John Bedini Monopole SSG - Beginner's Questions and Tuning Guide

Hi all, I just built my first SSG using a 26 inch bicycle wheel and grade 5 magnets. I am getting good spikes on the scope (around 300V) but my charging battery is not desulfating as fast as expected. Should I adjust the trigger resistor or add more turns to the coil? I wound a 130-turn bifilar coil with #23 and #26 AWG.

Make sure your magnets are exactly North facing outwards. If even one is reversed, it ruins the pulse cycle. Also, check your air gap—keep it around 3mm (1/8 inch) from the coil core. You want to adjust the potentiometer until the coil sings with a high pitch and you get a single pulse per magnet.

A quick tip for desulfation: the spike has to be fast. If your diodes are slow, the spike is wasted as heat. Make sure you are using 1N4007 or UF4007 fast recovery diodes. Also, look at the neon bulb: it should NEVER light up while charging a battery. If it glows, it means your charging battery is disconnected or your lines have too much resistance, and the transistor is dumping energy into the bulb to save itself.

Thanks! I swapped to UF4007 diodes and adjusted the gap to exactly 3mm. The neon went dark and the wheel is running much faster at 250 RPM. The charging battery is now bubbling slightly and voltage is climbing steadily. I can see the white sulfur flakes on the plates disappearing. This works!