Good Luck with the new experiments David. I think you will see some interesting effects. Regarding the sparks and light flashes, I ran across a paper that describes an spark effect, but it was seen in the 100-140Volt range. Horace Heffner describes it in his paper;
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/GlowExper.pdf It could be that the local electric potential is large enough that the sparkle effect happens. Anyway, with the AC, do try the DC pre-charging. If there is a true LENR effect, I would think this is one of the better ways of see it. The pre-charging might allow coating of the cupronickel with B2O3 which Mile's hints was one method of rapid LENR in his youtube video. In addition, as Storm's has suggested, you might pre-fill the lattice dislocations. Once the AC begins, hopefully you will see a robust heating effect. With AC, you should see the Na2[B4O5(OH)4] oscillating back and forth, and swarms of H+ push through the Cu-Ni B4O5(OH)4 surface. I found some old notes, that indicated in DC, the green salts could be CuB2O3 and darker salts as NiB2O3. See if you can spot a glow too. Maybe it's Cherenkov radiation. Anyway, Have fun. It's been interesting to see how much more bizarre this little experiment gets. Chuck On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 8:54 PM, David Roberson <dlrober...@aol.com> wrote: > It is time for a change in my experimentation. I spent a lot of time and > energy with the sodium carbonate electrolyte and DC current without being > able to report any proven excess power. There is evidence that the Borax > electrolyte might lead to more definitive results so that is what I began > using again today. Earlier I started using Borax after finding that table > salt was a terribly corrosive material. I used the Borax for several days > as it slowly ate away at my positively connected electrodes before I > decided to go to the sodium carbonate. I stuck with the sodium carbonate > for so long since I was mainly concerned about the hydrogen loading of the > cathode which should have been similar with either electrolyte. > > Today, I rewound a transformer to yield 21 volts AC RMS. This is an > ideal way to drive the system with AC since the transformer automatically > isolates it from the AC mains and leads to a safe experiment. I am using > 21 volts because that is all I obtained with the transformer core with > which I started when I placed as many turns as possible (36) in the > secondary slot with the wire size that was convenient. I was worried that > this might not be enough voltage, but found that I could still drive the > cell with between 1 and 2 amps RMS depending upon the spacing between the > electrodes. > > The joule losses within the transformer are quite low and it is in no > danger of overheating. The cell is receiving around 40 watts of power > which is within reason. I am using a Pyrex dish for my cell, the same one > that I have been using for several days. It is open and wide so the cell > temperature is fairly low due to large heat loss. I am curious as to > whether or not I get the strange sparks that seemed so prevalent with my > earlier DC system. I have noticed that there is a lot less gas being > released at the electrodes due to the AC drive current. > > The AC drive current does not appear to cause the green deposits that > were so evident with the DC current. I initially allowed the green mess to > be plated upon one of the test nickels attached to the positive DC supply > connection. After a period of time the green material was shaken off and a > dark deposit replaced it as the current increased. I do not know what > material is plating that nickel, but it allows for good conductivity. I > placed my old reliable nickel on the other electrode for the AC testing. > The poor nickel has been undergoing electrolysis for many days, has been > heated red hot and quenched 5 times, has been soaked in a mild acid for a > couple of days, and then sanded to roughen its surface. I am not sure what > else I can do to make it more miserable! > > Dave >