speakerguy

Alas, that has been tried before - I think back in the 50's and they were called field coils. They were given up on not too long after. I think the problem is too high moving mass and it kills efficiency. I could look into it though, maybe with modern magnets (Neo 50 and the like) it may be more feasible. How would it help with voice coil centering though? I am not understanding how that would work. Thank you for the help!

First of all I should mention cost is no restriction in this system, my speaker systems routinely cost $1000+ for the high end designs that I make. This being an engineering exercise which I hope to publish in an attempt to land myself a job at a loudspeaker complany, it has no cost limits since it could gain me future employment. Second, about the high voltage, I am not talking about applying the high voltage to the electrolysis setup itself - i'm not putting 100+ volts into the cell. I am thinking about supplying it with a current source. An ideal current source has infinitely high output impedance - this means that current delivered to the load will be entirely independent of load impedance. Since infinite impedance is impossibly, the best way to get an approximation is with very very high source voltage, and very high source resistance. Say I had a 10V source and a 10ohm resistor in series to give a 1amp current delivered to the cell. Let's said the cell resistance varied from 2 ohm to .5 ohm depending on concentration of H2SO4 as the H2 and O2 evolved from the electrolysis setup - I am just pulling these numbers out of thin air, not sure if they are accurate. Anyway, system current would vary from 10/(10+2) = .83 amp to 10/(10.5) = 0.95 amp. If I instead use a 168V source (rectified isolated 120V) with a 168 ohm resistor, and the same 2 ohm to .5 ohm resistance of solution based on varying concentration of H2SO4, current variance is only .988 amps to .997 amps - giving a more stable evolution of H2 and O2 as the solution is electrolysed. I think the actual voltage across the electrolysis setup would be only that required to electrolyse the solution based on it's I/V curve like what was discussed above. Is my thinking on that wrong? Also regarding the electrodes (anode in particular) - is there any solute that would make it possible to use anodized aluminum? I have access to very large, very high surface area aluminum plates in the form of old power amplifier heatsinks. I could have custom iron or stainless steel electrodes machined but that would be quite a bit more expensive (I use emachineshop.com for that kind of stuff, minimum setup fee looks to be about $100 for any type of milled part in single unit quantities). Again I thank you guys for the very helpful information, I am primarily an EE guy but I find this kind of stuff very interesting. I think it is sad that in my 4 years as an electrical engineer we never even learned how batteries worked (2nd sem genchem wasn't required ) Thank you very much again!

Do you mean planar magnetics like Magnapan or electrostatics like Martin Logan? Those are nice for >100Hz but are not so good in the bass range due to limited diaphragm displacement/ OOH! I just had an idea. I can't post it, I gotta evaluate it to see if it might work first. It's very simple.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Motor structures on subs can be quite loud mechanically, and dipole speakers are en vogue right now, which both require mega excursion and low mechanical noise. Electromag suspension ideas are not new wrt restoring force (Cms) but I have not seen any good implementations for frictionless VC centering. Vertical magnetic suspension should be easy given a properly designed B field in/around the gap and proper coil implementation, and by setting bias current I can set things like Cms, Vas, Fs and such. Dial-An-Fs if you will It's just voice coil centering that gets me. VC must be light and not interact with magnetic ckt, but it looks like electromag is the only way I'm going to center it. The more centering force I can generate, the smaller the amount of voice coil rocking at high excursion, the tighter I can make the gap, the higher the B field becomes, the more efficiency I get out of the unit since force =BIL.

OK so it looks like I am going to be wanting a DC current source based on your links. My education was mainly in computer engineering and DSP so remembering some of this stuff is from a ways back. Could I get an isolation transformer (or hell even hook a step down trafo in reverse so long as I watch my VA ratings to get mega voltage), full wave rectifier for the isolated 120VAC, craploads of filter capacitance (like 50kuF or more at 200VDC), appropriate fuses, and power resistors to set the current drive? It wouldn't be regulated but it would be decent enough I think. I have access to 50-100-200w alu heatsinked power resistors for audio amplifer bench testing, 4 and 8 ohms, with quad resistors I could have anywhere from 1-32 ohms source resistance. Is there a formula for impedance of an electrolyte solution based on ion molarities (isn't there another term for that? genchem is way back too) or should i just treat it as a short. I could check just how 'regulated' this current source would be based on load impedance fluctuation and voltage drop across the load to get currents at best and worst cases. I know this sounds dangerous but I have a healthy respect for electricity, heard too many bad stories about 600V-1kV B+ supplies getting someone when they got a little lax with their tube amps open. Re: acid, I think I would prefer a neutral salt like Na2SO4 if it would be equivalently good. This is already getting a little scary, mega amperage through aqueous sol's, h2 and o2, flame, high freq/voltage RF. So strong diprotic acid = not really my thing. plus my dog might decide to go drink it. but man would this be an awesome technology showcase. The second link is quite interesting. I never would have though the IV curve would be nonlinear. Would it also be nonlinear for H2SO4 or Na2SO4? I assume they are both strong electrolytes. Can i find those IV curves for different solutes or predict them with an eq or must it be experimentally determined? Thank you for your post, you have been quite helpful!

nuts any ideas about how to center them without any physical attachments? EM and electrostatics are the only things I can think of. and I would have to add something to the alu for em to work

are their neo mags any good the super neo N45 mags are really expensive and I don't want to find out they are junk

I am trying to make a new version of a plasma tweeter: http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/cwillis/tweeter.html except by using rf to modulate the H2/O2 flame instead of ionizing air directly the flame doesn't have to be circular, and i guess it could probably be much smaller. I don't know how size is related SPL yet.

i don't want to say too much about my app but let's say the cylinders are standing up (circular shape if you are looking down from above) in free air not connected to anything, just hovering vertically in free air. I can keep everything aligned vertically but not radially which is why i am looking into electrostatics for the radial centering. I need to generate a lot of centering force on the alu ring and the clearance between the metal bits is quite small. i figure I will need to have hundreds if not several kV on the rings to get the force i need but i am not sure since I don't have the equations. all parts would be same polarity yes. alternatively the center steel cylinder and the alu ring may be +kV while the outer ring would be grounded, centering relying only on repulsion from alu ring and inner steel cylinder. not sure if that would work though. oh also consider the inner steel cylinder and outside steel ring fixed in position, only the alu ring can move around away from a concentric position. Edited to add: by reading this you are hereby NDA'd

also i object to being a lepton

I am an EE so no worry about electricty, I am more scared by the kW of lights over my reef tank now that is dangerious. also electrolysis is easier since my only other choice is to ionize air to get the plasma i need == ozone, or have bulky helium tanks laying around so i can ionize it and not get o3. I can use a 2kVA step down trafo to get the voltage down to the absolute min required for electrolysis and get as much amperage out of it as possible. I can also calculate moles of gas produced but I have no idea of how many moles of gas are consumed by a burning flame of the required size.

atypical antipsychotics are the new thing, very chic expensive drugs that they are using to treat everything from schizophrenia to bipolar to treatment resistant depression. I was on prozac and zyprexa, zyprexa weight gain +30lbs 4 months, lit says 10, friend is a rep and she said 30 was not uncommon, drugs not working had suicide attempt, new doc switched me to cymbalta and geodon, had extrapyramidal symptoms on geodone - ATYPICALS ARE NOT EPS-FREE DO NOT TAKE UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!!! EPS can sometimes be PERMANENT and you do not want permanent tardive dyskinesia or any of that shit. Now on cymbalta and lamictal. finding the right dose of cymbalta took long time, now on 60-90mg depending on how I am doing. cymbalta is SSNRI seratonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, more effective than SSRI but withdrawal is much worse I hear (also true for other SSNRI called effexor). At right cymbalta dose I feel good totally natural no problems other than maybe sleeping little 5hrs or so when I am on too much and slightly manic. Lamictal is anticonvulsant and mood stabilizer, very good drug benign side effect profile. only other true mood stabilizer besides lithium and it doesn't suck like lithium does. i am bpII misdiagnosed as depression with associated anxiety disorder for many years. been on prozac, wellbutrin, lexapro, buproprion, klonopin, zyprexa, geodon, cymbalta and lamictal. i found that of all those cymbalta works best for depression and klonopin helps with anxiety and mixed states but is highly addictive. you might try one of the newer multiple reuptake inhibitors i had much more success with one and it doesn't feel unnatural at all. i agree i felt zonked out on the antipsychotics and mom said i just sat on the couch for four months watching tv. good luck and never admit to taking psyche meds to anyone. even doctors attach stigmas to mental health probs, any time i have listed my meds on the intake sheets i get really shitty care when i don't i get really good care. good luck and i hope you get to feeling better. also it is easy to distrust psychiatrists, i know i often do, but they are scientists and the good ones aren't just tools of the drug industry. it took me a long time and a lot of work (almost a year) to get to the point where I wasn't suicidal and I owe it all to my shrink. you have to remember that the brain is evolved, not designed. It's not like a circuit where all the wires are color coded and you have to fix the right one and it's easy to find. Your brain is the equivalent of a giant ckt where everything is wired together with red wire, and the only tools you have can't discriminate which wire is which so you have to mess with them all. Some areas of the brain rely more on noreiniphrine and seratonin, others on glutamin, but they are all used everywhere. that is why psychiatric drugs are so blunt and have so many side effects but it's really not the fault of psychiatry such as an unguided evolution. remember ****ed up psyche people would just die before, so evo didn't have to care how the brain was designed, it's not like people with more fixable brains survived more. just find a well respected shrink who is conservative and informs you about all the meds you will be taking and side effect profile. I was very pissed when I got EPS since I had never been told about it and I am very glad it finally went away. sometimes I get a few jolts every now and again but I think those are brain zaps from when i miss a cymbalta dose (google brain zaps, they are one of the side effects of SSNRI discontinuation syndrom that sucks donkey balls. not looking forward to quitting cymbalta ever but boy is it working for me now).

I have a solid steel cylinder, an aluminum ring surrounding the cylinder, and a steel ring surrounding that such that all are concentric. I want to put a large static charge on each (in the kV range) such that the alu ring will have a tendency to stay centered concentrically. How do I figure out the repelling force between the alu ring and the inside/outside cylinders? all the force equations I find are for point charges in a field. Also equations to predict when I will run into arcing. Thanks! -speakerguy

Hi, I would like to produce a small flame, perhaps about the size of a golf ball or a little smaller, by burning hydrogen and oxygen. I understand that electrolysis of water can be done more efficiently by adding something like sodium sulfate to increase the conductivity. I need to know if it is feasible to electrolyze enough water into H2 and O2 to produce the size of flame I need (well, actually two flames this size) given the power I can get out of a wall outlet. Please let me know the required voltage and amperage and I can figure out what kind of transformer/rectification is necessary (is DC really needed if I am just going to be mixing the two gases, or can I hook up AC?). Thanks in advance, -speakerguy