Steorn watchers may be wondering when Steorn’s next experiment will be happening. Actually it is going on right now. To see the excitement all you have to do is to go to camera 3 on Steorn’s website.
According to Sean McCarthy they are running a “soak test” on one of their Orbo devices in which they are measuring the strength of the magnetic domains over time. I think the intention is to run this Orbo this for seven days and show that over an extended period of time there is the magnets do not lose strength in an orbo configuration.
Sean also remarked recently in Steorn’s forum that they are using “optics” (optical encoders) for the timing of the electronics instead of reed switches in these devices which apparently are much less likely to fail.
It might be fun to sit and watch the orbo for a few days to see if anyone replaces it – or at least changes the battery.
