[NewCandle] SEC

[Jones Beene]

Nick

> Now I see that most of the fellows doing this work
> have come to use a simple AM radio ferrite antenna
> stick.  Does this mean that the exotic necessities for
> special ferrite are now moot?  What exactly IS AM
> radio ferrite compositionally - is it a barium
> ferrite?

No. It is just a standard antenna ferrite, and although cheap and 
accessible, the ones from eBay are not necessary.

The major gain, if there is any, is not in the inductor per se, it 
seems, but IMHO is in the combination of a chain of series negative 
resistance devices in combination with any ringing inductor in a 
feedback arrangement.

I have input from others who do not post there- indicating that even an 
air core coil works, as does an amplifier toroid, as does an iron bar. 
You need high-Q for a long "ring", and there is a technique to get this 
with air cores but as a practical matter, it is easier if you can 
cannibalize an old radio to get the loopstick, or try toroids- 
especially if you have an HF powdered-iron toroid lying around.

Two things seem important - a resonance 'ring' in the range of 1.5 MHz 
to 20 MHz and a voltage at the "plug" which ends up being over 100 
volts. At high brightness they will show a voltage drop of 3 volts so 
that when 150 are being powered for instance, there is an "effective" 
voltage of 450 v. and the failure rate is high. For this reason a few 
builders have gone to neons - NE-2 bulbs which are far less bright, but 
are the ones which seem to indicate a small weight loss in operation.

Myself and a local associate, who has weekend access to a nice lab, are 
moving on to neons and looking for weight loss which can be documented. 
We burned out most of the LEDs without making much of an advance there. 
I would be heading there now if our new neons had come in yesterday.

The voltage rise is curious, since for instance, with a 9 volt in a 4-1 
turns ratio - you can end up with 125 volts in operation, instead of the 
expected 36 due to 'resonant rise' which occurs in the feedback.

It helps to have two isolated circuits which have resonant harmonics. It 
might help to have these in whole number ratios, like 4-1 or 8-1 but 
that is not necessary. Many things work and the hunt is on to find what 
works the best. Litz wire works better than magnet wire.

The whole thing is hands-on *trial and error* and that is why you find 
interesting and off-beat results coming from untrained experimenters who 
are just tinkering with parts, basically.


> I also see that the large clusters of LEDs being lit
> are primarily in series.  

Absolutely, although if the voltage is high enough, complex arrangements 
are possible. The LEDs are RF driven and the current can be minuscule. 
This leads to the suggestion that the "effective" current comes from the 
LEDs themselves in a negative resistance range and that the thing is 
basically "voltage-driven."

When in the SEC range (spatial coherence), the lower the current from 
the battery, the brighter the LEDs become !

> This is an interesting clue
> in more ways than the obvious.  I recall Seike used to
> go on about semiconductor coils, and indeed, some of
> the oddball long lived arrays Sam Faile used to see
> were huge series strings of LEDs matched to a high
> voltage.  

YUP !! you need to stress them just below failure! This can be expensive.

> He even ran a string from a foil capacitive
> pickup near a plasma globe!
> 
> Very interesting - thanks again!

Let us know your progress.

As you notice from that site, there is putative OU in the COP=1.5 range 
with long life for the LEDs, using apparently decent measurements, and 
now comes the interesting part - figuring out what to do with it. 
Independent testing has been arranged to confirm the thermal balance. I 
have seen reports of up to COP=5 with a high failure rate. There are 
reports of self-powering for short periods.

We have never even been able to get a precision resistor in the plug to 
measure without quenching things - but every circuit can be a little 
different, and the light output is simply amazing wrt to the P-in. But 
that means not very little. (unless you are in the lighting industry)

If you are looking for an anti-gravity effect here is a recommendation.

Using about 40-50 NE-2 bulbs, alternating with tunnel diodes, build a 
very lightweight board containing just the neons+diodes, and with the 
heavier inductor core and oscillator, etc on a separate board - with 
insulated wire lead between the two, so that only the neons are put on 
the scale - and the other circuitry can be partially shielded so as not 
to interfere as much with the digital scale circuitry. We are waiting 
for a large supply of "special" NE-2 bulbs now (high in argon) and 
things are moving way too slowly, given the results which are coming in 
elsewhere.

Jones