Reply To: Focus Fusion Rail Gun

[Lerner]

Right–we have a Rogowksi coil built into the machine to monitor the current and it does indeed show the current oscillating at the same frequency as the voltage. Although all the grounds are connected, the Rogowski coil in grounded to the ‘scope while the high voltage probe is grounded to the support structure. The ratio of current to voltage oscillations and the frequency of the oscillations combine to give us evidence that the current is moving back and forth between the top and bottom transmission plates–they have the right inductance and capacitance for this. The energy is mostly radiated out the edges of the plates, creating a big RF noise source which we spent a long time shielding against the first year of FF-1’s existence.