Testing the TK Tar Baby

[TinselKoala]

Perhaps PW isn't being explicit enough about the dangers of liquid electrolyte, not sealed, LA batteries.

1)They are full of sulfuric acid. Their cases are vented to avoid internal pressure buildup. This means that you will have sulfuric acid vapor, even in small quantities, whenever you have these batteries.
2) Sulfuric acid vapor, and oscilloscope controls, and other controls, like switch contacts, potentiometers, and so on do not belong in the same air. The controls WILL be corroded by the vapor even if it is in dilute concentrations. In the presence of water vapor as well... it gets even worse.
3) Liquid electrolyte LA batteries give off HYDROGEN GAS when they are being charged. Pull off a cap and look into the electrolyte when charging. See those little bubbles?
4) Hydrogen gas in air is extremely EXPLOSIVE. Hooking up capacitors to batteries creates SPARKS if you do not know how to do it properly. SPARKS and an EXPLOSIVE GAS MIXTURE.... will void your warranty.

[TinselKoala]

Just so she knows, the reason electrolytic capacitors are being discouraged is that they can often have a lot of internal inductance.

Capacitors, essentially being two flat conductors laying side by side with a dielectric in between and stacked or coiled up, can have a large amount of internal inductance by nature of their physical construction.  At high frequencies this internal inductance can add reactance to the capacitor causing it to no longer act like a true capacitor.

If the capacitor she selected is in a very large package, i.e., larger than 20mm by 45mm, it is likely to be a large electrolytic that can have a lot of internal inductance and a high ESR.  The reason .99 specified the film cap that he did is because the data sheet states that it has a low inductance (athough no values are given).

The newer low ESR (equivalent series resistance) electrolytic capacitors typically used for switching supplies and rail decoupling in computers are fairly low in inductance.

A 10uF 35 volt capacitor of this type would only be 10mm by 15mm or so in size.  To eliminate the effects of any small inuctance that is inherent within the 10uF cap, a smaller value, very low inductance type capacitor such as a .1uF ceramic is parallel connected across the 10uF cap.  This allows a capacitor with only a "low" inductance to act as a "very low" inductance capacitor.

The capacitor she "selected", in contradiction to .99's clear and repeated advice and explanation, is specified thusly:

We have sourced a cap 708 - 890 micro farads - ac - voltage 330 - 275 volts at R150.00 - which is sort of doable.

150 Rand is almost 19 dollars US. Does this sound like a small, low ESR electrolytic to you?

[Magluvin]

Perhaps PW isn't being explicit enough about the dangers of liquid electrolyte, not sealed, LA batteries.

1)They are full of sulfuric acid. Their cases are vented to avoid internal pressure buildup. This means that you will have sulfuric acid vapor, even in small quantities, whenever you have these batteries.
2) Sulfuric acid vapor, and oscilloscope controls, and other controls, like switch contacts, potentiometers, and so on do not belong in the same air. The controls WILL be corroded by the vapor even if it is in dilute concentrations. In the presence of water vapor as well... it gets even worse.
3) Liquid electrolyte LA batteries give off HYDROGEN GAS when they are being charged. Pull off a cap and look into the electrolyte when charging. See those little bubbles?
4) Hydrogen gas in air is extremely EXPLOSIVE. Hooking up capacitors to batteries creates SPARKS if you do not know how to do it properly. SPARKS and an EXPLOSIVE GAS MIXTURE.... will void your warranty.

Sealed LA are not quite sealed.  If you over charge them they whistle. Like a quick high to low whistle.  So they must be vented under those thin caps on top. I dont know if during a proper charging if they release Hydrogen, and what ever else. Took me a while to figure out where the whistle was coming from . ;]  At first, I thought it was my refrigerator going bad. It happened randomly and was short, so it was a bit before I identified the source of the sound.

Mags

[TinselKoala]

@Fuzzy: you are right about replications. That's why I think that the COP>17 replicators _must_ use the exact circuit Ainslie published, since it hasn't been corrected or updated by her in any official manner. That means the published 555 timer part as well... exactly as published by Ainslie. Otherwise... they are doing something other than a replication, aren't they? Like gmeast.... he's embarked on some kind of journey for sure, discovering for himself the inconsistencies in Ainslie's story... but he's not doing a replication, is he, since he's using a different circuit, a different timing source, a different configuration of load resistor..... ?

And in the present case.... I think Ainslie should use THE ORIGINAL silver-calcium LA batteries that she used for the initial experiments and demonstration from last year. After all.... they are all still FULLY CHARGED, aren't they? So she should not be allowed to even charge them, before starting this current set of tests.

What happened to those batteries, anyway? I thought they were donated to her. Where are they now?

[MileHigh]

Considering the dangers involved in working with batteries, I retract my statements made about it being appropriate poetic justice for Rosemary to do her testing alone.  She needs someone to help her.

The problem with her remains of course, she is daffy and daft when it comes to electronics.  It's the old cliche.  If you don't know how to cook, you would not dream about being the senior chef responsible for the haute cusine in a fancy French restaurant.  But, if you don't know anything about electronics, that doesn't matter and nothing can stop you from discovering free energy.