Posts by me356

Things are going well,

I have ported my Arduino code to Raspberry Pi, it seems as good step. It is of course much faster even it is written in Python language now.
Any change can be done in few seconds.

Data processing from IR thermometer is working really well over USB. Thankfully my IR is able to power from the USB port so battery is not necessary at all there.

Today I will try to make new kanthal A1 heater. SiC element is on the way but it will take approx. 3 weeks.
All in all, SiC elements are quite expensive - approx $180 for one.

GlowFish: yes. Now it should be done with Pi.

I am really looking forward for more experiments! If Chinese scientist is right, then demands for the excess heat are not so high in terms of power supply.
It seems as it can be powered with anything, signal is not that important to get excess heat.
But correct signal can make SSM cycles longer and more efficient.

I should get SiC element soon. This should solve the heater problem completely.

Today I have received IR thermometer and started to play with it.
I am quite glad that I have bought it. It works exactly as I have wished.

Decoding the serial communication protocol was quite easy. I am now able to read the data stream with approx. 200ms latency.
I can get data from IR and thermocouple at the same time if needed so it is really good. Everything over USB without additional converters or amplifiers.

Now I will port Arduino code to Raspberry Pi so everything can be done there. Then Arduino will be not necessary anymore.

So in next experiment thermocouple failure will be eliminated.

I can still imagine very well that anybody can make a mistakes.
Even you are highly educated you are human. Even you are doing some things for whole life you can do it very incorrectly in some important moment.

Imagine you have found something extremely important for the world and now it is just on you to tell the truth. You can be in high stress or just euforia that in this situation you can't act normally.
If you are highly educated you know there are high expectation from you and your work so you want to make the report perfect. Without any possible doubt because you are perfectly sure about your work.
And here you can make mistakes to the extent that even childrens in elementary school can make better easily.

This stress and happines at the same time and other circumstances can make you really crazy.
For a true scientist it could be much more important than winning jackpot.

Especially if you are shiny and not prepared for so many interviews, etc it can ruin you.

You can configure emissivity so I guess there will be no problem.

There can be attached thermocouple as well so I can get two values for comparison too.

I hope I will build new fuel container that can be hermetically closed and will last in high temperatures as well.

I have some AISI 316 and AISI 316Ti on the way so we will see.

Thank you!

GlowFish: yes, this device has builtin CP210x chip that is very well supported in Raspberry and any other computer. Now I have to only decode the protocol by reverse engineering but this should be easy.

Thanks for your comments!

I am thinking about Pyrometer, something like this:
http://www.conrad-electronic.c…o-2200-C?ref=searchDetail

I think that it could eliminate any thermocouple issues. I have to check if this device allows continuous data stream to the PC so then it can be interfaced with my controller.
Then one major problem is eliminated while Parkhomov scheme may be still untouched.

UPDATE: it seems that the pyrometer is able to stream data in realtime. Whats more, it is using Serial interface so it can be connected directly to my Raspberry Pi. If this is true, then it is perfect. No more cables

Also I will get SiC element to play with that should handle approx. 1700°C continuously.

My idea is to build the simplest reactor with nearly no effort that will overcome all known failures and will allow longterm running. So I can get superior performance and nothing will block to play with fuel itself.

Fuel container should be constructed for 1400°C - at least it is written in its description.
So in this state it is very interesting.

Putting thermocouple in the central part of the heater or using pyrometer may be solution.

No, coil is not on the photos.
It was on another tube, very same as in Parkhomov experiment.

I dont know what it is, but in the photo it seems as part of the fuel was dried-on ceramic's crack.
Actually this material was on the heater tube too in the place where it cracked.

I am sure that stainless steel cover was only benefit for the experiment. I can't see any downside.
I am trying to do same things as Parkhomov did.

I have results of my last experiment.

1. there was no leak - approximately 0.5bar under atmospheric pressure was still there for few days until now!
2. reactor and heater tubes were cracked during experiment in unknown time.
3. local overheating by failing heater does not happened. Heater wire was perfectly wounded even after the test. Resistor wounds were equidistant across the heater. But there was oval burned mark 2x4cm on the heater with melted mass that literally disintegrated resistor wire so it was vaporized with quite sharp "cuts" as when it happened in one time.
4. fuel container was vaporized in central area while there was only small amount of the fuel inside. This leads me to believe that it leaked somehow in crack of the reactor tube. Pressure was still maintained because fuel container filled all the space exactly in alumina tube.
5. cracks were in vertical axis in the central part of the tube so it was easy to take it apart. Between heater and main tube there was sealing, this was also next reason why fuel does not leaked completely and pressure was under 1 bar.
6. fuel color and consistency is very different.

Here are photos: http://imgur.com/a/piX7b#0

Conclusion: reactor design was good and was able to survive much longer - maybe if the cracks does not happened.
Meltdown was not caused by arcs as the melted area is quite big. If so, then whole melted area must be conductive or there are extremely long arcs.

On the other hand, it is possible that normal resistor wire is needed for LENR.
It is likely that SiC elements can't produce similar EM field.

We don't know about Dr. Parkhomov too much. But I believe he is doing everything what is possible.
He is older and maybe there are even other problems - family, wife's tolerance.
I can imagine there are so many questions that he simply is not able to respond to all.

So maybe he is preparing next presentation with new results and better details. Slowly, but rather carefully.

Doing these experiments is very demanding with respect to time and he probably have more things to do.

Maybe we can't imagine how much time it costs him. Maybe he needs financial support. We don't know.
But we can be very thankfull at least for all the work he did.

Without thisit was not possible to even start with such replications.

I think that SiC element is step forward.
Replacing heating wire makes construction much easier.

I guess that a SiC element can even replace ceramic tube.

Tarun: actually there was fuel container exactly as Parkhomov described.
But there are more issues that can happen.

I am very curious what I will find in the reactor. I think that the fuel container disappeared.

Triac is powered with 120V over transformer. There was around 80V on the coil when it failed.

I am now 80% convinced that there was excess heat but it was not possible to measure it as the reaction is happening in a different place always.
Thermocouple was not mounted exactly at the center of the reactor.

From the previous run there was similar scenario where the fuel container looked like it was partially melted (only 1/3). So the temperature was significantly higher there too.
If there was excess heat then it mean that there was used fuel from the first run and it worked - same as Parkhomov reported.

So for the future it will be better to get at least good pyrometer or to make calorimetry test or to place more thermocouples around the reactor or to use materials that are conducting heat much better.

Here is last shot from the working reactor.
I turned light off as there was no reason to observe it anymore (from my point of view).
It is quite far from my office so I decided to turn light off and close the door (and go to bed).
Pressure was still around 0.5 - 0.8bar. Or atmospheric if meter failed.

Volume of dead space was roughly estimated to 600mm^3 or 0.6ml without manometer itself. So it could be even around 1ml.

My alumina cement was rated for 1500°C while ceramic tube for 1800°C. Melting point is surely higher so temperature there was quite high.