Magnetic Water softener

[tim west]

I've been swallowing those calgon tablets for years now and i can vouch that they have kept my pipes clean!

 

[AquaHydroChem]

A friend has a home made "softener" made using the magnets taken from an old computor floppy drive .

Now are you defiantly sure it’s a floppy drive as I have just dismantled one in the hope of finding the magnet and no gold

 

[AquaHydroChem]

Untitled

• AquaHydroChem
• 25 May 2009
• 1

You have two transistors in ther
:

Are those the 2 black thinks marked up with NC and the diagram that looks like a diode

If it still works, it generates a square wave which then feeds your coil through a 680 ohm resistor:

So putting your multi meters through it would not tell you if it worked or not

Does it still oscillate? If the frequency is within audible range, you could try putting a speaker in place of the external coil

And what should I expect to hear from a pair of speakers

 

[ban-all-sheds]

And what should I expect to hear from a pair of speakers

Voices.

Wonderful, special voices.

They aren't easy to hear, but if you concentrate long enough you'll hear magical voices carrying the secrets of the Universe.

 

[AquaHydroChem]

And what should I expect to hear from a pair of speakers

Voices.

Wonderful, special voices.

They aren't easy to hear, but if you concentrate long enough you'll hear magical voices carrying the secrets of the Universe.

Well I shall be listening out for you
Will you be reveling the secrets of snake oil

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Possibly - but you must concentrate really hard, and have no distractions, so no more posting on this forum until you have the answers.

 

[Stoday]

That water conditioner used transistors.

Valves would produce far superior conditioned water, with all the hard edges taken off. You only have to look at a bowl of water to see the difference. Drop a stone into the transistor water and you'll see hard ripples. Valve water has perfectly rounded wavelets.

This can be explained by the quantum theory and the duality between particles and waves. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle attributes greater uncertainty to transistor water than valve water, so that the wave aspects become more apparent with valves. This theory completely agrees with Feynman's quantum electrodynamics.

I suggest a pair of EL84s driven in push-pull mode instead of the transistors.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Transformerless?

 

[bernardgreen]

Customer complains to water company "" My water is too hard ""

Reply " Then allow it to thaw before use "

 

[OilLecky]

These things use an ac current from an oscillator to create a varying magnetic field around a copper pipe. That copper pipe is an electrical conductor. Lenzes law says that if a varying magnetic field is applied to a conductor, that conductor will have an electric current generated in it that produces a magnetic field that OPPOSES the one that originally generated it. ( or something like that!)
This means that the varying magnetic field cannot penetrate the copper pipe. This is why cables carrying delicate signal currents are screened using a metal sheath or even....an earthed copper pipe.

Throw the thing away and look at getting a proper water softener.

 

[Stoday]

Do the instructions tell you to use a plastic pipe?

Or is the a.c. from the oscillator rectified (and smoothed with that 4.7μF capacitor)?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Stoday - we have one of two things going on here.

Either the whole thing is a wind-up, in which case no answer he gives you will be of any use.

Or when presented with technology more advanced than a bucket and sponge he is so completely clueless that no answer he gives you will be of any use.

 

[Space cat]

Are those the 2 black thinks marked up with NC and the diagram that looks like a diode

I'm intrigued by that symbol but I don't believe it. The only three terminal device that might have such a symbol would be a thyristor but then the circuit wouldn't make sense. The whole thing just screams multivibrator. In the days before ICs, it was a very common two-transistor circuit. (You would probably use a 555 now.)

So putting your multi meters through it would not tell you if it worked or not

A typical multimeter does not put out enough voltage when measuring resistance to push any current through a semiconductor junction. That's what the Diode Test function is for.

And what should I expect to hear from a pair of speakers

If the designers of that piece of junk have done any homework at all, they'll know that electrochemical effects are virtually non-existent above 10 kHz so I would expect to hear a continuous tone, probably in the mid-audio range.

I suggest a pair of EL84s driven in push-pull mode instead of the transistors.

But that's only 17 watts! Stick some EL34s in there with an 800 volt HT line and you can have a hundred watts. You might even shake up a few bicarbonate ions with it.

 

[AquaHydroChem]

Untitled

• AquaHydroChem
• 25 May 2009
• 1

Could the green 272s be the Transformerless; they have 3 terminals on and one of each go to the big think in the middle coved up with solder bit small for a 555/556 though

But that's only 17 watts! Stick some EL34s in there with an 800 volt HT line and you can have a hundred watts. You might even shake up a few bicarbonate ions with it.

90 watts; wear are you going to get 800 volts from

So putting your multi meters through it would not tell you if it worked or not

A typical multimeter does not put out enough voltage when measuring resistance to push any current through a semiconductor junction. That's what the Diode Test function is for.

No it was giving a DC current

Do the instructions tell you to use a plastic pipe?

Or is the a.c. from the oscillator rectified (and smoothed with that 4.7μF capacitor)?

Instructions Mickey Mouse
Dose not say but on the pix it’s a copper pipe

These things use an ac current from an oscillator to create a varying magnetic field around a copper pipe. That copper pipe is an electrical conductor. Lenzes law says that if a varying magnetic field is applied to a conductor, that conductor will have an electric current generated in it that produces a magnetic field that OPPOSES the one that originally generated it. ( or something like that!)
This means that the varying magnetic field cannot penetrate the copper pipe. This is why cables carrying delicate signal currents are screened using a metal sheath or even....an earthed copper pipe.

Throw the thing away and look at getting a proper water softener.

So your saying that the copper pipe conductor wont amplify the signal

Stoday - we have one of two things going on here.

Either the whole thing is a wind-up, in which case no answer he gives you will be of any use.

Or when presented with technology more advanced than a bucket and sponge he is so completely clueless that no answer he gives you will be of any use.

I think he has provided enough secrets for now to keep you baffled for the entire existence of the universe

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Could the green 272s be the Transformerless;
.
.
.
So your saying that the copper pipe conductor wont amplify the signal

I'm out of here - it's not enough of a challenge to even take the p**s out of this pathetic liar any more - good luck to the rest of you.