So far it looks like there were several different generations of the buggy:
Generation 1, 1984 This generation was (I believe) only capable of idling the buggy. It consisted of the demo tube cell with the alternator and electric motor turning the alternator. The electric motor was plugged directly into the house mains. -Reference News Release # 1, Grove City Record
Generation 2, 1985 This generation was used to show to the military and was shown on Channel 6 News from Columbus Ohio. This generation was used for the first buggy road test and produced enough gas to run the dune buggy up to 55mph. It used a different WFC placed in a large container with a manual valve to control the engine speed. This generation used the redline inverter, the ac motor and the alternator as well as a large box containing electronics controls (Likely a modified 8XA circuit as one can see a variac mounted on the box) -Reference News Release # 2 and Channel 6 Columbus News Report
Generation 3, 1988 This generation used a WFC that was housed inside the water tank (and outside at times) as well as the hydrogen gas injectors and the Hydrogen Gas Management System (GMS). During this time many new components were introduced such as: the Gas Processor, The Laser Distributor, The Laser Accelerator, The electrostatic water filter, The differential solenoids, The exhaust regulator, and a new VIC which did not use the autotransformer and alternator. -Reference It runs on water documentary, Tech Brief Memo 422, Wo patent Control and Driver Circuits
Generation 4, 1992 This generation used the Water Fuel Injectors. Also the GMS unit was replaced with the Water Fuel Management System. The VIC was replaced with the Injector VIC (1 per injector). -Reference Stan Meyer 1992 interview, Tech Brief Memo 423 & 425
If you have any more information on any of these generations please post what the info is and on what generation. Hope this helps us all to learn more about Stan's tech:)
He actually did say he had the most comprehensive report on hydrogen from NASA, and he said it listed 3 criteria keeping hydrogen from becoming a viable fuel.
Has anyone here been able to find the Report on Hydrogen by NASA that Stan talks about in his lectures? The one which lists the 3 problems with hydrogen: -How to produce the gas on demand -How to control the rate of production -How to reduce the flame speed
I have searched all over but have not found that report....Probably came out in the 1950s-1960s I'm guessing.
Just wanted to share that I was able to get the pulse doubling effect using my 5 coil VIC and VIC driver. Although I am getting the doubling it's not exactly as Meyer's shows. The problem I am having is the pulse lengths on the secondary side of the circuit are much shorter than the primary pulse lengths. So the doubled pulses are not meshing together as they should. I think this is due to the impedances not being matched and too little current flowing through the circuit.
What is interesting to see though is the pulse doubling reduces the capacitors voltage drop between pulses. When the double frequency pulses mesh together as intended the capacitor voltage drop between pulses is minimized. This allows the cap to charge to a high voltage will the least loss in the shortest amount of time.
I have a 5 coil VIC which is built very near to original specs. I am not including the core material as I want to do further testing on it. The bobbin assembly is made from printed plastic and includes all 4 pieces.
Primary coil is 550 Turns 12.5 Ohms Secondary coil 3000 Turns 74.4 Ohms Choke L1 3000 Turns 73.5 Ohms Choke L2 3000 Turns 74.9 Ohms Feedback coil 500 Turns 11.4 Ohms All coils are 30AWG heavy build magnet wire
The plastic bobbins cost me $25, Wire cost about 30, and it took me about 10 hours to wind. I will let it go for 65 OBO with shipping included and I will also include a 600V diode. If anyone is interested please let me know via PM (private message).
The only reason why I am selling is that I have not found resonance yet. I am going to try different winding configurations. Rather than remove that wire and trash it I have 2 other bobbins that I am going to wind on.
UPDATE Jun 30-I still have the VIC if anyone is interested PM me.
It seems to me the SM has 3 coils. Primary, secondary, pulse pickup. The pulse pickup coil is used witht the PLL circuit to detect and lock on to the self resonance of the secondary coil. At the secondary coils self resonance it becomes a parallel tank circuit which has a nearly infinite impedance. Rectify the output since the parallel tank creates AC (rectifiers shown at each switching transistor on the home heating unit) and switch the transistors at high speed to change the polarity across the tubes and you heat the water in the same fashion as a microwave.
There's probably more to it than that, as we have discovered about most of Meyer's work but for now that's my understanding.....
That waveform is exactly what I'm seeing in my multisim designs as well. If you remove those high ohm resistors the waveform will become more square. But you probably need a higher secondary inductance to limit the current in a way which does not dissipate so much power and mess up the waveform.
The last thing I am trying to understand is if the steam resonator tubes were part of an open circuit or a closed circuit. A transformer will still provide voltage in an open circuit. One of Meyer's drawings shows the tubes connected to ground making a complete circuit so I'm not sure. Or does the water act as a ground?
Everyone who has studied Meyer also knows of Andrija Puharich.
Their circuits are nearly identical. But the explanations are not.
(See attached P1) Puharich shows a circuit which is identical to Meyer's except there is no diode. In Puharich's patent as well as his video lecture he explains the system as AC electrolysis.
(See Attached SM1) Meyer's circuit shows a pulsed DC input and a diode. All of Meyer's documents show that the capacitor is charged to a high voltage at resonance. Meyer's documents seem to explain DC resonant charging, but in DC resonant charging the voltage across the capacitor only reaches 2x the supply voltage.
What is also interesting is that both the Water Capacitor and the diode are non linear loads. Study of non linear loads reveals that they generate harmonics which can extend to very high frequencies.
Also, when you input a square wave into the equivalent circuit of an inductor (Parallel tank) you will get an Amplitude modulated AC waveform. (See OS1 Attached)
Puharich also shows an AM AC wave appearing across the water cell ( See P2 attached)
It is hard to ignore the similarities between the two inventors circuits. One major difference in Puharich claims efficiencies between 80-100% while Meyer claimes over 100%.
Everyone who has replicated Meyer has got an AC or an AM AC signal across the cell but produced no gas. So what do you guys think.....Is the signal across the cell supposed to be AC? What function might harmonics perform in this circuit?
I think that's because it's like what Steve Meyer said "It's a tuned system". If a single one of the many different parameters of the circuit are not correct it will not work....At least for the VIC and resonant cavity....Not sure if the steam resonator is the same. The use of the driving circuitry of the steam resonator coil being identical to the resonant cavity driving circuitry seems to suggest it.
BTW I think you are right about the coil...There is an aftermarket power supply (note pic below on the right side) attached to the home heating unit which runs off of +24V.
I have also noticed Meyer stated the primary and secondary coils are bifilar wrapped equal in length, but he also states in the same TB section that the voltage is directly related to the turns ratio "Voltage intensity is directly related to the number of turns of each coil..." (TB p11-3).
Attached is a multisim replication of the crossover circuit. As you can see it's similiar to an H bridge circuit. R5 represents the steam resonator....Please note that the values of the resistances and transistors are not correct. I have been changing values to see the different effects and take measurements. The waveform shows the polarity switching. When transistors Q1 and Q3 are switched on the polarity across R5 will be in one direction, when transistors Q2 and Q4 are switched on the polarity will reverse. As you can also see there is a brief period between polarity switching. This is also shown in the Tech Brief.
In the waveform a DC voltage was applied across the circuit. When a coil is used the coil can be pulsed faster than the switching and then the waveform will represent what is shown in the tech brief.
(Sorry to keep editing, I'm sick today and can't think straight)
Thanks for the input, the more sides we look at this the better we will all understand it....
I'm still contemplating if resonance was used in the steam resonator circuit? Looking at the home heating unit each switching transistor had a diode which would prevent any series resonance. Also, the steam resonator tubes do not act as a capacitor. If there is resonance it would have to be one of the coils resonating.
Note that in the buggy steam res VIC there were several high watt resistors. I think they were used to limit current but also protect the transistors in case the switching overlapped. The home heating unit used a huge core. Look at how thick the laminations were built up to! This was made for some serious inductance. Imo the inductive reactance of the coil performs current limiting. From my studies I think the circuit is similiar to the VIC, only without a negative choke.
Meyer states in a News Release that the steam resonator is an offshoot of the VIC....In all the diagrams and explanations in the TB resonance is not mentioned. One might think that the term 'resonator' implies resonance but that is a different kind of resonance. When referring to resonant cavities or waveguides the resonance is not the same thing as resonance within a circuit.
Waterfreak...
I should have actually called it the switching circuit, not the driving circuit. I designed a switching circuit on multisim which is very basic. It consists of a 555, a counter, and an RS flip flop to turn on and off the polarity switching transistors. Anyone who knows electronics can easily design something similiar.
And the plastic tape between the windings, that's no secret. It's just insulation for the coils. It's common in most transformers. Likely kapton tape or something similiar.
UPDATE: Just got a PM from Don after asking him about the VIC card for the steam resonator. Don said the card was identical to the other VIC cards. So resonance was used in the Steam Resonator. This brings up more questions??? With the microcontroller used in the home heating unit it may also have used resonance....
waterfreak, How were you able to find out they were 220 Ohm resistors?
Also, The H bridge is the same conclusion TonyW and I have accepted after he mentioned it a while back. It is also why I am confused that stan didn't just use use a push pull circuit at the primary coil? Also, each Steam Resonator coil has at least 3 seperate coils. It looks like 1 primary and 2 secondary coils. The plates of the steam resonator do not form a capacitor, they are merely plates in the water in which the current flows through along with the voltage wave. I already have the driving circuit down and wokring, I am currently trying to find a coil which I think could perform the operation of the steam resonator. I think the coil is about the same as the VIC only without the negative choke.
The push-pull circuits I'm referring to are made from NPN and PNP transistors and are simple circuits. They have been around since before then. They are very similiar to Meyer's crossover circuit except they are placed on the primary side of the transformer.
From the measurements I have taken I have determined the core used on the buggy steam resonator is an E65 Ferrite core, not sure which type of ferrite yet. The primary wire is 18AWG, while the secondary coils are 22AWG.
The high watt resistors suggest that there is not a whole lot of power used in this circuit, maybe 5 or 10W. I'm not sure of the watt rating of those resistors but if they are 5W then the max current at 80V would be about 62mA. If they are 10W resistors then we are looking at 125mA.
Looking at the PNP and NPN transistor configuration I can't help but wonder why Meyer didn't just use a push pull driver on the primary coil to achieve the polarity switching?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure those numbers are for the Injector VIC coil. There's lots of good info in the appendix section of the TB.
Back to that injector VIC.....
Transformers are typically made so that no empty space exists (wire completly fills all the cavities/bobbins)
I calculated what the turns ratio would be if each cavity were completly filled.
Result: 400 turn primary, secondary coils (secondary + chokes) came up to 11,956 turns. (chokes completly filled cavities and turned out to 11.6K Ohms ea) Turns ratio 1:29.89 12V input 358V out Note that these calculations will not be exact in the real world, but they shoudl be fairly close.
I think the injector VIC used a lower frequency gate pulse to allow the voltage to build up higher (Up to 40kV) Or this VIC operated as a flyback: Voltage comes from fast rate of current change from square wave