I thought about what Red_Sunset said about doing my homework, and decided that made a lot of sense.  So, I went back and studied the posts from mrwayne, and took some notes.  The more I read, the more sense it began to make!  In fact, I believe I now have a complete understanding of how this machine operates.

I realize that not everyone that is looking for answers will put in the effort required to divine the knowledge from this thread, so I will now provide a complete, consise description of how the ZED accomplishes its amazing over-unity feat.  (Those that prefer to learn by building your own machine might want to stop reading now, so you can discover all this yourself.)

(The construction of the actual machine itself is sufficiently described by the outstanding animation on the HER site, so I will skip the details of the machine design and focus on describing how it
manages to be self-running and over unity.)

Here's how it works:

First of all, Wayne had to invent multiple ways to control the water and air (differential in layers larger than four).  You should see a bit more spread as you add layers and as the diameter increases further from the POD.  This much was obvious, but the real genius is yet to come.  You must keep in mind that this is not a momentum system, it is a dual-inverse process.  Keeping the stroke short allows you to stay within the highest value of the 2-1 differential gain!  Keep in mind how the unitized differential is affected.  It helps to understand gravity as a flow, or a vortex acting upon known mass.

Now, about the gaps.  Equalized gaps or equalized volumes will both work just as well, within 10% of each other.  The effect will become more dramatic with larger gaps.  Reducing the volume it takes to activate the Travis Effect will result in a smaller gap, which is more efficient.  Adding layers without separating the walls and air gaps does not equal to reusing the mass (which is critically important).  ZED uses a microscopic amount of input volume to Archimedes.  This is the key point of the Travis Effect.  The machine is a pressure differential system, caused by gravity's effect on density.  The separating walls redistribute where the differential is focused.

On the question of self-centering, it is important to note that the inner pressure is always greater, so the alignment improves as you near the center.  The layering system increases the speed and increases the effectiveness of the Travis Effect 11.1 times better than Archimedes in time, distance, and mass.  (I realize that should be quite obvious, but I include it here for completeness.)  The input comes from within the loop of the system.  Once the system is charged, no new energy needs to be put in to run continuously.

Normally, less weight means more output.  That is in a traditional system, but ZED is non-linear.  The water surface is the hydro-pneumatic seal for the ZED, of course.  You have to back away from the ideal in order to have stroke.  Recharge is the value from nearly floating unloaded to nearly floating loaded!  ZED, in its simplest form, reuses the same mass over and over simultaneously, in an additive fashion, by shifting the center of gravity during the free-flow process.

Of course, gravity is at the heart of the ZED operation, so some observations are in order.  Gravity is not limited or controlled by mass or density.  Instead, mass and density are controlled by gravity.  ZED shows that gravity can also be utilized in the absence of mass!  ZED concentrates the measurable effect of gravity in a smaller space.  It pushes down and gravity pulls down to generate an upward force.  The upward force has no real weight value.  This is key to the machine's ability to use gravity as a non-conservative field.  ZED utilizes the effects of virtual mass.  One mass can be reused, simultaneously, with gravity being captured or used multiple times in the same space at the same time, of course.

Additional improvements can be had by incorporating a hydro assist, which utilizes the lateral gravitational field.  This allows the ZED to transfer the Core Energy laterally, yielding creative entropy disruption.

Oh, and don't forget:  If you turn up gravity, the system works better.

There you have it, the Over Unity Diamond in all its glory!

Quote from: TinselKoala on October 25, 2012, 12:32:31 PM
However they don't work by affecting some "head" in the surrounding water level, and at least over the small height range of my experimental apparatus the pressure of the air and its volume trapped inside the riser doesn't change much if any either.

Start with your bottle of water on top of the cup.  Now RESTRAIN the cup (simulating the hydraulic capture system where a minimum pressure level must be overcome before stroke of the system can occur).  At this point pour the water from the bottle back into the jar.  You will see the head rise.  And therefore the buoyancy force increases. 

M.

I am supposing that the rotating green circle is a hydraulically driven electric generator.  This generator would be used to power the system electronics as well as possibly supplying the visual proof of an overunity device by illuminating a light bulb .  It would make sense also for the generator to supply a trickle charge to a battery.  This battery would serve as the "startup" supply for the electronic control systems (controller, electronic valves..etc).  Wayne or RSS - Would you please comment !!

Dave

Quote:
"Oh, and don't forget:  If you turn up gravity, the system works better."


or substitute H2O with a denser / hydrophobic fluid.

Quote from: mondrasek on October 25, 2012, 01:28:27 PM

Start with your bottle of water on top of the cup.  Now RESTRAIN the cup (simulating the hydraulic capture system where a minimum pressure level must be overcome before stroke of the system can occur).  At this point pour the water from the bottle back into the jar.  You will see the head rise.  And therefore the buoyancy force increases. 

M.

So? That momentary increased force acts over a correspondingly shortened distance. There's no mechanism for any extra sauce in there.
(The buoyant force also rises because you have effectively decreased the mass without changing the volume -- reduced the density -- of the floating cup by removing the water weight from atop the cup. It's a double whammy effect, but it still can't produce any kind of gain as far as I can tell.)