On Sat, 20 Oct 2007, Jones Beene wrote: > I find Bill's T-coil comparison enlightening ;-) but lacking (in the > sense of apples-to-oranges) wrt to the latest experiment -- where there > is NO, ZERO, NADA, signal... merely ground, or DrS's touch.
Ah, that's different! :) I totally missed any announcement that self-acting or "closed-loop" operation was achieved. Did a video mention it? Or a message here? All I saw was discussions of 12V power supply in early videos, but I didn't see any announcement that the device started running by itself. So that explains all the uproar about scoffer sneers, and about needing a Faraday shield. Running by itself *IS* closing the loop. All oscillators involve a feedback loop and a gain device or "amplifier" (i.e. an energy source.) And yes a Faraday shield does not need ground *IF* the entire circuit is inside, with no external connections at all. If the circuit needs a ground wire, then the Faraday cage won't provide much shielding unless it's connected to the ground wire too. If a circuit is electrically floating, then, depending on the e-field in which it floats, it can see the Earth as a signal generator. Still, the AM broadcast tower gives me the creeps. And there might be high-power microwave links involved with that transmitter installation. If I'd made such a breakthrough, the first thing I'd do is take the circuit to some other ground many miles away. If it kept working, then try other places too. If it always works, then... success! But if it stopped working, then I'd get myself a ground-stake so the circuit is portable, then take the circuit to various distances from the tower and see if its output is proportional to tower-to-circuit distance. Or maybe his entire lab is sitting in a low power microwave beam, and the circuit will stop working if moved very far at all. Where anomalous physics is concerned, I wouldn't trust shielding or calculations or ANYTHING. Maybe there's a mistake with the shielding, or maybe, while there's no anomalous energy source, yet physics is violated and RF from the AM tower is somehow getting into the circuit anyway. The frequency is different from AM broadcast, but maybe that's some odd effect which ends up letting the AM signal create different frequencies. To make TOTALLY SURE it's not somehow powered from the AM tower or other unknown high-power RF source, make sure it works with many ground points and not just the one in his lab. > > Not mention -- that he is now driving 20 LEDs with the > circuit. I bet he can hook a tiny "solar cell" motor in parallel with one or several LEDS and get it to spin. Stick a glob of scotch tape on the shaft so it's obvious for the videos. Radio Shack sells those (or at least they did recently.) > Catch-22 it is "cold electricity," whatever that is, > and yes it is certainly higher voltage - but > apparently only registers ~200 volts, zero current in > the circuit It's VERY hard to measure RF high-voltage in tiny circuits, since small devices give high impedance at high volts, and most probes short out the signal, giving very low readings. Connecting a measuring instrument can make everything stop working. You have to set up some kind of non-contact probe which senses the signal across an empty gap, then calibrate that probe to a signal of solidly-known lower voltage of the same frequency. > Unfortunately, all the negative insinuations (as opposed to replication > attempts) have driven Ron to pull the plug, so to speak, on public input > from him to the various forums which were discussing this. Heh. The unstated purpose of unmoderated forums is to let cowards deliver insults without any danger of physical violence. And also to allow participation in flamewars, of course. The purpose of vortex-L is to provide an option to public groups: a semi-hidden, moderated forum where scoffers are mostly excluded and flamewars are eventually extinguished. But if Ron doesn't like Vortex-L, he should go over to JLN Labs or another big frontier-science list. I STRONGLY suggest avoiding what's usually done: creating an invitation-only Yahoo list. History shows that this doesn't work, since it's basically the same as secrecy. Secrecy destroys frontier science. It's the kiss of death. (((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) ))))))))))))))))))) William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website billb at amasci com http://amasci.com EE/programmer/sci-exhibits amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair Seattle, WA 425-222-5066 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci
