole dish, and the size of the tortillas factor into how the dish will be assembled.  Use all the tortillas if you can, cram them in there.  It’s actually pretty hard to completely screw it up, so try your best and eat the rest.
• Look for good quality corn tortillas with a coarse grind to the corn.  If it’s made from corn flour, it’s still corn, but the texture won’t quite be right.  Just say no to regular wheat flour tortillas, if it’s not CORN, it’s not a TORTILLA.
• If the rolled enchiladas split after you put them into the dish (or worse, while still in your hand) heat them up a little more and use a little more butter to soften them up.  You can also paint on a little red sauce after it’s in the dish.  This isn’t important, it will still taste great.
• Heart Smart warning: this will kill you
• Spicy food warning: It’s not very spicy.  I use mild everything and feed this to womens and little kidses, but you can add fresh shredded jalapenos, hotter salsa, cayenne, chili powder or whatever else seems right if you feel so inclined.
• Try reversing the sauces: Put the red sauce on the inside and the green on the outside.  Try all green or all red sauce.  Green inside and red outside was what I found to be the tastiest.
• Use lean ground beef, buffalo, ostrich, or elk.  I’m sure other things will also work just fine… red snapper, gulf shrimp, and rattlesnake come to mind, but so far I’ve only tried beef and buffalo.
• My favorite ingredients: “Zapata” brand Diced Green Chilis, “Hatch” brand enchilada sauce (both green and red), “Camacho Tortillas” (16 corn, 13 ounces), and buffalo from TMZ Farm in Pinckney, Michigan.
• “La Victoria” sauce (green and red) comes in a big 19 ounce can, but that and a jar of cheap salsa work well
• I do NOT recommend “Casa Fiesta” brand enchilada sauce
• Try bison meat and Chihuahua cheese!
  

My house got scanned again. I love these trees, you can’t see anything. Could be a huge party full of drunken dancing naked people inside, might be an old coot with a slingshot right behind that tree. Ya never know, ya know?

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Yes, we have Ninja Droids.

Kinda sounds like your dog ate a crayon, eh?  PepsiCo, Inc. has released their latest open marketing contest winner… and I’m about to try it… so here is a first hand review of a new flavor of my favorite carbonated high-fructose corn syrup sweetened soft drink:

Tastes like Skittles.

I’m increasingly seeing Mexican Coca-Cola on store shelves in this area, much more “Refresco” if you ask me.  Real sugar makes a real difference.

I took some paid vacation days from day job recently – I earned a lot of it, it never seemed like a good time to take them, gas prices were crappy and I didn’t really want to go anywhere anyway… but I can’t wrap too many of them around the start of the new year, so I had lots of plans for doing things around the house.

Not.

It took me a week to unscrew my head from diurnal circadian dronefullness, another week to self-realize my ineptitude, and a week to… write a kick ass program.  I love programming over Christmas holidays, I find I get months of work done in days if I just don’t have to… you know, the normal everyday drill.  When I can get up, start drinking boozed coffee at 9 AM, continue to 9 PM taking occasional breaks for refrigerator raidage, and otherwise just hammer out an application, I get a hell of a lot done.

I did buy a bunch of chrome-wire shelf racks, like 7 of them.  I got a few put together, it’s not particularly easy, but not difficult.  Step one is “Decide where to put it”, which is a bit of an argument, then there’s “Clean the area” which is usually allergically difficult for me.  A morality of “Let sleeping dust lie” only goes so far and lasts so long.

Anyway, I learned a lot about dot NET programming.  I brewed a bad batch of beer once a long time ago, it just never seemed to really get going, as I used dried yeast.  I added some “yeast nutrient” to the wort, it’s the same stuff they add to frozen pizza dough so it can actually be thawed and still used to make a pizza.  The “yeast nutrient” was an ammonium salt.  Yeah, the yeast perked up and it made some decent beer, but the flavor was… modified.  Ever since learning what that stuff was, I can taste the ammonia in pizza crust made from frozen dough.  You’ll never catch me ordering from some major pizza chains.  Microsoft development is a lot like that.  Once you learn what else is out there, there’s something in the Microsoft development model that just tastes BAD, and there’s not really anything you can do about it.  However, you can eat it, it works most of the time, and there’s plenty of people who don’t care and will never know the difference.  Bugs Bunny shrug: “It’s a living”.

So I wrote a multi-threaded work task engine.  It’s leaking memory, but I’m beating the crud out of it, and there are many ways to fix it.  It might be half-way done for what I’d like to see it be able to do, but I have pretty high hopes.  I learned a lot doing it, and it should help me over the next year.

I’ve toned down on the Fallout 3 for a while.  Good god what a time sink.  I’m fairly certain my eyes are another quarter diopter off just for that reason alone.

So I should be getting back to splitting water again, I had to take a break to beat back the encroaching threats and indulge my human entertainment cravings.  Shut up, I’ve already paid for this!

Notes on phase-lock-loop circuitry of a Meyer resonant water fuel cell

Here’s the schematics.  They are improving daily.  Note: all POV-Ray images on this site are just for laughs and are inherently inaccurate.

Files: THESE ARE NOT DONE!  DRAFT!  THIS DOES NOT WORK!

oscillation_overthruster.zip

“ZeroFossilFuel” has a fabulous idea in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKjUzsNj8NM (also see http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ru8YQ6HUwbU ).  I have not tried this yet, but the more I look at it, the more I like it.

Picture Right: Lawton style gated pulse circuit, 4″ toroid, 3/8″ ferrite rod, E-core ferrite, new meter

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Referring to WO 92/07861 ( http://www.rexresearch.com/meyerhy/wo92.htm ) , the ‘A27′ chip in Figure 7 is equivalent to a 4046 PLL chip. The write up on Figure 8 is particularly interesting. Note that ‘A31′ chip looks like a 555, there are many of these throughout the drawings. “The scanning circuit o Figure 8 scans frequency from high to low to high repeating until a signal lock is determined.” : it runs a siren! I had thought about this as a way to initially discover the resonant frequency on start up. The next statement is incredibly enlightening: “The ferromagnetic core of the voltage intensifier circuit transformer suppresses electron surge in an out-of-resonance condition of the fuel cell.” The pulse monitor tap on the VIC circuit toroid in Figure 1 gets cleaned up like in Figure 9 and feeds the PLL control.

I was having trouble figuring out how to pickup and feed back the ‘resonance’, this is helping a lot.  The original Puharich design also addresses this.

09-AUG-2008 The preliminary circuit design is nearing completion.  I need to get breadboarding!

12-AUG-2008 I’m getting some help on the forums at WaterFuelCell.org .  Files and schematic picture updated.

17-AUG-2008 I had to split the schematic into two parts, the frequency counter is now on it’s own board.  The free version of Eagle wouldn’t handle one big board, not that I could handle it either.

25-AUG-2008 Files updated.  There are new driver transistors on the MOSFET, and the board layout is pretty close.  Currently breadboarding the Frequency Counter.  This is still DRAFT.

1-SEP-2008 Files updated.  The Frequency Counter is complete, PC boards are ordered and should be here in a week.  Now breadboarding the PLL circuit.  The Resonance Scanner is working, but sensitive.  VCO-IN is responsive to 1 volt – 4.9 volts, but can go to VCC.  The top quarter volt is VERY reactive.

15-SEP-2008 With the frequency counters built, and me ramping up my metalworking capability, I’m concentrating on the PLL now.  The best values for the PLL chip itself seem to be 0.22uF and 10K, with a 1uF lock detect cap.  I might make a ‘scan speed’ select on the resonance scanner, it’s a lot easier to adjust the scale and shift of the output when it goes fast, but I’m worried that the equipment won’t be able to handle too quick a scan speed.  I’ve got the dwell side of the 556 making a standard astable square wave, and feeding it into the PLL SIG-IN line.  When power is applied, it scans once, finds it, and locks.  It’s working well, I can ‘adjust’ the frequency to simulate skewing and it keeps track.  I’ve also worked out the driver circuit after a few different tries.  I’ve settled on a push-pull totem pole design which I’ve tested up to 100KHz with the “ST8NKy” MOSFET, this is working very well.  Schematic updated. I’d like to add a lot of goofy cool blinky lights, but I’m running out of real estate.  I’m considering a ‘hybrid’ design which uses surface mount components for lots of little indicator LEDs, they aren’t required for circuit operation but look nice.

16-SEP-2008 I’ve decided to split the safety circuits off to a daughter board, like the frequency counter.   As sad as I am to admit it, some people’s kids just aren’t going to use the safety circuits, and removing them from the main board will give me lots more room for blinky LEDs.

18-SEP-2008 Schematic updated.  PLL capacitor 0.22uF is good for 20Hz – 35KHz locking.  0.1uF is working for ~200Hz to 120KHz, but I need to do more testing on this range.  Sometimes it won’t re-lock after losing it at high frequency, but will initialize and lock if power is cycled.

21-SEP-2008 Lots and lots of blinky LEDs!  I’ve added 5 different color LEDs to the board now: red = fault, blue = pulse, green = lock, yellow = dwell, and white = gate.  I’m also adding in an LM3914N chip to drive a bar array of LEDs to the scanner voltage.  Thatt should be interesting.  It will do a sawtooth back-and-forth of the LEDs, this will allow limited adjustments to be made without an oscilloscope.  Lots of lights!  I’ve ordered 10K millicandela (so like, 10 candle) LEDs from SparkFun.com , so a big Hello to them and the China Young Sun LED Technology Co., Ltd.

24-SEP-2008 On the breadboard… I have the resonance scanner circuit working, the dwell disable signal is working, the PLL is interfaced to the scanner and dwell with logic gates, the MOSFET driver works, the pulse pickup circuit kinda works. I’ve got a store-bought dual coil choke on the pulse circuit and the MOSFET driving a resistor + LED + capacitor + the other side of the choke.
Given this primitive testing setup, I’m feeding the MOSFET output back into the pulse pickup circuit.

The ‘scanner’ display looks pretty cool, and will allow fine tuning of the scanner without a scope. That could be critical to operation in some iffy combinations.

Power on: it starts up and locks. Sometimes it scans a couple of times, other times the lock is instantaneous. Changing the value of the feedback capacitor makes it unstable (smaller caps are more stable too)… for a while… then it seems to mellow out. Freq rises slowly while doing this, which I think is some type of slow magnetization of the choke core, not significant.

I have a magnet I took out of a hard drive, pretty powerful and polarized right across the flat center on one side. I hold this magnet near the D-core of the choke and the frequency goes up . I tend to pull the choke coil out of the breadboard about this time, but if I hold it down, I can hold the magnet very close to the top… and it goes fast . When the magnet gets too close or I click it onto the coil core, it loses lock and won’t regain until I hold the choke and pull the magnet off. I’m guessing the magnet blocks the transfer of the pulse in the coil, so the lock is lost and the scanner switches into circuit. When I pull the magnet away, it scans a couple of times and locks. I’ll bet I’m demagnetizing my magnet too.

Bottom line… I can modify the environment, this changes the frequency of the pulse, and the PLL keeps lock. It’s doing what it’s supposed to do. The frequency counter is a big help with this As
far as I’m concerned, I’ve got a circuit that mostly works. I need to work out the final design of the pulse pickup amp, and it’s ready for the proto shop.

I don’t have all the LEDs hooked up (just gate and lock for now), but I’ve tested the transistor driver
for them and they’ll work. I’ll put the whole thing in a blue translucent NEMA box and it will glow .

I’ve discovered McMaster-Carr. I have good stuff on the way, delrin, nylon, stainless steel, pressure switches. I need to get outside and get to working on the test tube, I just can’t seem to get motivated to get off the breadboard now that I’m having some luck with it. I got a really nice 12VDC brass water valve from Omega.com . I’m about to send the safety circuit design off for prototyping.

24-SEP-2008 (Later) Schematic and POV-Ray updated.  I cut some tubes with the new saw, it’s… scary.

27-SEP-2008 Made test cell. Tired.

28-SEP-2008 Delrin sucks, no way to glue it, but it will be useful one day with mechanical sealing.  Remade holder out of some of the 2″ clear PVC.  It looks great!  Schematics, files, pics updated.  I added a nice trick with one of the spare 4066 gates, now the scanner display gets brighter when the PLL is not locked, and dimmed when it locks.  I ordered more from Digikey, some very nice switches and knobbies for the front panel, a bunch of forgotten resistor values, and the relays for the safety board.  When I can test the optoisolator circuits with the relay, I can send the safety board design off for prototyping.

03-OCT-2008 Files and images updated.  It’s very close.

06-OCT-2008 Okay, so the circuit is close, but everything else is still far away.  It’s not delivering the voltage through the power transformer, and I’m confused.  I’m trying distilled water in the test cell and getting almost nothing.  Yes, I actually see tiny bubbles, but with the amount of juice I’m giving it, I should be melting wires.  Very very low current, and I can’t raise it even with the dwell gate defeated.  I blew an oscilloscope probe, I think I overvolted it, but I’m not sure how.  This is confusing.  I need a proper VIC transformer, that’s for sure.  I have a small heat sink on the output MOSFET, and it doesn’t even get warm.  Maybe I already cooked it, but I don’t think so.  I have to look at this another way and go back and reread the old tomes.

I tried using the Triad power transformer as the step-up, it just doesn’t seem to be drawing much from the MOSFET.  I probably need to (minimally) heat sink the MOSFET properly, but the current draw is very small, I can’t get it to draw more than 200mA, and the regular breadboarded PLL circuit draws 100mA or so of that.  The other side of the transformer shows like 20mV (MILLI volts), maybe that transformer is just a lot screwier than I thought.

I’m using a 7.5 inch ferrite rod bifilar (two wires) choke with another few turns (third winding) as the pulse pickup, that much seems to work, but the polarity of the pulse pickup seems to be the big factor on that part of the circuit.   This choke measured like 1.75mH a side when I measured it before with the cheap meter (now with blown fuses and mostly burned out).  With the pickup coil loosely wrapped over the ferrite one way, it works great, the other way, the response is very awkward in that a signal only appears when the dwell is off.  That’s strange, I have to play with that some more, at least it seems to be working.  With the diodes across the +/- inputs to the pulse op-amp, anything bigger than about 1.5 – 1.75 volts (forward bias of the MUR800E diodes) should be clipped.  Output from that op-amp is between VCC and GND.  I can see that output pulse on the scope, it works with the dwell and a little bit more after the dwell cuts.  I’ve noticed that it’s rather stable oscillation (unless the pickup coil is reversed), for all I know, it’s working perfectly and picking up too much garbage electrical interference from computers, oscilloscopes, video monitors… the other electronics in the room.  I’ve already noticed that with no pulse coil (open leads), it readily locks onto a 60Hz line signal out of the air.

At any rate, I’m becoming convinced that the circuit is doing what it’s supposed to do, and not much will need to change even if I get the right inductor(s).  If I determine that there won’t be anything I could add to the circuit to make up for any deficiency, I may send the PLL PCB off to get made anyway.  I’ll probably add in the manual override again, but that’s about all I can think to do.

I’ll take some pictures soon, maybe that will help.

07-OCT-2008

Pictures of Oscillation Overthruster output measured with a Tektronix 475 oscilloscope.

1189.  Top trace is dwell, about 25% at 878Hz (active low) taken at TP3 in the schematic (2V,0.5ms). Bottom trace is MOSFET gate (2V,0.5ms). MOSFET is driven by 9 volt supply, dwell is from one side of a 556 dual timer running on 5 volts.

1188. Top trace is dwell, same as above.  Bottom trace is the pulse output and PLL pin 14 SIGIN (2V,0.5ms).  Notice that pulses are detected after the dwell has shut off.

1190.  Close up of one dwell cycle with PLL VCO output.  Top trace is dwell (2V,50μs).  Bottom trace is PLL VCO OUT at TP6 (2V,50μs).  Here you can see the VCO is following the pulses.  Frequency counter at the VCO OUT says about 30K, it varies from 31K cold to 29K warm.  About 33 pulses in this picture per 878Hz dwell cycle is 28974, that’s about right.

1191.  Measurement at the test cell using 1.75mH dual choke, blocking diode, but no VIC transformer (1V,50uS, GND at center)  Input DC Amperage is 90 – 120 mA, sorry my cheap meter won’t do better than that right now.  The circuit normally uses that much juice, I don’t know why it’s not pulling more power.

Obviously, there’s no bubbles.  No hydrogen here, move along.

Note: I just saw something strange.  I noticed that after I turned the power off, the test cell had some voltage still on it.  I thought the scope was just decalibrated, but on GND it was at center.  Flipped back to DC, it was still showing 1.75 volts DC offset, same as in the picture above (the line at center of the waveform).  Huh?  I disconnected one of the cell wires, and the voltage is still there.  As much as I can figure, the cell is pulling some DC from the scope, and when it gets to the forward bias of the blocking diode, it stops.  So I short the cell, and it bounces back to about 0.6 volts.  I turned the circuit on, and voltage rose slowly to around 1.8 volts DC offset.  I turned the power off again, and it stays around 1.7V.  It looks like it’s sinking, very very slowly.  It’s a little weird.  It’s actually acting like… a capacitor?  Naw, that couldn’t happen.  Okay, I disconnected the scope, shorted the cell, reconnected the scope (0 volts), and then unshorted the cell.  The voltage started rising.  It’s acting like a capacitor and charging from the oscilloscope probe leakage.  Very cool, that’s a nice clue.  If I’m right.  It’s been a long day, I might be hallucinating.

This might explain a few things, there’s not even enough impurities for the water to conduct at all, so I can’t pump any current through it.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll try tap water.  Here’s a picture of my desk, don’t make me regret this:
Left to right: roll of solder, oil can of ‘Tap Magic’ cutting fluid, one-tube-set test water fuel cell (4 inch tubes), connection box with rod inductor choke, Tektronix 475 oscilloscope, yellow cased ampmeter behind banana connectors and wires, breadboard with 7046 PLL circuit, roll of Scotch 92 kapton tape, frequency counter (30579 Hz), stereo boom microscope

16-OCT-2008 I’ve done some rewiring.  The MOSFET and regulator diode are heat sinked, the test cell is hooked up.  It’s taking amperage, not a huge amount amount, but I’m still using distilled water.  It locks too easily, I’m thinking I might add the divider chip.  For some reason, the scanner circuit is invading the locked signal and knocking it out of lock.  I’m under the impression that once locked, it should really stay that way.  It falls out of lock regularly with the scanner, usually at the top when the frequency is highest.  I need it to stop scanning when locked, maybe I can tie the lock signal into the reset on that side of the 556.

26-OCT-2008 Okay, that’s doing something.  Now the scanner stops when the PLL locks, and this has a big effect.  The Triad still isn’t putting out the voltage that it should, but I’m getting a few tiny bubbles, what I might call an hour-old Alka-Seltzer.  I hooked up the cell directly (no VIC transformer) but with chokes, and I saw some hot spot frequencies.  There was one around 44KHz, but that spot was not very stable and usually jumped to 22Khz or 11KHz fairly quickly.  Sometimes the scanning would rest at 22KHz, but more often between 10 and 11 KHz.  This is interesting in that these are (reasonable) harmonics of each other and so this would tend to indicate something good.  Sometimes the circuit would jump to these points on it’s own, but more often I would cycle the power and these occured on first scan.

I’m trying the full circuit now, with reversed chokes.  If I run it with the dwell disabled, it soaks 1.82 DC Amps total circuit.  The control circuitry uses about 100 DC milliAmps.  The secondary of the Triad power transformer I’m trying as a VIC transformer is 0.92 Henries inductance according to my half burned out VC9808+ “Sinometer”.  Both sides of the choke measure 1.8 milliHenries.  The dwell at 150Hz and “ON” about %40 draws about 0.9 DC Amps (1.20 AC Amps).

When running this way there are some spikes in the +5VDC power supply, they occur on the MOSFET on times, as would be expected.  There are thick pulses during the gating times 50 millivolts high, and thin spikes at 0.1 volt.  This is ugly, it probably deprecates performance of the PLL.  I may experiment with powering the control circuitry completely separately.  This would involve cutting a fat trace on the safety board, but nothing a dremel won’t handle.

I’m also using the divider (CD4040) chip.  The chip divides the PLL Comparator input from the VCO output by 2^(the number of the pin), so Q1 = 1/2, Q2 = 1/4, Q3 = 1/8, et cetera.  This is providing a manner to adjust something… but I’m not sure what.  The frequencies change, things move around, but not really sure if it’s helping.  It will probably be a nice option to have a switch on the front of the box for it even if it’s a LOT of wires, so I’m thinking it might be permanent.  Note that Meyer’s circuit used 4017 decade counters, and so he could divide by 10, 100, or 1000.  Not sure if I want to try that.

I just tried using the JW Miller / Bourns choke instead of the 1/2 rod choke.  It seems to be working well, the circuit does everything the same but the frequency is much lower.

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This Oscillation Overthruster design is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License .

The Voltage Intensifier Circuit (VIC) is the term Meyer used for the final components of his water fuel cell.  These particular parts have caused a lot of consternation in the water fuel cell research community, as the physical design and electrical values of the components vary greatly, and can be manufactured and used in many ways.  Here I’ll discuss my thoughts and efforts in this area.  Please comment on this!

Here is a set of simplified and unfinished circuits showing different ways to connect a water fuel cell (click to enlarge)

The first drawing is the minimalist example of the MOSFET drain-source circuit (driver circuits for MOSFET gating will not be discussed here, those can be very convoluted and the one I’m using for the Oscillation Overthruster is working just fine).  In this circuit, a MOSFET gates a positive potential to ground.  Nothing else is really needed.  However, this leaves a lot of room for stray voltages from various sources, some will damage the MOSFET if left unchecked.  A more “complete” version is shown in the augmented MOSFET output circuit, which includes
* a regulator diode, which ensures that total potential is never reversed
* a clipping diode, which “shorts out” reverse currents across the VIC primary due to magnetic feedback
* a “PTC” device, this is a “resettable fuse” which protects the MOSFET from over current at the price of a small amount of resistance
* a zener diode, this “shorts out” reverse voltages across the MOSFET drain/source.  Some MOSFETs (like the STP8NK100Z) have internal zeners which perform this function.

Many would argue that some of these components would not be very beneficial, and would even hurt the purpose of the circuit, I do not dispute this.  In particular, some experimenters would not use the clipping diode as clipping the buck feedback from the VIC primary will definitely affect performance.  I’ve added the PTC myself, as the cost of these devices is far cheaper than MOSFETs, and turning the dwell up just a little too high is very easy.  It’s all perspective, if you have a warehouse full of 20-year-old junk 10GB SCSI hard drive controller PCBs with BUZ11 MOSFETs all over them, then by all means… burn out as many MOSFETs as you want.  If you’re paying $5 apiece for them, a 40 cent protection diode starts to look pretty good.  Diodes, zeners, and PTCs that handle the wattages and voltages used here are not expensive.  Some experimenters are using MOSFETs that I cannot find for under $25.

On the Oscillation Overthruster design, I’ve allowed a lot of freedom.  Some components are not required, others can be shunted with bare wire, and I’ve allowed two sizes of PTC for mounting on the PCB.  All of the heavy transistors are TO-220 types and can be socketed and (MUST be) heat sinked.

Next on the schematic, I show the quintessential Meyer VIC circuit.  The bottom choke is adjustable, either through a wiper arm in contact with the wires along the side of the coil, or through multiple taps along the choke which can be switched manually.

The other drawings on this schematic show various ways to actually connect the water fuel cell to the MOSFET.  You can use a VIC transformer, or not.  You can use chokes, or not.  The blocking diode is recommended, but is probably also optional (try and find out!).  If you use a single choke device with two windings on it, I think it’s called a “bifilar” choke (I think it’s a term Tesla used?) and you can hook that up two ways.

Okay, lots more pictures now…

	Smaller inductors Left to right: roll of 1/2″ wide Scotch 92 kapton tape, small ‘E’ core with plastic bobbin, Epcos D-core 47mH 1.3A choke (Digikey 495-2790-ND), cheap measuring scale, JW Miller / Bourns 8116-RC 50mH 2.3A choke (Digikey M8911-ND), 3/8 x 4 inch ferrite rods
	POWERLITE C-cores with scale, label from Elna Magnetics. Left to right: wrapped AMCC-100, two parts of AMCC-320 sitting on oiled anti-corrosion “gun” paper (note light rust on end), AMCC-100 set (this set is varnished with Corona Super Dope) These are very strange things.  They are made of nanocrystalline amorphous metal in the form of extremely thin ribbons of iron alloy wrapped to make the oval, then cut through the center.  By extremely thin, I mean on the order of 25 micrometers.  These are by Metglas and I got them through Elna Magnetics.
	POWERLITE C-cores – AMCC-100 closeup in sun.  Notice the edges of the thin iron ribbons are somewhat visible on the edge.  This is painted with Corona Super Dope.
	Ferrite rods in the sun, see the shiny sparklies? Not really, it didn’t come out in the picture, but they do sparkle. Two are 3/8 inch by 4 inches, the one on the right is 1/2 inch by 7 1/2 inches.
	Toroids: large yellow T400-26D (4 inch diameter) wrapped with Scotch 92 dielectric tape and a few turns of 20 AWG enameled copper wire, and Amidon ‘pulse’ toroid, pretty much the largest one they sold. The Amidon toroid is smooth and hard, makes a nice ring when struck lightly. Honestly, I’m not sure if I can ever use these, they’re just too hard to wrap.  I can make a jig I suppose, but my attempts at locating a reasonably priced toroid winding machine were futile.
	Left: various colors and gauges of copper magnet wire. Right: 3 BUZ11 N-channel MOSFETs in the middle of a power supply PC board from a 10GB 50-pin SCSI hard disk drive, circa 1994.  These will be harvested and reused.  You thought I was joking, didn’t you?  I just have this one, not a warehouse full
	TRIAD VPS10-8000 power transformer, front and back. This is a 115VAC/230VAC to 5VAC/10VAC 80 watt power transformer.  The ‘primary’ is made to take wall voltage 115/230 volts, and step that down to 5 or 10 volts.  As shown, both sides are hooked in series, so it’s wired to take 230VAC and put out 10VAC.  I use it backwards, so my input is 12V pulsing and output is… well, messy… but usually a few hundred volts with some very high spikes.  Pulses go off the scope at 50 volts/division with 8 divisions. Off topic: get a load of the cat hair stuck in the solder flux on the bottom right tab on the back.
	Ferrite rods, one raw, one wrapped with dielectric tape and then 2 windings (and again covered with dielectric tape) plus one small ‘pulse pickup’ winding with a relatively large gauge I’m suspicious that this is too large, it measures 1.75 milliHenries a side.  When I wrapped one of the 3/8″ rods, it measured 130μH a side, which seems more likely to be closer to a good value.

Not pictured: two sheets of 12″x12″ teflon, one 1/8″ thick and one 1/16″ thick.  These are for use as insulators on the ferrites or the C-cores.  They are white and square and boring, so I didn’t take a photo of them.

So I’m trying to get the TRIAD transformer to work. It’s not cooperating. I was hoping to use relatively simple off-the-shelf parts to get this working, that’s why I’m considering it at all. I don’t think this stuff is so hard that you can ONLY do it the SAME WAY, but I might be mistaken. Lots to try before giving up on that.

When I hook it up, the voltage just goes to naught. With the circuit off, I can verify very low resistance conductivity through the coils, I can verify the diode conducts only one way, everything seems to be just fine… but the actual voltage present on the water capacitor is a few millivolts. I’ll hook this up again and take another picture.

Quick edit: the rewiring is working, not sure what to make of it yet.  Basically I’ve temporarily eliminated the hookup box I’ve been using so I can just plug wires into the breadboard.