FreeEnergyTimes

If you have spent much time looking at the internet chatter going on following Steorn’s latest (and final) demo, you will see that there are a number of observers who were underwhelmed. Many people it seems were hoping to see something with more of a “wow” factor than what Steorn displayed yesterday. (According to steorn.com the video of the event will be posted February 1)

So today on Steorn’s public forum CEO Sean McCarthy spent quite a bit of time responding to some of the criticisms and laying out the reasons why the demo was presented in the way it was. You can see his comments at this link – McCarthy posts under the name “Steorn”.

Here are some excerpts of his comments in that thread.

“Ok – a little entertaining to read some of the comments this morning. Let me state something very clearly here. The system demonstrated last night is clear evidence of over-unity, or clear evidence of fraud. We either rigged the scope or we did not – and we did not…

“Ok, we are not into showing magic tricks, so if you want flashing lights go some place else. The experiments shown are targeted at a specific audience, indeed the final nature of how to demonstrate the core effect came not from Steorn, but from the consensus opinion of those people who visited the waterways who expressed an interest in developing and had a capability to develop…

“I am not getting defensive at all – quite the opposite in fact – we have been ‘defending’ the technology for 3 years in the public arena. No more, we have shown the goods, there is no longer a question of ‘measurement’ error. Its real or fraud…

“The point about yesterday was how I started this thread (and how I will now leave it). We showed a significant energy result that can only be achived on the basis of the tech being real, or the experiment being rigged – a rigged experiment would be fraud and no doubt I would go to jail for that.”

There were a number of Q&A exchanges in this thread discussing particular details of the experiment , so I would recommend visiting the forum for detailed discussion. The quotes above provide the general position Steorn is taking.

On Steorn’s website there is now a place to sign up if you want to go in person to the Waterways centre in Dublin and test the Orbo devices in person. On the sign-up form, Steorn requests that potential testers provide their educational or professional background so it appears that they will be screening for testers they feel will be suitable candidates.

Did the demo provide conclusive proof of overunity? Apparently many are not convinced, but Sean McCarthy seems to be quite satisfied with what they showed and has said that this will be the extent of their public disclosure of the technology.

So it does appear that for many questions and doubts still linger and it remains to be seen how many have seen enough evidence to take the plunge and become paid up members of the SKDB. So while the waiting game for Steorn’s public revelations is over, the one for real-world useful Orbo powered products has just begun.

Today on Steorn’s forum on their web site, CEO Sean McCarthy made this request.

In a public experiment conducted in Dublin, Ireland today, Sean McCarthy, Steorn’s CEO compared an Orbo based device with a normal pulse motor. Each device looked similar in size and shape was hooked up to the same supply/switch connected to an oscilloscope.

In the demonstration McCarthy attempted to show by the traces on the scope  that in the normal pulse motor, CEMF (counter electromotive force) was detected and in the Orbo system there was no CEMF. In the Orbo device Steorn claims that kinetic energy in the rotor is produced by torque generated by magnetic attraction between rotor magnets and stator coils and is unhindered by the opposing force that CEMF usually generates in a pulse motor.

McCarthy also attempted to show by use of a thermal camera that all that input electrical energy in the Orbo based system was released as heat and the rotation of the rotor was performing work over and above the input in electrical power — thus Steorn’s claim of Orbo being an overunity technology.

The experiment was followed by a fairly lengthy Q&A session in which members of the audience asked McCarthy about such things as the need for the battery in the current demo devices, Steorn’s business model and the potential usefulness of Orbo technology.

The demonstration was filmed and should be available via Steorn’s website before too long.

I noted yesterday that French engineer Jean-Louis Naudin  claimed to have replicated Steorn’s overunity motor. Today, Steorn CEO Sean McCarthy provided some feedback  to an article about Naudin’s replication on the web site PESN.com.

McCarthy stated: “Thanks for that – however I must urge some caution here, what Jean-Louis will find is that all of his electrical input is being output as heat and that the work done by the rotor is free. However this does not mean that simply putting in a generator will enable him to close the loop.  

The reason is that the design of the ‘active’ coils is very important so that the input uses minimum current to cause the effect in question – the production of heat is a current^2 relationship. Unless this fact is considered in the design of the input, then while the system may be more than 100% efficient, the work done by the rotor will be less than the energy input into the system, and so a closed loop system will not be possible. 

Our next sequence of experiments will address these issues. 

We are quite happy to discuss this in more detail with Jean if he has further interest in replication (two of our engineers are French, so they should be able to communicate well).”

This appears then to be an endorsement of sorts of Naudin’s claim of replication. According to McCarthy here, it is possible to achieve overunity in terms of energy in/energy out and yet not have a self sustaining device in this kind of configuration if the engineering is not done correctly since much energy can be lost in electronics as heat.

We’re two and a half days into Steorn’s demonstration of its Orbo devices at the Waterways Visitors Centre in Dublin.  There are three Orbo rigs with spinning rotors sitting on perspex display platforms. Members of the public can walk up to them and examine them, while online people can watch them via live video streams through Steorn’s web site. There are three cameras looking at the orbos from different angles, however to this point only two cameras seem to work. There are also times when the video streams go offline – sometimes for extended periods.

To this point there are plenty of reasons for people to doubt that they are looking at an overunity (OU) machine which produces more energy than is put into it.  Those who are unconvinced point to three main issues with what they are seeing.

1. There is the presence of a battery – which makes some suspicious that we are just looking at a battery-powered motor. Steorn describe this as an energy reservoir which provide input necessary to fire coils in the device which allow the Orbo to create more energy than is input – and at the same time recharge the battery through a generator.

2. There is the fact that we have seen orbo rigs being unscrewed from their platforms and replaced by new ones. In a recent article Steorn CEO Sean McCarthy is quoted as saying “The systems are up, they’re running and I’m sure some of them will break – it’s a prototype technology . . . We have lots of spare systems and they’ll be replaced. People may be critical of that and I can understand that, but the fundamental point is that we’re demonstrating this system working”

3. As yet there have been no meters attached to the Orbo devices showing energy input or output, nor are they doing any work (such as lighting a bulb) other than spin and so it’s not possible to detect the OU effect from simply observing the machines with the naked eye.

 Steorn have promised that in January there will be live validation and replication sessions which should help shed light on these issues. In the meantime the demonstration is open and it appears from the webcam that many Steorn employees are on site to meet the public. Perhaps at a live visit they might answer visitors’ questions. One commenter on an article at the blog Boing Boing said this: 

Anonymous | #23 | 15:54 on Wed, Dec.16 | Reply

Saw it today in the docklands, spoke to one of the guys, said that in Jan they’re going to be hooking up all the equipment, oscilloscopes, amp meters etc, without those aforementioned devices it’s just a nice looking display with a nice looking girl watching over it!

So it seems there is still more to be revealed as the demo progresses.