First Powder Experiment - RF Voltage UPDATE #1: Sometimes Delays are Good

The day is finally here! Almost. 

Next week we'll initiate the first of our many powder experiments planned, the RF Voltage experiment. 

We'll be using reactor 3 from our previous powder investigation; this guy is unique in that we aren't using Ni NANOpowder but  more like MICROpowder - it's filled with Ni 255 with averages ~2+ μm clusters. The Ni also has some company as we blended it with 10% by wt Barium Titanate (BaTiO3). This powder is piezoelectric, meaning it will flex and deform in the presence of an electric field. With these noise-makers surrounded by Ni particles, an AC voltage across the bulk may make for some exciting data. 

I have a few puzzling questions and would like to sample your knowledge, if I may. We can better tailor the experiment and even save some time if we can sort out what's what in R3. 

-When we originally assembled this reactor, it was baked out at high temperatures (~300°C) not knowing then that the BaTiO3 had a Curie Temp of 120°C. If we heated past the Curie point, will it permanently lose it's piezoelectric properties or just while the material is above that temperature? We did not bake out the cell when we vacuumed it this time around in order to avoid any potential for further damage to the barium powder.

-What frequencies should we try? Or what frequencies interest you the most? The RF generator we have on the cell can reach 2MHz. We realize this won't cause significant resonance in the Ni lattice, but will cause larger vibrations in the powder from the barium titanate, assuming it still works! 

-How long should we apply these frequencies to the powder? 

-Do you think the bulk vibrations will have any effect on loading? If so, we might apply the voltage during H2 loading to investigate any initial effects or faster loading rates that can be observed. 

-Any other concerns or input?

We need to put LENR1 (the computer hosting the reef experimets) on our server, and will have this experiment hooked up and ready to begin H2 charging next week. 

I also updated the Reef Doc with links to the experiment's protocol at the top as well as the experimental log for all powder experiments. I intend to have all the powder experiments centralized in this document when they begin.

Thanks for reading!

Update #1: Sometimes Delays are Good

Here's a thorough rundown of the past couple of days. . .

Since the last post we've gotten R3 installed in the H2 manifold on the powder reef and have encountered several problems. The first HUGnet board for the temp and pressure sensors malfunctioned, which had taken us all of the morning to conclude. It's a rare occasion that we find fault in the boards. 

We then tested a new software release that had better-tuned output processes only to find there was a ground loop in the wiring. Even after we had fixed that issue, the levelholder process had a few bugs in it. This gave us some time to take a step back and look at our power wiring. 

These are the old-school power shunts we'd been using for the powder reactors. The thick black and red wires connect the power supply and the band heater, which is bridged by the 4 cat5 wires in blue/white and green/white twist across 10 parallel 1 Ohm resistors. This old design used all these cat5 wires, which consumed half a HUGnet board with 4 pins needed for differential inputs. The 10 parallel resistors were also hand-soldered and quite bulky, visible beneath the black shrink wrap. It was time for a change, and we had the time to do it. 

This new setup shares a common ground across 4 different power supplies. This allows us to free up the boards to use single-ended inputs for both the voltage (blue) and current (green) readings. We've upgraded the sense circuitry to consume 1 board for 4 power supplies instead of half a board for 1 power supply. And the new perforated board with power headers and single-resistor shunts is pretty sleek. This gave us several advantages. 

First it saves us a lot of room with a far more condensed and centralized design. We can fit slim wires in the conduit and align four power supplies on the same DIN rail with the shunts and HUGnet board. No more bulky shunts muddling the reef! 

It is also easy to visualize the organization of the power supplies to the reactor heaters as the power sits directly beneath their accompanying reactor. All around we've seen many inclusive advantages that better organize and simplify the reef's construction. The old dogs have adapted to some new tricks. 

With that out of the way we can now focus on the specifics in applying the RF voltage. I'll be updating the protocol with some more details soon, taking into consideration the outstanding feedback this post is getting.