Plasma Spark Plug / Ignition Systems

[goldenequity]

I thought I would see if there's any interest in developing a thread about Plasma Ignition.

It is being worked on diligently by the Alternative energy people.... mostly electronic engineer types doing this stuff in their garages and kitchen tables.

Systems under progress.... take the plugs from a simple fine blue high voltage spark to a LOUD bright white ball of plasma. The curious thing is it's NOT an ARC welding circuit.... it is "cold" electricity.... and the electrodes stay COLD.

He is turning the plasma circuit on and off in the below video to show the difference between "normal" and "enhanced" spark.

Here is a sample video to give you an idea.
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NOTE: In most videos.... the plasma spark "appears" to skip.... this is
a phenomenon of the video cameras and the low resolution of the Youtube
upload file..... every time you hear the SNAP of the fired spark... there was
an accompanying spark.... the frame rate/film speed is too SLOW
to capture the visual spark everytime.

[goldenequity]

Here is the same Plasma circuit running a Generator
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He fabricated a 2:1 gear ratio setup to run his "points" off of.



This was to get rid of the "waste spark" generated on all normal single cylinder ICE's running on magnetos.

The problem to overcome is that the magneto is like a flywheel.... it is connected directly to the output shaft of the engine. In a 4 stroke engine, it is turning once for every 2 strokes and firing off a spark.
So you are getting 2 sparks for every 4 strokes. Not a problem normally as this "waste" spark occurs during the exhaust stroke and affects nothing.

The problem becomes, if you want to retard the timing towards TDC and beyond..... it would push that "waste" spark into the INTAKE stroke and would ignite the incoming fuel/air and backfire up through the open intake valve.... a big no-no.

So he's actually created a CDI ignition system eliminating the problem and you can see by the pic he's able to advance OR retard the timing and put the plasma spark wherever he wants.

Why does he want to retard the timing?
2 reasons:

1. Plasma can explode water (I will post some videos of this).

2. Hydrogen explodes faster than fossil fuels...

Hydrogen's burn rate/flame front is about 10X faster than FF.
The reason a standard ICE is so inefficient, is because you are igniting your fossil fuel before top dead center (TDC), you are therefore pushing DOWN on a piston that's trying to come UP (on the compression stroke).... this makes no sense and accounts for MOST of the mechanical ineffeciency of the engine.
So why do it?
Because the burn rate of fossil fuels is so slow.... you have to begin the combustion that early to allow it to complete itself by the time it gets to the exhaust stroke..... even then.... it's not fully combusted and the catalytic converter has to finish the job.

So now he can start playing with different water/fuel blends and really increase the effeciency (and power) of the engine. The ultimate goal of course will be generating electricity from combusting water.

[goldenequity]

Here's some videos demonstrating plasma exploding water.


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*that's the guy's mom at the end wondering what's going on in the basement.

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These videos don't really give you an idea how LOUD the effect is...
it's like a SHOTGUN blast....
many of these experimenters are using ear plugs/guards and also using
UV protection eyeglasses ...... the videos don't convey the power of this plasma effect

[goldenequity]

Like the previous video, Water Sparkplug IV says.... he gives all credit to
a young guy from Canada... forum name gotoluc.

He's the one that quite accidentally tripped over this "discovery", saw the "effect",
and was smart enough to realize he was seeing something out of the ordinary and posted a simple video.

Why out of the ordinary?
Isn't this just another High-Voltage spark like every TIG or ARC welder uses every day?
Nope.

Watch this video from another guy who just posted this today as a demonstration, not of the effect itself,
but of where this effect is coming from.

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If the "trigger" spark/arc doesn't even have to make contact,.....
if it's not even necessary to make contact to "hand power off" to the coil via an arc....
then just where is this energy that's producing the "effect" coming from?

That's a very good question.... and I'm not going to touch it.
It works... and there are dozens of engineers trying to wrap their heads around this and replicate/improve/simplify this circuit phenomenon.

And it doesn't necessarily have to be a High Voltage setup to produce the effect.... again, you're not just witnessing an arc welder,
nor a capacitive discharge.

In the next video....he's not sure about what he's got..... ya gotta understand that he's an amateur/hobbyist....
but is now surrounded by some very serious electrical engineers playing with this over the last 16 weeks.

It all began with this very first video
4 months ago gotoluc is working with a simple 12V inverter.....

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Next is the second post where you can see how very simple this circuit is.

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*again...when you hear the "snap" but "see" no spark/plasma.... it's the slow frame rate of the videocamera
that's not able to capture it..... it is VERY fast..... described as super sonic by some.

[Truckerjo]

It is interesting to say the least..

[violation_rollin]

This is very interesting...I thought that I was done with this HHO stuff, but now, well she is really going to get upset with me....LOL You've peeked my interest.

One question. Is this not the same process as a teslacoil? Because I can build one of those...hehe....

[goldenequity]

thx truckerjo .... kind of gets you thinking outside the box (they keep us in ...heh heh)
hi rollin
yeah... you're on track! Tesla was and is still years ahead of the pack. Some of what he did we are still not able to replicate nor understand.
He died a pauper.... kind of a national disgrace if you ask me. Everytime you plug something in..... you can thank Nicolas Tesla.... he gave us AC.

There are a number of spark plug developments that are underway as well.
Here is one: The Firestorm Plug by Robert Krupa:

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You can't buy these even though the above News video is now 6 years old!

Here is the audio of an interview from this past June with Krupa.

He tells of running his vehicle safely at a air/fuel ratio of 40:1 ....
Why he was able to pass the stoichmetric threshold of 14.7:1 with no heat problems.... his engine in fact... running cooler and cleaner.
His current research engineer is very much involved with this plasma circuit and posts regularly.... collaborating with the other open source engineers.
He tells why and where things are at in trying to bring this plug to market.

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[goldenequity]

Of course....
once an engineer sees a film like that..... he's all over it.
Here's some Firestorm replications from Ozicell in Australia.







He told us how he did it......

He took some 5mm 316 Stainless Steel bodypiercing spheres which were already drilled and threaded; broke off the cathode prong from a normal plug that had an extended anode core, and chased the matching thread size onto it with a "button" die, then simply threaded it on with some serious loc-tite.

For the "cage".... he designed something "overkill" that would "trap" the sphere in case it came loose so he had a 6 point star laser cut from chromium steel sheet and punched it into an aluminum die to shape it.
Welding the cage was tedious!

He later cut the cages off and got better results by just letting the sphere find ground to the cathode ring around the bottom of the plug like a marine plug (pic 3).

Here's a vid he did with the cages on and a standard ignition system/circuit.
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HALO SPARK PLUG
Here's some history of another electrode design called the Halo Plug.
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[goldenequity]

Standard Plugs whether, standard "L" and post or modified plugs like the Firestorm must be Non-Resistor plugs.

You can buy non-resistor plugs... mostly built for non-vehicle applications like lawnmowers, snow mobiles etc.
Most times, they will not have an "R" in their part number ID.

Most plugs for vehicles have resistors built in to filter out high frequency.
They will not produce plasma nor work in any plasma circuit.

They can be modified as well as the below video shows:

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[goldenequity]

There are many working on different variations of the original circuit.
Some are working to enhance the effect using very little initial power to "trigger" it,
and more effort and focus on "capturing" it.... if that makes sense.
Some are working on solid state circuitry more towards a CDI type setup....
while others are working with simple distributor/coil setups.

This is a video posted about 2 weeks ago with a working plasma system in a 1976 Volkswagen Van.
It's adopted the name Nexus Circuit

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