Hi All,
I just want to get this data out there...
I seem to have found a new choke configuration that seems to truly increase HHO production.
This configuration places the chokes, truly in parallel with the Water Cap.
The pulse does not go through the chokes, but hits the ends of the chokes on the positive and common side respectively.
The circuit resonates and produces a high voltage Lawton style waveform across the cell.
Primed or Unprimed Tubes, does not matter. Excellent HHO production.
Check out my project history at the following link:
http://waterfuelcell.org/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=66&sid=d3c43387164791e6ab8eb7179786487c
If you have a working cell some chokes.
Try creating this setup and let me know if you have similar results.
You may have to scan around to find resonance.
When you get near resonance, the tubes will sing. Then get'em to a loud and high pitch, and you should have it.
Checkout the attached pdf.
What a great new year!
-Dogs
Very interesting. So your setup becomes effectivly an LCL resonant circuit...
But how come you don't destroy the lawton circuit with such high voltages at resonance ?
And your diode surely can't hold levels of 14 000 Volts in reverse, so why don't it break down ?
Meyer had a diode that could hold max 1200 Volts in revers, so he aimed for voltages up to max this level as far as I understand.
G'day Dogs and all,
Thank you for publishing the pdf file. good work!
What is of special interest to me is your choke design. In my research I have come across the same idea in a 1913 patent of a free energy device. Meyer, the inventor, uses four of these and arranges them as a bridge rectifier. He calls that part of the circuit his "intensifyer"
I have been trying to find out what that arrangement precisely does but no-one so far has been able to help.
Have a look at this:
(https://overunityarchives.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fkeelytech.com%2Foverunity%2Fmyersabsorber1.jpg&hash=4b6639d1fcb7743ee812d3381d772dce40c78eab)
Meyer did not have diodes, he used mercury vapour rectifiers instead.
For a more detailed description of the device see:
http://www.overunity.com/index.php/topic,3500.435.html Post 436
Any ideas regarding that particular coil arrangement would be welcome, I am on unknown territory here.
My apologies for posting "off the thread" as it were but I do feel that this choke arrangement of yours has further implications.
Greetings from Australia
Hans von Lieven
oystla,
mmmm... Questions you have... Such is the nature of resonance and OverUnity. 8)
At resonance HV increases as Amps decrease.
Maybe that's why. It works.
Diodes are not really rated under such conditions.
(This diode can handle n Volts at x Amps w/in a resonant circuit...)
Maybe, atoms behave differently under resonant conditions.
I don't know just yet.
-Dogs
Hi Dogs,
Very impressive results! It surely seems like a breakthrough...... keep us informed!
I will soon begin replication of your setup.
Can you answer the following things for me please.
I have my pulser ready but I can't get hold of a BUZ350 FET (out of production). What MOSFET do you have in the lawton pulser?
and,
What dimensions are your tubes. Especially the gap between them. I have 6 tubes of 20 cm with a gap of 1mm ready.
thanks!
Robert
1. Hansvonlieven: "Stan did not use diodes"??
In his patents depicting his famous circuit, he actually name the diode type. This type can handle maxiumum 1200 volts in reverse as far as I found.
2. Dogs, my point is that diodes is specified also with a maximum allowable voltage they can handle in reverse. If increased above, they will be destroyed, as when you do with too high voltages on capacitors.....
Hi Dogs,
Sounds very interesting.
Could you tell a bit more about winding and core specs?
What about a diagram.
I'm about to play around with a Stanley Meyer replication as well in the near future. Need some work-for-money obstacles out of the way first.
Congrationlations on your fine result. Looking forward to some productions measurements.
SwinG
Hans,
Thanks for that interesting schematic.
It seems to validate my use of the bifilar coil arrangement.
It is interesting how these overunity circuits have similar characteristics.
That would be a very interesting project to build.
Has anyone created one and published results?
Regarding the HV on the diodes. It does not seem to be an issue at the low amps.
Additionally, we are witnessing new atomic behaviors in these resonant circuits.
Even water behaves strangely within the circuit (it disassociates).
I'll continue using the single diode for my tests, if it breaks, then we get a bigger one.
Best,
-Dogs
Duped Message Deleted.
dutchy1966, Re: MOSFET
I got a the following from DigiKey.com
Mosfet N-CH 200V 20A P/N: IRFP240PBF-ND
I am using the following tubes:
Material 316L
9/16" x 0.374"
1/4" x 0.374"
Cut to 8 Inch Lengths
Gap: .06" -or- 4/64" (inch)
SwingG, Re: Core Specs
1"x1" U-Core from Magnetics Inc.
Link to U-Core specs and material (P-Type)
http://www.mag-inc.com/ferrites/ferrite_e_i_u_cores.asp
Just wind 2 wires of copper around 1 U-Core.
- Spin the core, to get wire on it. Doing over-hand loops will twist the wire.
I have 2 U-Cores stuck together in document, because it was originally a transformer setup (an attempt at a VIC). But now, I am only using the choke portion of it. It should work just as a single U-Core.
Diagram is in the document.
Best Regards,
-Dogs
oystla,
Oh yes, it does work out that it is an LCL circuit.
-Dogs
@ oystla,
I should have been more explicit. The Meyer I referred to is Roy Jerome Meyers not Stan.
@ Dogs
This patent has only very recently surfaced. There is an interesting story connected with it. According to a contemporary news story meyers invented the device while in prison. He actually produced electricity with it for the prison.
The article says: Miss Kate Barnard, who was State Commissioner of Charities and Corrections of Oklahoma, was a guest of Superintendent Sims at the time, and she saw the machine in operation. Miss Barnard was so impressed by it and by Meyers' essential integrity (despite the lapse that had gotten him imprisoned) that she told the story of Roy Meyers when later she appeared before the Arizona legislature to address them concerning prison reform. The legislature and Governor Hunt were convinced to grant Meyers an unsupervised leave of absence for 30 days to travel to Washington DC in order to apply for a patent.
According to the same article, the USPTO demanded to see a working model which Meyers furnished.
No-one knows what happened to his patent application and to his patent as the USPTO denies any knowledge of it.
The patent that has been located is actually an amendment to his earlier patent and was filed in Britain. Presumably this is why it escaped the censors.
I am currently trying to replicate the device, just waiting for materials.
Hans von Lieven
Dogs
Congratulations! Impressive gas production for less than 3 Watts!!
If you don't mind, I would like to replicate this as close as possible to your exact specification & components used.
What version of the Lawton PWM are you using?
Did you build this PWM yourself?
Do you have any idea what the % duty cycle was when you achieved resonance?
Also, what was the relaxation time inbetween pulse trains?
Thank you for answering our questions!
Thanks for all the info Dogs.
It's really nice to feel your exitement. I'm getting kin of thrilled myself :)
I thought the pdf in your first post was the same as you posted in the waterfuelcell forum. Sorry for mistaking. The dirgram is in the pdf allright.
I really believe that you are on the right track now, but we still needs some confirmation. Don't know if the frequencies can influence your current readings, so that the effective current draw are bigger than your multimeter reads. But I dont feel the need for crossing my fingers though. The simplicity of your setup, and your steady approach gives me a feeling of finally going in the right direction.
I really hope I will be able to give something back to you all. Even the stupid man get's lucky once in a while ;)
I have been planning to do some experimenting myself, but have been a little reluctant in trying a Stanley Meyer replication, since things seem to have died off in the Ravi thread. I have been more keen on a Bob Boyce replication, but my heart has allways lied with Stanley ;)
This, I think, settles it. I'm going for the Stanley (Dogs) replication.
Just a few quick questions...
Do you use any electrolyte?
Have you done anything special to condition your pipes (had any brown scum)? The pipes looks sanded.
SwinG
Quote from: Dogs on January 02, 2008, 02:25:48 PM
I am using the following tubes:
Material 316L
9/16" x 0.374"
1/4" x 0.374"
Cut to 8 Inch Lengths
Gap: .06" -or- 4/64" (inch)
Dogs
I have noticed that in one of your waterfuelcell.org postings, your tubes were
9/16" x .035" 316L
1/4" x .035" 316L
Thus I assume, you meant 0.0374" for the thickness and not 0.374"?
0.0374" converts to 0.92mm and 0.035" converts to 0.86mm
A wall thickness of +-0.9mm is much thinner than the 1.2-1.5mm typically used by other
experimenters up till now....
maybe the thinner tubes also helped with achieving resonance???
just an observation.....Great work!!
@passion, I am using the Lawton PWM version just prior to ravi's changes. I am using the version that has the 100ohm resistors before the pots (D-14.pdf 12st-Nov-2006).
I built it myself, I first prototyped it using one of those plastic circuit thingys. Then I built the real thing. I would suggest doing the same. The prototype is nice to have around as it is easy to debug and modify and serves as a backup PWM in case you blow you "real" one (in a case on a real circuit board), as I have done. Luck for me I have a spare.
Based on the Oscope Images, the duty cycle was about 50%. There are 2 frequencies, the PWM freq and the LC circuit freq (L:Inductors, C:Tubes/Capacitors). The LC circuit's freq is typically about the same as what the PWM is generating. But at resonance, things change drastically with the LC circuit. But, the LC's freq characteristics, voltage amplitude, gating, step charging, can be modified by slight changes at the PWM. The step charging effect is has been the most difficult phenomenon to duplicate.
Relaxation time between pulse trains based on scope images seems to be about 120us for the document (2007-01-01).
@ passion1, RE: Wall Thinckness
I measured the wall thickness: .06" (inches)
The specs say 1.22mm.
Which is about the same size as the gap that I end up with.
Sorry about the .035", not sure what that's indicating.
The sales man also indicated that it was really hard for
them to ensure the exact dimensions of pipe and that
one always has to account for manufacturing error
especially in telescoping applications (one pipe fitting within another). Also make sure that they know that you want a seamless tube.
The resonance you need to hit to get HV is the resonance of the LC Circuit (L=Inductors, C=Capacitor). So tube thickness should not be an issue.
I have also looked into the audible resonance of my tubes which seems to be 1.7k (capture ring and spectrum analyzed), and I don't see a correlation with that frequency and HHO production at this time.
@ Hans, thanks for the details re the invention.
==================================
Time for me to eat some crow...
The circuit diagram that you saw in the 2007-01-01 document was not correct.
You can see what it should have been in the attached document.
I have also been testing output characteristics of a few choke configurations. Not to entirely invalidate the diode configuration that I came up with, my current findings seems to indicate the the configuration as described in the Neogen (cruxwfc) document is quite effective and may be more effective than the configuration that I proposed.
I found resonance for the Neogen configuration at a lower freq than I expected. And most of all I found step charging. At only 1 Amp and only 4 tubes, there was so much generation that I had a slight misty wisps of moisture (cold steam) coming out of the water reseviour.
One additional consideration is that my tube may actually be (finally) in a primed condition. After a few months of "lazy priming" I got discouraged at the production of my tubes. I was being lazy and I had never given them a through disassembly and cleaning.
One day, I finally bit the bullet and cleaned them. Took apart the assembly, washed them with an ultrasonic tooth brush and had them soak in vinegar for about 2 weeks. Nothing really seemed to have changed with regard to appearance. I did not see any white coating that others have described. I did see that one inner tube seemed to have what looked like pitting. Like an ultra thin layer of the tube's surface was pealing off to reveal a grayish irregular surface. Took some mirco images and left it to that...
Then testing one tube, I noticed that production was pretty dam good.
Recently, I've been trying to get bubbles using extreme voltages, as high as 1+ million volts (per my measurements). Looking for that elusive step charging effect and the resulting HHO production. I found the step charging effect at HV, but alas, no bubbles.
Then finally (due to my laziness), I found my proposed circuit and high HHO production. And thus, testing more choke setups using only one choke and no additional HV transformers.
Thus other questions arise:
- Does the high production stem from the fact that the tubes are actually primed?
- Or, is it just that the tubes were never given a good cleaning?
And there are more experiments to be done with regard to choke configurations and optimization of the various frequency settings for optimum production.
Anyhow, check out the new doc.
I'll do the same experiment with new tubes, no priming, just sanded and then cleaned.
Best,
-Dogs
Another correction to the choke configuration and some initial results.
Next, measurements of output.
-Dogs
Quote from: Dogs on January 03, 2008, 06:13:02 PM
I'll do the same experiment with new tubes, no priming, just sanded and then cleaned.
Best,
-Dogs
Hi Dogs,
Thanx for all the great info again. I would just like to suggest another experiment if you are up for it. Would this setup work with aluminium tubing?
As aluminium forms its own protective coating too, it might just work aswell. If you have the time and resources to test this that would be very much appreciated, else I will do it as soon if I have my setup going....
regards,
Robert
Dogs
Thank you for the info and circuit updates!!
@dutchy1966, Don't know that I'd ever get to experimenting with aluminum.
But that is an interesting idea.
I did some measurements last night.
I assembled a newly clean set of pipes into a 7 tube cell and tested both the typical choke configuration and my new proposed configuration.
The first thing that I noticed is that the cell did not seem to perform very well visually.
The actual test confirmed this:
Measuring the time to generate 1/8 liter of gas.
OUp = 100*(2.15/((volts * amps) * (rtsec*8) / 3600))
Crux choke configuration:
Enter volts: 12.2
Enter amps: 1.09
Enter rtsec: 11*60
OUp = 11.023530537743
Dogs choke configuration:
3-> calculate
Enter volts: 12.2
Enter amps: 1.2
Enter rtsec: 9*60
OUp = 12.238160291439
So currently, not anywhere near OU.
Thus, it really seems that the white coating (that is non conductive when dry) is a prerequisite to OU efficiency.
The chokes do seem to increase HHO production regardless of the white coating.
But as yet, the choke alone does not seem to be able to bring about the OU efficiency.
Looking at the pipes that seemed to produce really well, I can see that there is a white coating on the inner tube.
So, I am pretty sure that the reason why those tubes perform so well is that they are primed. I verified that they were primed by testing conductivity (31 Mega Ohms).
I found that 3 tubes had become primed out of the 4 in my 4 tube test cell. So when I started getting great production from that test cell (visually), I thought was was on to something with regard to the choke configuration.
My initial goal was achieve HV/LowAmp HHO production, without the need for primed tubes. I feel that I have exhausted my options toward that goal at this point. But, all is not lost. I have learned a lot more about the choke and the fact that the choke/water-capacitor does make an LC circuit that can resonate, thus, can achieve very High Voltage. Although it is not apparent that the high voltage brings about HHO production with unprimed pipes, it makes sense that it may make a big difference once pipes are primed.
I have found a choke configuration that does seem to improve HHO production (event with unprimed pipes), but this requires more testing to verify that observation.
I have found that I can generate extremely high voltages within the cell. In some cases I have measured well over 1 million volts across the cell. This may be a useful datum especially for handling HHO in it's ionic/gaseous form, for full release of thermal energy (stripping off more electrons).
So now, I am curious as to how the white resistive coating improves HHO production. My meter measured the resistance at about 31 Mega Ohms.
So this coating seems to stop Voltage from passing through to the common side of the circuit. That means that more energy builds up within the capacitor substance (water) within the cell. Thus more potential energy within the cell, making it easier for it to do its work of fracturing water. A lot of voltage really does build up in the cell as described in Lawton's original experiments (D-14.pdf), weather chokes are involved or not.
An other interesting question...
Some consider that the white coating is calcuim oxide (CaO). A quick google indicates that it should be possible to directly apply such a layer (look up calcium oxide deposition). Would another element with similar resistive qualities improve HHO production performance or durability?
In this day and age of high tech chip fabrication, I am sure that this is possible and that research in this area would be very fruitful.
I have never gotten any of my tubes to get that white coating in past attempts at priming.
Not until I gave them a through washing. And, not until I started attempting HV water dissassociation with the few that finally did get some priming.
May be I had to give them a through washing after sanding them and before attempting to prime them?
May be the latest HV experimentation with the tubes helped in forming the white coating?
- ...cleaning and preping procedure...
- ...HV experimentation (no bubbles, or very little, but results in good CaO growth)...
I would definately suggest that throughly washing the tubes and them soaking them in vinegar for a few hours is a good idea before running through a priming procedure.
(Google Vidoes: calcium oxide)
I would also suggest that using Stainless Steel 304 pipes would be more advantageous than 316 as it is slightly more prone to corrosion and should form the oxide coating more easily.
So once again I have gone full circle to putting my attention back on priming my pipes.
-Dogs
Dogs
Very interesting and thank you for the feedback.
How and with what did you wash those tubes that ended up with the white coating?
Happy New Year fellas!
Hi Dogs
Good stuff. I printed off just about everything you have posted on the other forum and have been reading it with great interest over the Christmas/New Year period.
My tubes started to develop the white coating after a few days while I've been playing around with straight dc experiments. Not sure about the calcium oxide as some folks suspect though. Sure there is a good quantity of calcium in hard water areas here in the UK (I'm in one), but it's the oxide part that's niggling me. Now my chemistry is weak, but as an oxide, it would surely form on the anode (an oxidation reaction). My white coating (and I think everyone elses too) is on the cathode, where you would expect there to be a defficiency of oxygen and hence a reduction reaction.
Whatever it is, I have always thought this to be the key to producing our true 'water capacitor', where we are not relying on the water to be dielectric, but rather the coating on the electrodes. We at least can then work on the premise that our cell will act to a greater extent as a capacitor in much of it's behaviour.
From everything I've seen, once this coating is established and we effectively have a true dielectric in place, we then see a substantial increase in efficiency of gas production. Though, we still have to try to understand how it's properties influence ionisation/gas production.
It's not something I've ever considered or pursue, but does this mean then that acoustic resonance is perhaps unimportant?
Does it mean, as I suspected some time ago, that the water may simply be an active extension of an electrode (anode)? In which case, the cathode could be made with a much larger surface area while we only need to employ a small electrode as the anode, simply to be in contact with the water.
Looks like the chromium oxide layer on the anode is not good enough to act as a decent dielectric as I once thought it would, but it is interesting that even my unconditioned ss tubes would hold a voltage for hours, if not overnight.
You're making some great inroads on the electronics side of the subject, but have you ever compared the gas rate production with straight dc in order to have a baseline? I only ask as in one of your postings you had 4 tube cell drawing 0.543 amps at 12 volts when putting out 15.5Kv across the cells, but it did not look like that much gas production to me. You may find that 12 volts at half and amp straight dc across the cell gives the same result.
The last couple of weeks have been hectic so I've not had chance to get out to my workshop, but hopefully I'll be able to remedy this in the coming days and have some results of my own to throw in.
Will be following your postings with great interest.
Did a bit of research.
Calcium oxide is nasty hazardous stuff, but hopefully we are producing calcium hydroxide:
QuoteReaction of calcium with water
Calcium reacts slowly with water. This is in contrast with magnesium, immediately above calcium in the periodic table, which is virtually unreactive with cold water. The reaction forms calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2 and hydrogen gas (H2). The calcium metal sinks in water and after an hour or so bubbles of hydrogen are evident, stuck to the surface of the metal.
Ca(s) + 2H2O(g) → Ca(OH)2(aq) + H2(g)
Calcium hydroxide, also known as slaked lime, is a chemical compound with the chemical formula Ca(OH)2. It is a colourless crystal or white powder, and is obtained when calcium oxide (called lime or quicklime) is mixed, or "slaked" with water. It can also be precipitated by mixing an aqueous solution of calcium chloride and an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide. A traditional name for calcium hydroxide is slaked lime, or hydrated lime. The name of the natural mineral is portlandite.
If heated to 512?C,[1] calcium hydroxide decomposes into calcium oxide and water. A suspension of fine calcium hydroxide particles in water is called milk of lime. The solution is called lime water and is a medium strength base that reacts violently with acids and attacks many metals in presence of water. It turns milky if carbon dioxide is passed through, due to precipitation of calcium carbonate.
Surely then, it would be quite possible for us to dope some water with an appropriate calcium compound in order to greatly enhance the efficiency at which the coating is developed on the cathode. I think it is calcium carbonate (limestone) in our drinking water.
One thing on my mind now: Are the properties of the dielectric compound formed on the cathode crucial to the operation of our wfc's and the related electronics?
If so why? Is it the fact that this layer simply creates a very high impedance to current flow or is it needed to continually break down to create ionisation?
I had expected the protective chromium oxide layer on the ss anode to be continually breaking down and reforming, but now I'm not sure this is any longer relevant as focus now seems to be on the cathode. However, the layer on the cathode seems so much more substantial and takes so much longer to achieve that I'm not sure this would self-heal as would the ss chromium oxide layer - or indeed as would the aluminium oxide layer that protects aluminium.
Dogs, measured 30Mohm - a substantial resistance - across this coating, though this figure would depend on the distance between the probes and hence the layer thickness. All very interesting, because if the dielectric is not at some point breaking down, how is ionisation being achieved?
Furthermore, (and I need to confirm this with my own tests) I have read that simply coating the electrodes with an insulating material, such as clingfilm, does not produce any gas at all.
Hi
Interesting stuff,
But Dogs;
About your measurement;
"
Dogs choke configuration:
3-> calculate
Enter volts: 12.2
Enter amps: 1.2
Enter rtsec: 9*60
OUp = 12.238160291439
"
So you produced 0,125 liter at 12,2 volts, 1,2 amps in 9*60 =540 seconds ?
Yes, then the efficiency of your cell is 12,24 %, which is not very good.
I made this formula using higher heating value of hydrogen and ideal gas law and daltons law;
Efficiency (%)= 7744*100*V/(U*i*t) where
V= collected H2/O2 gas (liter)
U= Voltage
i= amperage
t= test time in seconds
By the way;
Yes water around the world differs a lot from "hard" to "soft", so we should really investigate what the white powder is, so we know what water we need for conditioning. What about sending it to an laboratory for an analysis? shouldn't cost much I believe... ?
regards from Norway
The white substance can only be created from minerals in the water, so there are only a few things it could be. Yes a lab test would be the obvious solution, but it might prove more costly than you think and exactly where would do this test for you? Maybe a local Uni might be able to help?
Actually, if we assume that it is a compound of calcium then we might be able to test it ourselves. I'll delve a little more.
@passion1, I have treated all of my tubes the same way. The difference between the current set of tubes and the tubes that now seem to be primed is that I had been experimenting with the primed set for about 2 to 3 weeks with very High Voltage/Very Low Amperage circuits. Never getting any good production out of them. Them I let the sit around of 1 to 2 weeks while I experimented with a fairly new tube. Finally, when I decided to create the 4 tube prototype, I noticed the white coating on the tubes from the prior experiments that had been sitting around. So it seems that HV and them letting them dry may have something to do with priming. More careful research needs to be done to see if that is true. It would be nice to have a quick procedure that results in a good white coating for optimized performance. So that even if the white coating does wear out, it would be easy enough to switch over to a different circuit to re-coat the tubes. Also possibly a drop of some'thin-some'thin to accelerate crystal growth.
In washing the tubes, I washed them with Castile liquid soap and them soaked them in vinegar for about 2 weeks. Probably only need to soak for a few hours. Then let them throughly dry. Also wore rubber gloves whenever I had to handle the tubes so that no skin oils get on the surfaces. When I washed the outer tubes, I used a long nylon brush that was able to give inside of the outer tube a really good scrubbing.
@Farrah Day, Thanks for checking out my data. Your info on the coating is very interesting. The coating seems to continue to surface as a key to OU HHO production. Unfortunately, I'm not good at chemistry myself. Yes, I'll do more experiments using pulsed vs straight DC on the primed tubes (that would be some interesting data). I'll have to find a good gas flow meter. Yes, it does not seem that acoustic resonance is not so important. And, LC resonance and HV is not useful unless the cell has a coating so that it can hold on the HV and use it.
-Dogs
Hi Dogs,
Nice work on the circuit and tubes so far..
I have mentioned in another thread that maybe bottled mineral water could be the answer.
Some bottled mineral waters advertise that they are high in Calcium Carbonate. ( Hard water )
Here is some info from an aqaurium site http://westerncichlids.com.au/what-is-water-hardness/
The simplest way to increase the hardness is to incorporate calcareous material (e.g. limestone, crushed marble, lime sand) into the d?cor or filter. This will slowly release calcium carbonate into the water. Pool salt, non-iodised salt, Rift Lake Salt additives (e.g. Seachem products) and some bottled hard mineral water (e.g. Evian) can also be added. Some aquarists even add a small percentage of sea water to the aquarium (around 2%).
So maybe check the labels on your locally available bollted water and try conditioning with it.
I suppose after conditioning normal water would be OK.
Regards
NTB
Quote from: Farrah Day on January 06, 2008, 12:40:14 PM
My tubes started to develop the white coating after a few days while I've been playing around with straight dc experiments. Not sure about the calcium oxide as some folks suspect though. Sure there is a good quantity of calcium in hard water areas here in the UK (I'm in one), but it's the oxide part that's niggling me.
G'day Farrah,
There is a simple way of determining if it is a calcium deposit you are dealing with. The test is not all that reliable because it really only proves it in the negative but worth doing and it will cost nothing since I assume most households have vinegar.
Just soak one of your tubes in vinegar. If the deposit does NOT dissolve in vinegar it is not calcium. If it does, there is a good chance it is.
Hope this helps
Hans von Lieven