Electric OU: Grey Box Q-17 Circuit Heat Output vs DC Input Run 1
This is the first experimental run of the test series, more or less a shakedown run. I am testing the Lost Grey Box circuit published by Rosemary Ainslie in a set of photos last year, and decoded by SWeir, whom I thank gratefully.
NOTE: In the first slide I call the mosfet duty cycle “30 percent HI” at the Drain. I should have said “30 percent ON”, since the Drain is of course LOW when the mosfet is ON. Sorry about the confusion, and thanks MarkE for pointing this out.
This is an obviously different circuit than the one given by Ainslie in the original Quantum Magazine article of 2002, yet Ainslie maintains that it is the one she used. Even so, the Ainslie Grey Box contains a 555 chip manufactured in 2007 according to the manufacturer’s data code. Whatever, girl.
I am testing the circuit for heating efficiency at the load. The load cell is the one that I calibrated a couple of days ago and is set up just like it was for the calibration runs, except instead of straight DC power from the Topward 6306D PSU, the load is powered by the Q-17 circuit, which itself is powered by the Topward PSU with a great 60,000 microFarad filter cap in parallel. The current and voltage readings are taken on the circuit side of the capacitor.
I used the Topward PSU for the primary power; the next video will show the same test performed with batteries for primary power.
The schematic and operating parameters are given in the video.
The Final result … the graphical comparison with the DC calibration … will be coming up soon, after I’ve had a chance to enter the data into the spreadsheet.