The McEk LENR Controller (Gerard McEk)

The following article was submitted by Gerard McEk

Since Andrea Rossi presented his E-Cat in 2011, there were rumors of him using a kind of additional control other than just the triac-based heater coil controller. Many people saw the E-Cat nearby, but there has never been a serious indication that such an additional device was installed or needed, although Defkalion did add such an apparatus to their Hyperion, and Brillouin also use some kind of electromagnetic stimulation.

It is not unlikely that EM or just magnetic fields may play a role in LENR. About a year ago Rossi has mentioned that the E-Cat requires AC and not DC. This and the other issues like the recent LENR replication failures of MFMP and others, as well as discussions I had with various people on this and other sites have brought me to the thought that LENR may require some magnetic stimulation (high δI/δT) as well as some control to dampen LENR when it starts to run away. Recently these thoughts have cumulated to a novel  LENR controller design, which should have all the features in it to stimulate and damp the LENR process and that is what I like to present on this forum. I would welcome your opinions to help me come to a final design. I know this is not a cheap controller. It is meant for properly equipped labs to give them handles to change some (maybe) essential parameters ‘on the fly’. Please see the drawing below.

I can clearly not give any guarantee that this controller enhances the probability of a stable LENR reaction, but it has all the features to prove or disprove that LENR can be influenced by short current pulses and short circuiting the heating coil.

The controller has the following features:

  1. Frequency control from 50 to 1000 Hz (AC). ( I could have added DC also to it, but I do not want it to make more complicated than needed and Rossi said LENR only works on AC).
  2. Manual temperature setting. (I do not want to build-in complex temperature trace control yet).
  3. The output power to the heating coil is AC Pulse Width Modulated. Depending on the set temperature and the measured temperature a build-in PID loop controls the width of the opening. Too much power (5 or 3 kW) or current will shut-off the IGBT’s at all times.
  4. The PWM power pulses can be as short a 10 µsec and the current up to 300 amps. This type of control will generate a lot of harmonics and these are obviously linked to the chosen frequency.
  5. There is a manual control for the DC voltage. The thought behind this is that you adjust this voltage such that you never exceed the maximum current of 300 Amps. It also directly influences the proportional factor of the PID loop which is compensated for this to avoid an unstable control loop.
  6. Two types of Thermocouples can be connected: a T-type (till 1200 oC) and a S –type (till 1600 oC). It has further an analogue input, in case another type of temperature measurement is used (0-1500 oC = 1- 10 V). The controller includes a selection switch for this.
  7. The controller shall have a check on the proper working of the thermocouples. In case of failure the controller will switch off and signal this.
  8. The controller can be connected to standard mains (240 V AC 50 Hz Phase/Zero) or in another version to power mains (400 V AC 50 Hz 3Ph). Proper switches and fusing shall be supplied.
  9. As long as the temperature is less than 5 degrees over the set temperature normal PWM control is maintained. Above that the two top IGBT’s switch off and the two bottom IGBT’s start to PWM control a short circuit (SC) of the heater coil. The coil is fully and continuously short circuited if the temperature is more than 100 degrees in excess of the set temperature (Tset), in a simple linear control (Tset ->Tset+100 = 0% -> 100% SC).

mcek

In the past I have worked with companies able to make these type of converters quite reliably. I will try to involve them in this design.