The idea of semi-automated control of a fusor has received some attention over the years. As Richard has pointed out, there are lots of adjustments possible, as well as basic sequencing things. What would be a list of things to measure and/or control? Let's figure out cheap ways to do this (since none of us are likely to get a grant of $1M to buy all the fancy 488 controlled lab gear)..
Things to control (or monitor): Acceleration potential on/off Acceleration current (ideally) Acceleration voltage (maybe what we control..) dispenser filament heating current & on/off dispenser filament ion current Gas admission rate (a stepper or servo on the leak valve?) Vacuum Pump Various vacuum valves
neutron instrumentation Power on/off discriminator level counts
Other instruments Geiger counter/ Xray detector
Chamber surface temperature
What else?
Created on Saturday, March 10, 2001 12:56 PM EDT by James Lux