Has anyone tried adding DC power to the fusor in a low voltage range to boost power in the discharge, and then supplying only a small amount of power with the high voltage?
No particular reason except that I know that the fusion output is strongly dependant on the power levels in the plasma and wondered if it's necessary to supply all of the power at the higher voltage to get the neutrons. I'm not interested in reproducing work that has already been done, but I don’t recall anyone trying this.
I just got an early 70's MRI spectrometer power supply which I am rebuilding. It's a ramping, low voltage high current supply for charging the superconductor magnet +- 9volts at 100 amps with everything adjustable. It weighs 80 to 90 lbs.
I will be using the MRI supply for low temp superconductor instrument work if I can get it working. If anyone's interested I can post pictures as I go through the work. It probably needs all the electrolytics replaced as they are going on 40 years old. I removed the power transistor stack & will be testing them first. There's fifteen of them working in 5 groups in parallel. There's only 5 IC's of the old can type and one circuit board. It looks comparatively simple. It's still a stretch for me as I have done only a modest amount of troubleshooting on circuit boards. The Bozo's that shipped it to me packed it as if they wanted it to be shredded when it got to me.
If this is too far off topic Richard, and other folks, by all means I'll be happy to drop power supply part of the subject.
Don
Boosting Power with Low Voltage
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Donald McKinley
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Noah C Hoppis
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Re: Boosting Power with Low Voltage
Well if ypu were to directly connect your HV supply and LV supply to the grid there would be an electrical short resulting in the HV being pulled down to the LV supply voltage which would not be effective for producing D-D fusion (unless it was above ~30kV)> electrically what you asked to do was have the voltage take the path of most resistance.
"No missile ever flew before 10 pm"
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Chris Bradley
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Re: Boosting Power with Low Voltage
Really? Please can you give some more details of this and how you have arrived at this knowledge.Donald McKinley wrote:No particular reason except that I know that the fusion output is strongly dependant on the power levels in the plasma and wondered if it's necessary to supply all of the power at the higher voltage to get the neutrons.
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Donald McKinley
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Re: Boosting Power with Low Voltage
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Noah,
I suppose that in order to do something like this you would have to float the low voltage. There may be a number of other things necessary as well. Think vacuum diode triode etc. It's just a thought. I have other things that I will do with the supply before trying this.
Ouch Chris,
I wouldn't have suggested something to try if I knew in the beginning that it was ill conceived or impossible. I read your posts and do defer to your obviously greater expertise and experience. I was simply suggesting to divide the power input between different types of discharge to see if one affects the other to give a more efficient and/or stable yield. There may not be more than one way to skin this cat but it's fun to postulate different ways to try. Of course the vast majority of them will lead to failure.
on the...
>>>"fusion output strongly dependant on the power levels in the plasma"
Perhaps I'm laboring under a misapprehension. I was just trying to say only that I notice that the folks here report greater power consumption with conditions that produce more neutrons. I didn't mean to characterize even that it may be necessary or unnecessary or more efficient or less efficient. I know that the discharge is finiky and that people have to watch the performance closely to keep it on target.
cheers,
Don
Noah,
I suppose that in order to do something like this you would have to float the low voltage. There may be a number of other things necessary as well. Think vacuum diode triode etc. It's just a thought. I have other things that I will do with the supply before trying this.
Ouch Chris,
I wouldn't have suggested something to try if I knew in the beginning that it was ill conceived or impossible. I read your posts and do defer to your obviously greater expertise and experience. I was simply suggesting to divide the power input between different types of discharge to see if one affects the other to give a more efficient and/or stable yield. There may not be more than one way to skin this cat but it's fun to postulate different ways to try. Of course the vast majority of them will lead to failure.
on the...
>>>"fusion output strongly dependant on the power levels in the plasma"
Perhaps I'm laboring under a misapprehension. I was just trying to say only that I notice that the folks here report greater power consumption with conditions that produce more neutrons. I didn't mean to characterize even that it may be necessary or unnecessary or more efficient or less efficient. I know that the discharge is finiky and that people have to watch the performance closely to keep it on target.
cheers,
Don
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Chris Bradley
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Re: Boosting Power with Low Voltage
The issues boil down to the impedance of the plasma, which changes through several transient stages. No glow discharge and the impedance is high, so high volts for little current. Get a breakdown and it may rush right to the other end of the glow discharge regime, volts are pulled low with drawing much current. What you really want to aim for is a well regulated setting with good flow control and use of resistive ballasting which will allow you to gently adjust your way down into firstly a gentle corona discharge around the cathode, still high volts and microamps, then slowly build the pressure whilst maintaining the highest voltage. You will get maximum neutrons where you have successfully held a high stable voltage and where the pressure has been built to the highest level such that your current is at its maximum, i.e. high power, but high volts.
That being said, there are anecdotes and, indeed, arguably evidence that shows you can get more efficiency (as we're ultimately talking about efficiency rather than rate) when you create controlled fluctuations in the voltage/current. By transiently entering glow discharge you can tinker around the edge of both high volts and currents without necessarily having either at any one time. In a way, this, then, is a route by which you might want to start considering how to modulate the input power, because that doesn't sound to me like a bad way to go about doing something new. You might do this by creating resonant conditions, perhaps where you get the voltage and current out of phase so the input power is lower but still achieves a net result, or spike/transient conditions where you momentarily load the plasma with a much higher voltage than you'd otherwise be able to sustain in 'steady-state'. Maybe a mix of both could be done.
So an indirect answer to your question is that you might want to look at conditions varying away from the usual 'steady-state' conditions most folks aim for. I am aware Doug C. has been experimenting with modulated inputs and is reporting positive progress in this regard.
That being said, there are anecdotes and, indeed, arguably evidence that shows you can get more efficiency (as we're ultimately talking about efficiency rather than rate) when you create controlled fluctuations in the voltage/current. By transiently entering glow discharge you can tinker around the edge of both high volts and currents without necessarily having either at any one time. In a way, this, then, is a route by which you might want to start considering how to modulate the input power, because that doesn't sound to me like a bad way to go about doing something new. You might do this by creating resonant conditions, perhaps where you get the voltage and current out of phase so the input power is lower but still achieves a net result, or spike/transient conditions where you momentarily load the plasma with a much higher voltage than you'd otherwise be able to sustain in 'steady-state'. Maybe a mix of both could be done.
So an indirect answer to your question is that you might want to look at conditions varying away from the usual 'steady-state' conditions most folks aim for. I am aware Doug C. has been experimenting with modulated inputs and is reporting positive progress in this regard.