As regards the Stan Meyer water splitting setup, I think a simple and robust means of stepping the voltage as Stan does could be had by building an electronically controlled ferroresonant transformer.
A ferroresonant transformer has a second secondary coil (usually set up as a tank circuit) which drives the transformer into saturation if input voltage spikes. Usually it also has permanent magnets to put the core nearer to saturation. Thus an increase in load or input voltage will result in only a small secondary voltage change as the core becomes less or more saturated. It's a form of automatic voltage control.
We can do the same, but control that second secondary winding to successively step up the voltage by manipulating the level of core saturation. We manipulate the B-H loop to control output voltage.
This would be easier, cheaper and far more physically robust than a solid-state PWM setup. In fact, because the core is slightly into the saturated range, the transformer should handle a short pretty well... which in the case of the Meyer WFC would be a good thing.
As can be seen from the patent images, Meyer was using tapped transformer stepping:
But using a ferroresonant transformer setup would allow us to step up and down as needed automatically... so rather than a 'stepped-up - stepped-up - stepped-up - pause' effect, the circuit could automatically step up and down as needed. This would keep the WFC right at the edge of electrolytic breakdown, maximizing efficiency.
A ferroresonant transformer has a second secondary coil (usually set up as a tank circuit) which drives the transformer into saturation if input voltage spikes. Usually it also has permanent magnets to put the core nearer to saturation. Thus an increase in load or input voltage will result in only a small secondary voltage change as the core becomes less or more saturated. It's a form of automatic voltage control.
We can do the same, but control that second secondary winding to successively step up the voltage by manipulating the level of core saturation. We manipulate the B-H loop to control output voltage.
This would be easier, cheaper and far more physically robust than a solid-state PWM setup. In fact, because the core is slightly into the saturated range, the transformer should handle a short pretty well... which in the case of the Meyer WFC would be a good thing.
As can be seen from the patent images, Meyer was using tapped transformer stepping:
But using a ferroresonant transformer setup would allow us to step up and down as needed automatically... so rather than a 'stepped-up - stepped-up - stepped-up - pause' effect, the circuit could automatically step up and down as needed. This would keep the WFC right at the edge of electrolytic breakdown, maximizing efficiency.