FICS II Planning and construction

For posts specifically relating to fusor design, construction, and operation.
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Werner Engel
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Werner Engel »

Steven, remembering your entry “Problems to be solved in FICS-II” I have two suggestions for you:

Regarding the floating MFC: What about using a KF or CF insulators between your FICS and the MFC? I recently found such a device which is always used in professional ion sources: https://www.vacom.de/en/products/electr ... insulators

And the remote control: Using an older laptop running on batteries attached to a NI-USB6211 using LABVIEW as a kind of SCADA solution (Andrew Selzman is using a similar approach) you can control everything via remote – even on high voltage potential using WLAN. There are also fiber/CAT5 converters available which are completely transparent on the Ethernet protocol level. That´s the way how my project works.

Thanks for posting your project, it’s very inspiring for me!
Werner
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Steven Sesselmann
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Werner,

Thanks for your suggestions.

Unfortunately a ceramic break nipple won't work in my case as I want to feed the gas directly into the cathode. If the gas inlet is at ground potential to the gas outlet at -50kV, the gas will simply light up as a neon tube and conduct electrons to ground. For FICS to work as intended the deuterium supply needs to float at cathode potential, ionisation must take place at negative potential.

I like the idea of fibre optic Cat5 transmitter, this might work to control the MFC, so if you have any recommendations where to get this I would be most grateful.

It is absolutely my intention to operate the reactor remotely, the PSU voltage and current are easily operated remotely with a variable 10V DC source (actually the PSU provides a stabilised 10V outlet for this purpose).

The outputs will be monitored remotely in Labview using a simple DAC. (NI-USB-6008) and a separate Laptop running PRA

Analog port 1: Vacuum Gauge
Analog port 2: Current Input (
Analog port 3: Current Output

PRA Left Channel : Neutron Counter
PRA Right Channel: Gamma/X-Ray detector

Operating the MFC remotely is still a problem to be solved.

Steven
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Werner Engel
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Werner Engel »

Steven,

here are some samples of products which can be used to convert fiber to copper:

https://www.reichelt.at/Medienkonverter ... ANGUAGE=EN

https://www.lichtleiterkabel.com/produc ... 2000m.html

BR,
Werner
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Steven Sesselmann
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Zener test..
Zener test..
Today I installed some of the furniture into the cage.

On the right is the 5M Ohm ceramic ballast resistor, above it is the fat coaxial cable core coming from the PSU, it leads straight up through the cage with the ground braid connected to the cage.

On the left is my home made 50kV zener diode array.

After installing and grounding the Glassman 125kV (16mA) PSU I gave the zener array a quick test, and it performed beautifully.

To test it I used a 1M Ohm ballast resistor between ground and the cold end of the zener array.

At 45 kV the reverse leakage was only 0.17 µA and the break down was exactly at 50 kV when the current suddenly hit the PSU limit which was set to 500 µA. I couldn't have wished for a better result.

Next project is the vacuum system..

Steven
Last edited by Steven Sesselmann on Sat Jan 23, 2016 10:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: corrected current draw from mA to µA
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Andrew Seltzman »

I have used the TP Link MC100CM fiber optic Cat5 transmitter with great success, both on my fusor and on my PhD work at UW
http://www.ebay.com/itm/TP-LINK-Fast-Et ... xyVLNSpeM6
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Andrew,

Thanks for the link, I have looked at these, they look neat, but I can't yet get my head around how to convert a digital cat 5 to the analogue 0-10V required for the pressure controller?

One line of thought suggested by David Housley was to use a PWM to convert to voltage, so I bought a couple of PWM to analogue voltage modules to experiment with, the digital side it will be a learning curve for me.

Plenty of hardware work to finish before I tackle that one, making stuff from metal, glass, plastic, and the occasional analogue circuit is my expertise, so I will call out for help when I get to the digital stuff.

Steven
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Werner Engel
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Werner Engel »

Andrew,

did you also find a USB to fiber converter? The ones I found where extremly expensive (> 2.000 $)
This would be even easier to connect a NI USB-DAQ which is on high voltage potential to a PC outside the Faraday cage ...

BR,
Werner
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

FICS Schematic
FICS Schematic
So how effective is FICS as a battery? Here is a simple circuit schematic showing the FICS principle of charge separation.

The D+D fusion reaction has a 50/50 probability of producing a single proton charge and a Tritium with one charge and an alpha particle with two positive charges and a neutron, so we can say on average each fusion reaction emits +2 elementary charges. Running at 10^6 fusion reactions per second we are therefore separating 2 x 10^6 charges, however these charges are climbing through a potential of 5 x 10^4 Volts so we multiply these numbers and get 1 x 10^11, so how many Coulomb seconds is this?

1 Coulomb = 6.24 * 10^18

(1*10^11) / (6.24 * 10^18) = 1.6 *10-8 A or 16 nA

Richard will be quick to point out that we won't be lighting up the city with it, but wait...

What if we achieve 10^7 fusions and increase the potential to 10^5, this would get us into the µA region and possibly be enough current to maintain a charge on the grid, thereby establishing a controlled self sustained fusion reaction.

I should also mention that the grid in a FICS reactor is not impacted upon by ions as in a fusor, so it doesn't suffer any heating or thermionic emission, past experiments show it draws very little current.

Steven
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

A brief video showing where I am up to..

https://youtu.be/nwG_y3ZFV9g
Progress
Progress
progress-video.png (120.98 KiB) Viewed 14458 times

Steven
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Werner Engel
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Werner Engel »

Hi Steven!

Just viewed your Video.
Congrats to your SCADA software with Labview! It seems to work perfectly.
How did you remote controll your Glassmann? Using a variable Input or serial communication?
My Turbo pump Controller also has a serial connection - but as it is RS 485, it's a little more time consuming to use it in Labview.
Please keep telling us about your USB connection solution being on high voltage - and how it works!

Good luck!
Werner
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Werner Engel wrote:Hi Steven!
Just viewed your Video.
Congrats to your SCADA software with Labview! It seems to work perfectly.
How did you remote controll your Glassmann? Using a variable Input or serial communication?
My Turbo pump Controller also has a serial connection - but as it is RS 485, it's a little more time consuming to use it in Labview.
Please keep telling us about your USB connection solution being on high voltage - and how it works!
Werner, thanks, the instruction video you sent me was a good help. I am still using Labview evaluation software, but my son is a third year physics student, so with his collaboration we should be able to buy the student version. I had a look around and there isn't many open source programs that will work like this.

My Glassmann power supply has inputs and outputs at the back for analogue control, it's 0-10V. The DAQ only outputs 0-5V but fortunately it's a 125kV/16mA supply and my initial experiment is designed to not go over 60 kV and its unlikely to need 8mA so this gives me good control for what I need.

I have not started on the floating DAQ yet, but the plan is to have an MKS pressure controller and a DAQ with two 18V batteries connected by fiber optic USB cable to the computer. I will just use an LM7805 to draw some power from the battery for the hot end of the USB to optical connection.

First I must build the tubes and the chamber and get the system under vacuum, before I start working on the gas flow controller.

Steven
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by John Futter »

Steven
It is very easy to up the gain of the Glassman inputs by 2 to get 0-5 volt control.
Just two resistors to change to get 0-5V voltage and current control
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

John Futter wrote:Steven
It is very easy to up the gain of the Glassman inputs by 2 to get 0-5 volt control.
Just two resistors to change to get 0-5V voltage and current control
Good thinking John,

I was thinking outside the box in in therms of an opamp or comparator, but your suggestion makes more sense, I just need to track down the VD on the board.

Thanks..

Steven
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

F.I.C.S. Update

I received the CNC machined discs last week, and they were a pretty close fit.
Disks - 4.jpg
I only needed to do very slight adjustments to the centre ring for a perfect fit with the glass discs.
This was lucky, because it was much easier to trim a bit off the aluminium than the glass, and
if the fit had been too loose I would have been in trouble.
Disks - 3.jpg
Here you can see the discs stacked with the 10 mm glass discs,
each hole diameter is 6 mm wider so the chamber is tapered.
Disks - 1.jpg
Each aluminium disc is ground against the glass plate with 50µ aluminium oxide paste
to make the surface flat. This process is taking longer than I expected because the
surface is quite large.
Disks - 2.jpg
Here one can see one side of the accelerator stack ground and assembled
but not yet glued. I intend to glue the whole chamber together in one go and
clamp it for drying. On the left one can see the end cap, made from solid
aluminium with hemisphere chamber and KF25 vacuum ports.

twin stack.JPG
Here are the twin stacks ready for assembly when the fusion chamber arrives.
All the discs have been ground flat. I ended up using a machine to turn the discs
while grinding, but it still took more than 10 hours.

The actual 6" fusion chamber has not been completed yet, it will be CNC machined in two halves from a solid piece of stainless steel and welded together. The engineering shop is looking around for the steel, hopefully we can find an off-cut that size. Although this chamber will be constructed the same way as my last one, it is much bigger and has twice as many layers, so I am quite nervous about getting it to hold high vacuum, if it leaks I have no choice but to break it open again, so this just has to be right the first time.

Applying the right amount of glue is going to be another challenge, latex forms a skin very fast, and I can't have any excess glue running into the chamber as it will be impossible to remove.

Slow steady progress here..
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by cynthiamyra »

Thanks for sharing your project.
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Steven Sesselmann
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Time flies, it's been a month and a half since I posted a progress report, I have been busy with other things, but I also had to wait a long time for the final parts to get finished.

After putting a lot of pressure on the engineer I finally received the last two critical parts for the stack last week. The custom made vacuum duct made from 50 mm stainless steel pipe is TIG welded to an ISO100 blank and fits onto the Varian turbo pump, it has two NW25 nipples which will connect to either end of the chamber. I gave it a bit of a polish to make it look a bit sexy.
50 mm Vacuum Duct with ISO100 Flange to NW25
50 mm Vacuum Duct with ISO100 Flange to NW25
I blanked off the NW 25 ends and pulled a vacuum to see if the tube had any obvious leaks and it appeared to hold vacuum pretty well, after a 20 minute pump down to 1 micron I turned off the valves and left it over night, the pressure had risen to 2000 micron, but considering it was the first pump down and a very small chamber (only the tube) I think that's okay.
Vacuum gauge after 24 hours.
Vacuum gauge after 24 hours.
Then came the difficult work of preparing and gluing the stack together. preparation has taken me weeks. Each aluminium disc has been ground against the matching class disk with 50 micron aluminium oxide to produce a flat surface, this is essential to achieve a good seal.

With all the discs prepared and cleaned with acetone I set aside all day Sunday to glue the stack together, it was challenging to say the least. The trick is to keep everything 100% clean and apply exactly the right amount of glue without making a mess (easier said than done).

I found the best way to apply the latex glue was with a plastic squeeze bottle with a nozzle, applying a thing bead around the ring 2/3 from the centre, then carefully place one disc at the time onto the glue and allow the capillary effect to draw the glue across the disk. Too little glue and the gap wont fill and too much glue and it will run into the chamber.

Fortunately I designed the discs with a small lip towards the chamber which prevented excess glue running into the chamber. As can be seen from the photo some glue overflow on the outside is obvious, but this wont be a problem as the glue remains between the glass discs, and in any case it is not conductive when dry.

It wasn't necessary to clamp the stack, as is extremely heavy and gravity is more than enough to keep it clamped, the middle chamber which is a 6" hollow sphere machined from a solid stainless steel bar weighs at least 25 kg.

The end caps with the NW25 fittings are machined from solid aluminium and will be at ground potential during operation.

Slightly above center on the reaction chamber a small 1/8" Swagelok fitting can be seen, this is where the Deuterium gas supply will enter the chamber.

I expect it might take a couple of weeks before the latex has dried up to a point where I can pull a vacuum on this chamber, and then it might take another couple of weeks before all the water has been pulled out. As it is winter here now, and fairly wet and cold, I might get a small heater to speed up the process.

Once I pull a vacuum on this chamber I will back fill the chamber with argon and do some plasma cleaning of the chamber to get out any impurities.

So far I am reasonably pleased with how it's all coming together, but still some way to go.
Double ended stack after gluing
Double ended stack after gluing
Here is an image of the 6" chamber before it was welded together, it wasn't cheap.
6" Chamber
6" Chamber

Thanks for reading...
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Dave Xanatos
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Dave Xanatos »

Thanks for that. The possibility of a self-sustaining fusor is immensely interesting to me. Looking forward to updates greatly!

Dave
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Steven Sesselmann
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Hi Guys,

Just a brief report to keep everyone updated on my FICS experiment. The assembly of the plasma chamber was a complete success and now since I repaired the Turbo pump I have now had the system under vacuum for a week and it's holding tight.

I am now working on the gas handling system and the floating DAQ with fibre optic connection the the PC.

More pictures and comments here on my site:
http://www.gammaspectacular.com/phpBB3/ ... 72c26#p807

Steven
FICS Experiment
FICS Experiment
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Werner Engel
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Werner Engel »

wow - the LabView user Interface looks veeeery nice! And I'm waiting for your first DAQ values and if there are any groundloop issues.
If I understand your concept right, you put the MFC with it's electronics on high potential. Why did you not try to isolate the gas pipe to the chamber? This would make it much easier. Or is there another reason for this?

Have fun,
Werner
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Steven Sesselmann
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Werner,

Running a gas line across a high voltage potential doesn't work, it will light up like a fluorescent tube and become conductor.

I already have one of the DAQ's working, initially I had a grounding problem which caused the DAQ to crash, but I solved this by bringing all the ground wires back to one point.

Still waiting for the second DAQ to arrive.

Steven
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Werner Engel
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Werner Engel »

Please see: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10791
I call it a "plasma backdraft restrictor - design ENGEL" ;-)

And it works.
Meaning, that Plasma can't go through such small diameters.

Which additional DAQ did you order? An isolated one? I thought about taking such a device.
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Werner,

Thanks for suggestion, the plasma restrictor looks like a very nice idea, but I am now so far down the track with my more complicated system, that I may as well give it a go.

I am getting another identical DAQ NI-6008 it will float next to the MFC, I am using two 18V cordless drill batteries connected with voltage regulators so I get +15V, -15V for the MFC and +5V out for the USB optical end connector and DAQ.

The whole assembly fits inside two stainless steel food trays mounted together.

Steven
Pressure controller
Pressure controller
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Another month has gone by and my F.I.C.S. fusion reactor is near enough to complete, I started the project last January so as far as fusors go that's not bad going. The last month was spent troubleshooting why Labview was crashing as soon as the plasma started flickering, so I have been going over every electrical connection and adding some ferrite suppressors, but the problem was most likely caused by two or three grounding points which were slightly loose. Looks like it's all working now, fingers crossed it will work next time I switch it on.

I also have a small leak which I haven't been able to find yet, it's in the order of 1 micron every 3-4 seconds, and should not be critical for achieving fusion, although I would rather prefer it wasn't there. I consulted with a local vacuum company who said they could send out a technician with a portable Helium leak detector for $1400 per day, so thanks but NO thanks.

Using the labview VI interphase I can now achieve a stable high voltage plasma by setting the turbo pump gate valve to almost closed and allowing the pressure controller to adjust the gas flow into the chamber (see video below).

For those of you who have not been following my build, I am controlling the gas flow with an MKS649 pressure controller, floating at high voltage and driven by two 18V batteries. The pressure controller operates on analogue 0-10V signals, which is provided by an NI-USB-DAQ (also powered by the batteries), the DAQ is connected to an active HUB which in turn is connected to the computer by optical cables. Optical USB cables are now readily available and perfect for this kind of use.

FWIW the MKS Model 649 (10 sccm He) would be perfect for mainstream fusors as well, as it would eliminate the need to manually adjust the chamber pressure, you simply adjust the chamber pressure set point with a voltage source and a potentiometer and there it stays, so definitely worth putting a search on eBay for one of these. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... 9&_sacat=0

Floating Gas Supply and DAQ
Floating Gas Supply and DAQ
Below is a 2 minute video showing the reactor operating in a stable plasma mode. As there is no viewport on this reactor I rely entirely on the instrumentation for feedback. Typically I would start with a higher gas pressure and generate a high current low voltage plasma and then gradually decrease the chamber pressure set point until the desired voltage and current has been reached.

https://youtu.be/jB2I23-vR7w
Test Run
Test Run

Now I have ordered two new bubble detectors from our friends in Canada and fingers crossed I will be back with some neutron data soon.

Steven
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Hi Guys,

Just a brief note on my FICS progress.

Bubble detectors arrived and I was hoping to do some good runs, but law an behold as soon as I run the reactor with deuterium the USB fails. I carried out multiple tests with air plasma and had no problems (see video above) but for some reason I don't understand, the remote control system goes down as soon as I vent in some deuterium.

I only get as far as seeing a handful of neutron counts from my sound card detector before the USB goes down which kills the process.

This weekend is a three day weekend for us, so I will use the time for probing, maybe I can use my oscilloscope to catch a spike.

Labview with USB DAQ's are nice, but personally I would prefer analogue control over these high voltage machines.

Steven
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Re: FICS II Planning and construction

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Not sure if I can call this a progress report, because I'm not making much progress, except for in the area of aneutronic fusion ;)

Essentially my machine is complete, everything came together according to the plan, a hollow cathode collider remote controlled from Laview, well almost.

Fibre optic USB connections extending 10 m to my garage allows me to operate it remotely, and after building all the USB hub and DAQ into a copper box for EMF shielding, I can put the machine through it's paces, as long as I use air, and as long as it is not doing any fusion.

It seems to have several modes..

1) High pressure low voltage high current mode, not very exciting and produces no neutrons, I guess it's just like a neon light discharge mode.

2) Low pressure high voltage no discharge mode - obviously no neutrons

3) Medium pressure with intermittent high current discharges and corresponding voltage drops - also no measurable fusion.

4) High voltage (above zener threshold), slowly rising pressure and discharges without voltage drops accompanied by pops in the neutron detector immediately followed by a USB crash (usually the floating DAQ,).
Run data log
Run data log
In the run data above you can see the typical pattern, voltage stable and zenering, pressure slowly rising followed by a fusion event which causes the USB to crash, this immediately shuts off the mass flow controller and stops the reaction, after a few seconds the USB comes back up and pressure starts rising again, and so it repeats.

Unless I can get the USB to stay up at this point I will never get enough neutrons to use a bubble detector, and will never know for sure what's going on.

I welcome any brilliant suggestions at this stage...

Steven
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