Capacitor bank trigger challenge

[Rezwan]

Brian H wrote: That sounds like a screwy system!
I’ve seen ones where two switches in the same position = on, and in different positions = off. In that instance, you just throw the switch whichever way is available if you want to change the luminescent state of the light. Of course, if you want, you could get confused by that. But it takes effort.

Your electrician may vary.

I once drove on the left. Cape Town. Oh! And another time in Tokyo. In Cape Town, there was a zebra crossing – for real! No, I jest, but you could see a bunch off the highway. Wait a minute, was tokyo left side? I believe it was.

It’s not that hard to make the switch – the hardest part is shifting gears with the left hand. Manual cars. But once you do it, your brain adjusts. Like being in mirror world. Parallel parking was surreal. At least it’s not like Iran with a ditch by the side of every road. Miss it and you fall in.

OK, so the conversation has shifted far from capacitors. No worry I guess. The guys have decided it’s mostly a conditioning issue and have been firing repeatedly to condition. By last night it was down to 4 capacitors that are still holding out.

[Phil’s Dad]

Brian H wrote:

I did once. Took a right turn into the wrong lane of a duel carriageway in Florida. It got uncomfortable very quickly.

Whose? Her Britannic Majesty’s.

A carriageway would be a highway, I presume?!? But a duel one sounds kind of combative; pistols en passant? At dawn? :gulp: Of course, in Florida or Texas, that’s quite possible, I s’pose …

Dual of course, the duel bit was a typo which fit the circumstances nicely. :red:

[jjohnson]

Brian H – re EESTOR ultra-caps (UC). I’ve been following the past year and also the EESTORblog and bariumtitanate.com. They seem to be quietly but steadily progressing toward a salable product. At least Lockheed Martin and ZENN motorcars hope so, having bought in and are planning to use it as soon as (if) the technology becomes available. The best part about UC technology is that they are capable of fast charge/discharge rates, suitable for braking energy recovery, say, or electric grid leveling, or…focus fusion surge leveling and storage and discharge to grid. A stry here, today http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/energy/24405/ shows DOE giving the nod toward Li-Sulfur batteries. I do wonder what happens to a car powered by anything lithium has a wreck and crashes into one of those pools of standing water often found near roadways. EESTOR seem to like the business notion of partnering with an industry which will license, buy or invest in their startup technology and products early on, and will hold discussions with firms such as FocusFusion if it might look promising to their business model. So far as I know, EESTOR are totally private, not wanting to feed the government hand that always bites innovative people. Excellent choice, in my book! THere was a runor that NASA had asked to buy some product to “evaluate” but the idea seems to have died a natural death with denials all around. Of course an agency like NASA would be interested in this tachnology – they have been funding research into it and publishing about it in their magazine TechnologyBriefs since 2000, but they are not the ones to commercialize on it. Unlike the horde of bloggers who think it is another scam, I see it as a steady, persistent piece of work to acquire the necessary patents, to develop the technology and the lab certification milestones and the production processes and control technologies to make this work. The Owners are men who have been in the technology business for a long time, with relevant experience. I hope Lerner invites them for tea and a look at his idea, and that they might talk turkey. It is almost Thanksgiving in the U.S., after all. Another, farther away firm is Graphene, who are trying to position their carbon nanotubules as ultracap material.

Compared to lithium availability and worldwide supply, there is far more readily available material for barium titanate, EESTOR’s choice, and it seems to involve a more green extraction and production process than lithium, and doesn’t react badly with water, and on and on.

Jim

[Tulse]

I’ve been following EESTOR for a while, but at this point I’m somewhat skeptical, as they seem to make a lot of claims without any real product. Perhaps I’m just being cynical, however (I’ve also followed Moller because I want my goddamned flying car already, but that’s also seen years and years without anything concrete).

[jjohnson]

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Americans rush too much, and demand things too cheaply and right now. Like our politicians, who operate on binary time. Phase1 – Right Now. Phase 2 – Next Election. Phase 2 also constitutes their event horizon, beyond which they cannot and will not plan.
The jury is still out on EESTOR, of course. I am hoping for things like EESTOR and FocusFusion and good solar to work, because we will not control our population on this planet, and we are not willing to even discuss that option. I am not on a soapbox for them, but am skeptically willing to give them the benefit of the doubt unless they can’t produce. (Like Stoern, in Ireland. Nothing yet, and not likely, mate!

On the flying cars (being an ex AF pilot): Our air traffic control system has its hands full right now just controlling what they have in the way of veteran commercial pilots all the way down to general aviation, plus military flights. Do YOU want to get up in the air with the same drunk drivers who kill 35,000 people every year? I don’t think so, thank you. Homeland Security would probably nix a flying car in every garage too, as just not supervisable or defensible. Sounds good; works bad. Average people (i.e. everybody else) simply are not responsible enough and likely do not have sufficient skills any sense of responsibility and initiative to actually operate a flight vehicle safely with tens of millions of other people in the airspace over and around cities. I love reading science fiction. I can relax and suspend reality and disbelief. Flying cars are great in Jack McDevitt’s books, not in LA or Toronto or Tokyo.

Cheers!

Jim

[Brian H]

Rezwan wrote:

…
Parallel parking was surreal. At least it’s not like Iran with a ditch by the side of every road. Miss it and you fall in.

OK, so the conversation has shifted far from capacitors.
…

There’s a simple trick an ex-pro delivery guy taught me, and with it I can park any size car (or medium truck) in one step, without practice.
1. Align with the car ahead of the space about 1 -1½ yds/meters away and slightly behind you.
2. Edge straight back until your front wheels are even with its front wheels.
3. Cut hard into the space while continuing to move backwards.
4. When your front wheels are even with its rear wheels, cut back hard the other way while continuing to move.
5. Don’t get nervous when the nose of your car misses the tail of his by about 4″.
6. Arrive perfectly positioned on the curb.
7. If facing uphill, or level, you’re DONE*.
8. If facing downhill, edge back and forth just enough to turn your front wheels into the curb.

*DONE.

Works with teeny subcompacts and massive ’70s road cruisers alike.

I’ve never tried it with a right-hand drive car, but the physics are the same. I HAVE parked on the left side of a street, though. It’s actually easier since you can see the wheels directly. The algorithm still works the same.

[Brian H]

Tulse wrote: I’ve been following EESTOR for a while, but at this point I’m somewhat skeptical, as they seem to make a lot of claims without any real product. Perhaps I’m just being cynical, however (I’ve also followed Moller because I want my goddamned flying car already, but that’s also seen years and years without anything concrete).

Yeah, Zenn was supposed to be on the road a couple of years ago, as I recall.
I doubt they’ve solved the energy density thing. The physics is harsh, I gather, for attempts to hold charges beyond a certain size stable. They bring out the quantum sappers and start tunnelling around to see what they can blow up.

I don’t see any relevance to FF. The cycle rate of current capacitors is way beyond anything the rest of the rig could handle.

As for your flying cars, Elon Musk has already set his subconscious to work on the next project after he gets TeslaMotors and SpaceX operational: VTOL sub-orbital electric-powered aircraft.

But would you trust your life to other drivers of flying cars, if they weren’t so computer-locked in flight paths that they couldn’t swerve or dive into you? And you into them? And should I trust you or them to fly over my house? Sez who?

[Brian H]

jjohnson wrote: Rome wasn’t built in a day. Americans rush too much, and demand things too cheaply and right now. Like our politicians, who operate on binary time. Phase1 – Right Now. Phase 2 – Next Election.

…

I REALLY hope the C&T thing is made irrelevant by FF long before then. It will start causing horrible economic damage the instant it begins to take effect. Time is short to defang it. Even proof-of-principle might do it. If it becomes known that carbon is going to be a non-issue, no one will put up with that draconian nonsense. I’d love to see the wind taken out of the sails of those who’d like to “see electricity bills soar” in order to stop coal plants.

As for lithium batteries, TeslaMotors’ sealed ESS units have been crash-tested and don’t break up or short in water.
Given cheap power, lithium or boron can be taken from sea-water as a routine part of desalination at easily affordable cost. But there are lots of new models of higher-energy batteries coming down the pike. Even with LiIon. MIT has found a quick ‘n’ easy trick with internal channels (“bands”) to funnel ion movement that slashes internal heating and vastly speeds up charge/discharge, plus multiplies energy density. Combined with nanowire/nanoparticle anodes and cathodes, they’ll probably be able to handle 10X the current charge levels before the current electric car systems need replacing in 5 years or so. As it is, the Roadster gets up to 250 miles with reasonable driving (not spending too much time having fun with the huge electric motor torque stuff). Their Model S 5+2 passenger sports sedan is promising 300 miles with the premium battery pack, with fast-charge and quick-swap capability (due in late 2011). The lithium is 100% recycled, and even the “used” (capacity degraded to 80% after 5 years of steady use) batteries will have a strong aftermarket for other uses.

Batteries have broken thru, finally, after decades of stagnation. ESS may have missed its window. Oh, btw, capacitors are BIG. They’re lightweight, but very large. Not so good for cars, I’d think.

[Brian H]

jjohnson wrote:

…
I am hoping for things like EESTOR and FocusFusion and good solar to work, because we will not control our population on this planet, and we are not willing to even discuss that option.
…

Jim

Bogus issue. Check out some numbers here:
http://overpopulationisamyth.com/overpopulation-the-making-of-a-myth#FAQ1

(See the attached graph)

According to the U.N. Population Database, using the historically accurate low variant projection, the Earth’s population will only add another billion people or so over the next thirty years, peaking around 8.02 billion people in the year 2040, and then it will begin to decline. Check their online database.

As for solar, WHY would you spend $5 – 15/W (100 – 300X FF’s cost/W) to install something that is barely cheaper than FF power off the wire? Solar, wind, wave, fission, geothermal, space solar, bouncy sidewalks, and biofuels are near-future history.

Attached files

[jjohnson]

Good comments. I try to watch all the storage and generation devices, and don’t pick favorites. Hadn’t heard of Elton Musk’s crash-testing but am glad it shows his LiI batteries are safe. Love his cars, even if I can’t afford one at their price point. Also it’s good to see improvements in batteries coming along, expected given the sudden rise in interest and funding, finally. Whether utracaps take up too much space or not – I don’t know the size range that would be needed, so can’t compare. My hope for good (read efficient and cost-effective) solar is just part of the general hope that we can have affordable, reliable and abundant power source(s) to sustain us. FF is far and away the most promising right now, both in terms of promising progress already, and the fact that, if it works as advertised, will not depend on time of day or weather conditions or time of year to work, unlike other ‘renewable” resources.It is interesting to contemplate scaling FF units down as well as up. There are lots of low power apps which could use an efficient source that doesn’t require a plug to the grid. Plasma scales, so it’s possible to have a nano-FF device instead of batteries, depending, of course, on what might need to be carried with it as control and support, etc. If round the clock FF devices go online, storage devices like batteries and ultracaps will find application for emergency power, perhaps, although even that might be obtained by smaller emergency FF generators on-site as back-up power.

[annodomini2]

Tulse wrote: I’ve been following EESTOR for a while, but at this point I’m somewhat skeptical, as they seem to make a lot of claims without any real product. Perhaps I’m just being cynical, however (I’ve also followed Moller because I want my goddamned flying car already, but that’s also seen years and years without anything concrete).

Moller’s plan is a pipe dream until he actually shows something that fully works. The guy’s been working on it for 40years with little success

Now these guys at least have shown something that works, if not perfectly reliable

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7828408.stm

[Phil’s Dad]

Tesla Crash Test

http://www.allcarselectric.com/blog/1037103_tesla-roadster-toyota-prius-vw-touareg-crash-in-denmark

No one was hurt.

I did wonder if the Toyota Pious driver was just a tad envious. 🙂

[Breakable]

So back to the topic: was the trigger problem solved?

[Rezwan]

Breakable wrote: So back to the topic: was the trigger problem solved?

Not yet. Still in progress. A soundbite: “go argue with your instruments”.

They’ve run tests, 8/12 of the capacitors are on cue (based on overall charge output). The question was, which 8? And which 4 are causing problems? So they’ve been going over each switch and each capacitor. Trying different things. They’re nearing the end of this, but as I say, it’s tedious. They do run a few shots between each assembly/disassembly and are also setting up other diagnostic equipment.

[Tulse]

Thanks for the update — I was wondering about the sudden silence regarding progress.

[Author]

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