The ENTIRE time Kephra has ALWAYS said to keep your voltage ABOVE 10V.
So actually there is no argument here. Sounds to me like you guys agree exactly on what the Minimum Voltage should be.
I agree that 10V is just fine. My only thought was to have the SilverTron 'warn the user' if the cell voltage fell below 10V. Perhaps it already does since it would be sort of odd to have the SilverTron run below 10V and make an obvious bad batch. It should just stop and tell the user they are doing it wrong. Not everyone reads the instructions or everything in the forum here (especially if they are not feeling well). I just about have read it all but the amount that actually has sunk in is 'controversial'.
If the SilverTron ran at say a fixed 10V and then just integrated the resulting current over time then there would be less that could go wrong in this area. My own toy has many regulation modes and a fixed voltage mode with integrated current to reach a desired amount of net coulombs is by far my favorite. Very consistent and nothing can go wrong.... The SilverTron could easily do this too. I am sorry kephra is not very receptive to new ideas for the SilverTron but I realize he might just not like "me".
When comparing the ST Elite to other units available on the market, there is no comparison or anything even close.
The hardware theory is trivial but the real value of the SilverTron is kephra's knowledge and thought he has behind it. You can make really nice colloidal silver with just a 9V battery but I will just stop there before I really step on toes.
"Kephra" makes the SiverTron great - not the machine.
I have always wondered what the IDEAL OPTIMAL voltage is. I would be interested to hear if you have an opinion on that.
Oh sure. Get me into MORE trouble!
But this is what "i" think....
The magic number is 3.5096V. Below that the sodium carbonate cell will not work as we all know. That is assuming a LOT of messy things about the anode and cathode configurations... If the anode and cathode are identical you have to double that number to 7.0192V. If the cathode is pulled out of the water to make it smaller than the anode, then the critical voltage is between those two numbers. There are ways to actually detect that critical voltage but they are "messy" (galvanic cell voltage. I don't think the Silvertron can switch and measure fast enough to do that.).
However.... The voltages in a cell are 3 dimensional and vary as my other post on electrical fields showed. So you "over voltage" the cell just to be sure all the electrode surfaces are beyond the critical levels*. I have done it fine with a 9V battery but that is just about the minimum. 12V is a convenient car battery voltage. 25 Volts is nice because it all goes so fast. But at higher voltages you really have to stir the cell very hard**. If you don't stir the cell fast enough at high voltage then the result gets darker yellow due the the larger particles created by the overwhelmed electrode surface electrochemistry.
So, in the general case, there is no "IDEAL OPTIMAL voltage" other then use enough voltage to be sure it is well over the critical voltages. At the high end of voltage you have to stir it really hard. I really like 12V for the two 12ga wire electrode inserted equally case.
*3D surface field stress is why I worry about using odd shaped electrodes like bullion. Many of the shrouded surfaces might go below the critical voltage values.
**I have ideas on nice stirrers too, but I already am in too much hot water.
