Update since introduction

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Fred Stock
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 6:15 pm
Real name: Fred Stock
Location: France/Netherlands

Update since introduction

Post by Fred Stock »

Since my introduction mid-June this year I have been busy to sort out a few things and to collect some gear on a low budget approach. After two months it appeared to me a good opportunity to update the Fusor community about some progress made so far.
Most of my spare time went in searching the forum for answers to questions that inevitably came up when trying to develop a setup of my fusor project. I have to agree -as mentioned by Richard Hull somewhere in the forum- that the trickiest items concern the HV power supply and the neutron detection and counting system. From my professional background (some 40 years ago) I had some experience in nuclear techniques and that is why my first interest went to the neutron detector and counter. The image shows the current state of my equipment.

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The picture shows the NIM-bin with two HV power supply modules (I need only one to power the detector) and the shaping amplifier module. On top of the NIM-bin is the BNC pulse generator (for test and tuning purposes) and on top of the BNC module are the Leybold-Heraeus Ionivac IM110D vacuum gauge controller and the Edwards TC1 thermocouple vacuum gauge controller. Not shown, but present, are the SNM-32 Helium-3 corona detector, the TC1 vacuum gauge and the Leybold IR10 vacuum gauge (image below). I have still problems to connect the IR10 to the controller (lacking a cable) but I shall address this in the appropriate forum. I found a noval (nine pin) tube connector that fits onto the IR10 as shown in the next image:

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The IR10 vacuum gauge is a bit unusual as it is not a Bayard-Alpert gauge but a special concentric triode with a cathode-ion collector-anode arrangement (as seen from the inside out). This arrangement permits a measuring range from 1 mbar up to 5E-7 mbar and the gauge is made resistant to measuring at higher pressure (more oxygen content) by coating the cathode. It is a so-called "non-burn-out"cathode.

For the completion of the neutron detector I still need the preamp, the scaler and the counter. For the vacuum lines a number of valves and connectors are present as well as the diffusion pump and the foreline pump. Unfortunately the foreline pump needs to be replaced as it does not meet the criteria as required. It is too worn and barely meets the requirements for a foreline vacuum. For the HV power supply I'm sorting out what will be needed but here in the EU it is quite difficult to get hold of an X-ray transformer. It might therefore be necessary to build a pulsed power supply with a flyback transformer.
Finally for the deuterium supply I have acquired the PEM cell for electrolysis of D2O as getting a cylinder of deuterium gas appears to be practically impossible.
To be continued.......
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Richard Hull
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Real name: Richard Hull

Re: Update since introduction

Post by Richard Hull »

The IR in such a tube's part number usually indicates an iridium filament that can function at lower pressures without issues. This may be the case here.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Fred Stock
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 6:15 pm
Real name: Fred Stock
Location: France/Netherlands

Re: Update

Post by Fred Stock »

Thank you, Richard. I was not aware that these special gauges existed. The IR10 was relatively cheap, around 25 EUR, and I succeeded in finding the controller that is required for this gauge: the Ionivac IM 110 or 110D.
In the forum posts I found references to the IM 210 controller but that one is for the Bayard-Alpert type of gauges made by Leybold.

The last few days I worked on the oil diffusion pump. It is an Alcatel with two heaters, marked as heater and pre-heater. In literature and on the internet I could not find any reference to oil diffusion pumps with two heater elements. The OD pump is slightly larger than a wine bottle and it has a flexible cuff at the top to connect it to the vacuum chamber. The inside diameter of the cuff is 81 mm dia. and I presume that it fits onto an 80 mm dia. tube. Not quite a standard measure in vacuum world!
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The water cooling for the OD pump will be done in a closed circuit with a buffer reservoir, a pump, a heat exchanger and a simple electronic circuit to regulate the cooling power of the heat exchanger (speed of the fan). Today I found the 'heat exchanger' in a breaker's yard: the radiator of a small car with an electric fan attached. It is a bit rusty but it has no leaks and it was very, very cheap. Somewhere in one of the barns I should have a photovoltaic panel (sun panel) with a controller and an old car battery and i might use that to (free) power the cooling fan. Looking now in junk yards for an old washing machine to get the waterpump out.

I'm sorry to report that the project has an extremely low WAF (wife acceptance factor); when I came home with the radiator, hands, face and clothes covered in grease, she seemed not very happy....

To be continued....

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