The "Diode"

[IcyBlue]

Hi,

There are some more informations we can get from the images by crosscorrelating it with real plasma devices:

I once saw a electron valve dying wich sucked up just a little air. It had a nice faint violett glow but was still working. Very soon a silvergrey coating formed on the inside of the tube at the positions where the anode plate had some holes. This is called sputtering. Fast ions are bombarding the target and hammering out atoms due to the impulse they are having which in turn then condense at the next best surface. Similar is done with ion abrasing in SIMS (secondary ion mass spectroscopy).

If there would be fast ions involved that are flying outwards, then we *definitely* had such a coating (silvergrey spots on the glass where the grid has the holes). Since we don't have one, the charges in the right device must be flowing inwards. Based on the color of the wires it should be negative charges. In the left device where the charges must flow outwards - due to the mirror symtrical design - we have a solid cylinder, thus sputtering on the glass can not occur. So it seems likely that the left device is something like a ordinaray electron valve design - having the cathode (faraday cap) in the middle and a solid anode cylinder on the outside. The right device is a 'upside down' constructed electron valve with the anode cylinder in the center and a field emitter grid on the outside - in exact the same position where the anode of the other device is.

But the fact that we on neither of the devices can see some sputtered coating could as well be due to some very simple reasons:
* The machines never run longer than a few seconds
* no moving charges are involved at all in them, i.e. they are nothing but a fake.

I don't think the swiss have access to highvacuum pumps or the devices as they are constructed could maintain a such for long - so there *must* be some ions present which *would* cause sputtering under any circumstance.

This one is starting to look like einsteins riddle - elliminate all posibilities and the impossible solution remains; but there are good chanced that it is a imaginary one

I'm hoping to lead up to an experiment where multiple runs are done, each with a different number of floating grids, measuring the current across a load. But I don't think we have necessary circuit figured out yet.

not quite, but we are close to. We certainly need to build a electron valve (or at least something that can be evacuated for investigation) since almost all of the commercially available ones have the supressor grid shorted to the cathode, but we want our load exactly inbetween this short.

BTW: This kind off asymetry or mirror symetric design seems to be present in all of the 'caps' and they all seem to be of the same type ! I processed the image of the 300W model and could work out another detail: The left cap seems to use either copper spirals/rings/mesh inside while the right one has a probably solid cylinder of brass inside. It seems the small devices are daisy chained (via discharge gaps) to the big ones.

[Bruce A. Perreault]

Hello IcyBlue,

What is shown is not the diode in the Testatika. This is a common
misinterpretation due to the missyncronization on the audio portion
from the video portion in the Testatika movie. I have a very clear
picture and what is actually shown is a choke coil. The "rectifying diode"
is below this choke.

              -Bruce P.

             

[IcyBlue]

Hello Bruce,

What is shown is not the diode in the Testatika. This is a common misinterpretation

However do you call this, this does not really matter (for the moment) - as long as we all know about which part we are talking. This is why I put the word diode into quotations. Im just trying to correlate what I see to what I read in some patents and know so far. I have a slight clue now how the devices look inside, but not yet enough information to get this all together. Sofar I can only say that the "caps" probably are no caps at all - not in the first place. The capacitance is only a side effect.

If you have some highres pictures (better than those already posted here) this would be of great help.

- Icy.

[Steven Dufresne]

I once saw a electron valve dying wich sucked up just a little air. It had a nice faint violett glow but was still working. Very soon a silvergrey coating formed on the inside of the tube at the positions where the anode plate had some holes. This is called sputtering. Fast ions are...

But the fact that we on neither of the devices can see some sputtered coating could as well be due to some very simple reasons:
* The machines never run longer than a few seconds
* no moving charges are involved at all in them, i.e. they are nothing but a fake.

You are assuming a vacuum tube with air in it, and hence ions are being used. If the vacuum is being maintained then, gathering from what you say, you wouldn't see sputtering

I don't think the swiss have access to highvacuum pumps or the devices as they are constructed could maintain a such for long - so there *must* be some ions present which *would* cause sputtering under any circumstance.

Check out the following link. It's the first thing I found in a quick google search for "homemade vacuum tubes" so there's probably a lot more. I indicates not such a high vacuum and fancy equipment is needed for the electron approach.
http://home.earthlink.net/~lenyr/hm-triode.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~lenyr/vt-vac.htm

Also, I think you suggested looking for a good book for homemade vacuum tubes. "Instruments of Amplification" by Pete Friedrichs has been recommended to me by a friend. I glanced at his copy briefly and it looked good. You can get it here:
http://www.lindsaybks.com/bks7/finstr/index.html

-Steve

[Steven Dufresne]

What is shown is not the diode in the Testatika. This is a common
misinterpretation due to the missyncronization on the audio portion
from the video portion in the Testatika movie. I have a very clear
picture and what is actually shown is a choke coil. The "rectifying diode"
is below this choke.

              -Bruce P.           

Hi Bruce,
Not that we can be certain either way but I looked at both the English version of the video and the German version today and both versions start talking about the diode just as they are zooming in on the part that's at the top of the machine.
-Steve