Hello D, Any voltage is OK. What really makes the difference is current flow. Higher voltages start the process quicker. Lower voltage takes longer to get some silver into the water so the current can flow. What you need to do is get an inexpensive milliameter from the Shack and insert it in series with your batteries. Whenever the current starts to rise because of more silver in the water, just remove a 9 volt battery from the circuit to keep the current within limits. Admittedly that is a simplistic fix. You can get as sophisticated as you like. You can insert a variable potentiometer in series with one electrode or you can get really technical and insert a current regulator to hold it constant. As an example, we start our voltage at 40 volts and reduce it automatically to maintain 1 milliampere. The voltage may end up as low as 5 or 6 volts at the end of the process, depending on the PPM you want.
Depends on how much effort you want to put into it. Trem www.silvergen.com Constant Current Colloid Generators To: silver-list@eskimo.com Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 8:35 PM Subject: CS>Optimizing voltage on simple homemade generator First of all I'd like to tip my hat as someone who rarely posts but loves to read all the messages here. Thanks to all for insightful and intelligent info, it is much appreciated even by those of us who don't frequently make ourselves known. I have been making CS for a few years now using a simple homemade apparatus I learned about here way back when I started. It is three 9V alkaline batteries wired in series and terminating in a positive and negative alligator clip on each end. However I remember reading somewhere that the ideal voltage to use for such a simple setup would be 30V (mine being 27V with three 9V batteries)...first of all is this correct? Anyhow, I went to Rat Shack and got a two-AAA battery holder and wired it in series to make a total of 30V. I have made three batches of CS in this manner and find the reaction starts sooner than it did with 27V but other than that nothing seems different. Is it worth my while to keep using the 30V setup? If not, what is the ideal voltage I could utilize here? Thanks! D. Toscano
