Eldarion and Bruce's build of Bob's Energy Converter

[eldarion]

Hi Eldarion,

Just a couple of quick questions, my friend.

What frequency was your F4 during this experiment?  And did you attempt to increase the frequency to garner more power?  If so, was there an effect?

Did you scope across the "other" longitudinal winding of the core, from the top, bottom, and inside winding on the core, and see ANY signal?  Could you post a scope shot of that for us, please?

Thanks, and great job!  When the magnetic bais affects things AND also the lowering of the HV potential on the secondary affects things, and when those other windings show current, you will have a "fully" working device as described by Bob.  Sooo.... If your cop is at about 1 now, imagine once it is working....!  LOL     

Are you driving the six primaries as two sets of three, or just driving three primaries?  Can you also please post a scope shot of your thin negative pulses off of the primary, since it's fix.  Thanks!! 

Side note to all:*Please remember that Rich is using a "pulsed" system, not rotational.  Also, and Rich please correct me if I am wrong, he has no magnetic bias or "other" longitudinal windings on his core.  It is wound simply with a secondary and three primaries.  So, in the rotational mode we should be seeing much more power.  Time to check everything, again.

Warm regards,
Bruce

Hi Bruce,

My F1 (maximum frequency) was anywhere from 30KHz to 60KHz--no real difference was noted.

Yes, I did scope across the longitudinal--there was a small amount of clipping occuring on the sine wave, so maybe there was a small DC offset, but it couldn't have been more than a few hundred millivolts.

I'm driving only three of the primaries (see the pic I posted earlier).

I am currently at work, so I cannot post 'scope shots.  I do have some other ideas that I would like to try, so I will probably drop off for a couple days and come back with new info and results (I hope! )

Eldarion

[Jdo300]

Hi Jason,

For some reason shutting down the HV power supply (bringing the bias voltage to zero) has absolutely no effect on the bulb brightness.  I may have sounded a false alarm here!

I did try connecting the magnetic bias, and besides exerting a powerful effect on my old CRT monitor, it did nothing.

I am curious as to what Rich did to improve his setup?  My current COP seems to be very close to what he was originally getting (almost, but a little less than, 1).  Speaking of COP, I verified my input power as 41 watts for the approximately 2/3 lit 60W bulb.

I am sooo close, but something is still not right!

Eldarion

EDIT: One other thing: the running converter is generating some pretty powerful magnetic fields--my old CRT gets interesting patterns generated in it when this thing is fired up...

Hi Eldarion,

Ahem Ahem..... you said that adding the magnetic bias caused the coil to exert a powerful magnetic force on your CRT? Let me ask you something here.

1. Did the Coil affect the  TV at all without the magnetic bias?

2. If you just turn on the magnetic bias without pulsing the coils, does it show a strong effect on the TV?

3. How much current were you putting through the mag bias windings to see the effect?

If you only saw that happen when you applied the bias AND pulsed the primaries, then there is a GOOD chance that you might be starting to form the vortex field. I'm thinking that the toroid should (under normal conditions) completely suck in any magnetic field that is produced. So I find this very intriguing. Hey, try sticking a compass or some water near it to see if there is any effect.

God Bless,
Jason O

[eldarion]

Hi Jason,

No, the effect on the TV is just a normal result of a large DC current flowing through a coil.  Likewise, the primaries exert their effect on the TV regardless of the state of the magnetic bias.

Sorry!  I wish I was seeing more interesting effects...

I am currently rebuilding the entire tri-voltage isolated power supply after finding leakages to ground that could have been interfering witth the correct operation of the device.

Eldarion

[Jdo300]

Hi Eldarion,

You know, it seems that you are going the very complex route to make your high voltage supply. Why not do something very simple like a 555 timer circuit running on a 9V batter pulsing a transformer to make the HV? Then you just put a large electrolytic cap on the secondary side (through a bridge rectifier of course), and simply tune the frequency to generate the bias that you like. That way you will be completely isolated from the earth ground and not have to worry about shorting the LEM through the supply. You also have the added benefit of the transformer itself acting like a choke to protect the timer circuit on the other side.

I have built several of these circuits and depending on the rise time of the input square wave and the choice of transformer, I've been able to generate voltages anywhere from 50V to over 2kV! Very simple to make!

God Bless,
Jason O

[eldarion]

Hi Jason,

I am rebuilding it in a manner similar to what you suggested, but not exactly the same.  Remember that I am using 160VDC to power the IGBTs, so I need something high power and preferably regulated, as well as isolated.

Here is what I am doing:
I am using a small 120V inverter (95W max) to power a 12.6V transformer.  That is then rectified and sent to power the control electronics.  I have also hooked up two more 12.6V transformers in reverse to get two separate, isolated 120VAC outputs.  Both are rectified; one is used as the HV potential, and the other is for the 160VDC power to the IGBTs.

Because the outputs are isolated from each other, I can tie the grounds of the 16VDC output and the 160VDC output together, and then attach the positive lead of the 160VDC supply to Earth ground, thereby floating the IGBTs to -160V and the control electronics to -152V  (This is causing me some grief, as the CRT is tying the FPGA's ground to Earth ground--sparks!  Without the CRT connected, everything is OK, so long as you don't touch the FPGA and Earth ground at the same time! )

I then take the HV potential supply, connect its negative lead to Earth ground, and use the positive lead as the HV potential.  This gives me 320V of potential difference between the pulses and the HV potential, so I hope this will help to kick-start the effects.

So far, my 75W inverter is doing strange things with the inductive load of the transformer, so I will sub in my 95W inverter and see what happens.  Obviously I am very nervous about hooking this directly up to the mains!

If you see any problems in all of this, please point them out!
I still wonder what Rich did to make his setup work better?

Eldarion

EDIT: Well, my way just isn't working--it's sucking down 30W in idle.  I had been concerned about this possibility.   I will go ahead and try to build a couple of the circuits Jason mentioned, and see if they will work.

I have been pondering a few things, and I wonder if all applied potentials must be relative to the core itself.  That thing should be sitting pretty close to Earth ground, so hence the reason everything we apply to the drive coils has to be referenced in some way to Earth ground?  Generating those negative pulses with respect to Earth ground is a pain, as it means I have to float the entire drive system to -160V, and if I want to interface Earth-grounded peripherals such as my monitor, I have to try to optoisolate them, or else clip off the ground pin.  Grr...