Bob Greenyer of MFMP just posted this image of Rossi's lab with 3 hotCats being tested and I put it on my Google drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5Pc25a4cOM2U3FIWmpCMnlZaFE/view?usp=sharing A wealth of information can be gleaned from this: - Rossi is testing 3 hotCats simultaneously. - Each hotCat is connected with 2-wires only - Each IS CONNECTED SINGLE PHASE! This probably means that the hotCat only relies on heat-up, not magnetic field interaction - certainly not rotating field interaction. - The gray box has 3 thermocouple connections with one going to each hotCat - The gray box controller is controlling the energy to all 3 hotCats via the red 3-phase SCR controller in such a way as to control the temperature of each hotCat independently. - This gray box controller is designed to control each hotCat solely based on 1 temperature measurement per hotCat. The temperature controllers mounted on the gray box are probably each controlling the setpoint of each hotCat (I.E. they are not being used just as temperature meters). A microcontroller in the gray box may read each meter (RS232) and then sets the SCR angle for that phase to control the power to each hotCat. - The red SCR box may be configured for delta SCR configuration for easy control of the individual hotCats, in which case a microprocessor would not be needed. Each of the little PID temperature controller panel meters could directly control the corresponding SCR in the delta phase configuration. Even if the red box had y-configured SCRs, they probably could be controlled with the panel temperature controllers with simple logic. - Replication need not use a 3-phase heater coil inside the hotCat because there is no need to simulate an industrial environment. Replication just got easier. Basically each hotCat is just a small temperature regulated mini-tube furnace. It would be possible to design the replica to operate on ordinary US 120VAC, even with a 15A outlet using a triac dimmer with an inexpensive PID temperature controller from eBay. Bob Higgins
