Help with Building an overunity device

[citfta]

when I say the circuit is not working i mean the wheel does not spin, nor does the neon light. according to the scope the voltage across base-emitter goes +- 0.65V which should be enough to trigger the transistor, and during the positive half the voltage across collector emitter drops to 0V

Okay.  Have you tried swapping the leads coming from the trigger coil?  If the leads are backwards you might be firing the transistor as the magnet is leaving the coil instead of when it is approaching the coil.  The neon should only light if the circuit is working AND you have the charge battery disconnected.  But don't run if for long that way as you could destroy the transistor.

You should probably start fresh with a regular bifilar coil with only two wires.   Once you have that circuit working then you can experiment with using different coils.

Carroll

[grant]

I tried swapping the trigger coil wires. The scope shows sharp switching on and off of the transistor yet my mutlimeter says only 200uA in when it's spinning, when it's not the meter shows 0uA

[citfta]

I tried swapping the trigger coil wires. The scope shows sharp switching on and off of the transistor yet my mutlimeter says only 200uA in when it's spinning, when it's not the meter shows 0uA

If you are using a digital meter they don't do well measuring voltage spikes or current spikes.  It sounds like your coil resistance is too high not allowing enough current to flow in the circuit.  You could try replacing the charge battery with a capacitor and see if it starts charging up.  That would tell you that the circuit is trying to work.

[grant]

I don't think it's the coil resistance because it is only 7ohms per strand (14 in my setup because two in series) which should allow ~ 1 or 2 amps through the coil which is definitely not what I'm getting.

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when I disconnect the charge battery the scope shows max of 2V on the output (no flyback but the magnets passing by provides some voltage) and with a 220uF cap it charges to 2V.

[citfta]

When the wheel is not turning what is the voltage at the collector of the transistor?

[grant]

When the wheel is not turning what is the voltage at the collector of the transistor?

it is at battery voltage 12V

[citfta]

Well it's beginning to look like your neon bulb is shorted and killing your high voltage spike.  Leave the capacitor connected instead of the charging battery because the cap can absorb a high voltage spike quicker than a battery can.  Then try the circuit with the neon bulb removed.  See if the cap charges faster then.  If doing this doesn't show an improvement could you please post some pictures of your system and maybe even a video of you trying to get it to run with scope shots of the collector to emitter signal.

I have helped many people get their Bedini circuits working so I am sure we can figure it out.  However I am 80 years old and have to get up early tomorrow so I am going to bed now and will check back in the morning to see what you have come up with.

One last comment.  Does your wheel turn very freely?  It needs to be very easy to turn and also well balanced.  The kick from the coil is pretty small and usually only able to maintain a rotation of a couple of hundred rpm at the most with a 24 - 26 inch bicycle wheel.

[grant]

I posted a video:
https://youtu.be/U5Wp5EsV3Ow

[citfta]

Thanks for the video.  It explains quite a bit.  I believe your problem is with your coil.  You said you have two windings connected in series.  How you have those connected may be what is killing your circuit.  I'll try to explain what i mean.  Consider the two windings as two parallel straight lines on a page running from left to right.  There are two ways you can connect them in series.  You can take the right end of the first line and connect it to the left end of the second line.  That is the correct way to connect them in series.  Or you can connect  the two right ends together and they would still be connected in series but they would not generate the same magnetic field because each wire would be trying to cancel the magnetic field of the other wire.  Because they are trying to cancel each other the current allowed to pass during quick switching times would be severely restricted.

As I suggested earlier I really think you should start over with a simple bifilar coil with one trigger winding and one power winding.  I also suggest that you do not connect the trigger winding directly to the base of the transistor.  Build the circuit just like it is shown on the page you linked to earlier.  Your base voltage is going low because you do not have the diode connected to the base.  You can damage the transistor if the base voltage goes too low.  When you get the circuit working you will want to adjust the pot for the best performance.  There is a sweet spot that will cause the wheel to run at the best speed and use the least amount of current from the run battery.  It does take a little practice and patience to get everything working smoothly.  But it can be done. 

Keep at it.  You're making progress.

PS: What are you using for your core of your coil?

[grant]

the core of the coil is baling wire, I am certain I wound the coil in the first arrangement you described, (right end of first wire connects to left end of second wire) and I also tried the arrangement without this winding arrangement (leaving 2/4 wires unconnected, so it is connected in the usual way) but this did not work either, and I of course tried having the trigger connected as it is supposed to be, with the pot and resistor but that did not work. Grok suggested bypassing the base resistance which is why I had it hooked up that way.
I'm going to use my current probe to get a better understanding of input current by showing it on the scope.
I would switch to a different coil, but I want to get this one working (even if I don't use all windings) because winding them is a hassle and I don't have much wire left. I should mention that all strands are 26 gauge, even though the guide says 23 awg for the power winding, I don't think this is why it's not working but it could be, since I have 4 windings I could put 2 in parallel for the power winding.

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ok I discovered an issue (but it still doesn't work after fixing this so it's not the only issue) my alligator clip from emitter -> battery- was faulty,
here are the scope shots with that fixed:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AUCAWUi...sp=sharing

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In case you are wondering, I do have the diode from emitter to base, it's a 1N4004 instead of 1N4001 since that was the closest I had.