- Grossi, P.C. (2022-) The workshop
A survey of the various hardware and software tools used to pursue a variety of projects, some of which are listed here.
- Grossi, P.C. (2021-) Capacitive Energy Conversion
Documents in this section relate to a research project that investigates the application of
electrostatic engineering
to the generation of electrical power.
The significance of this research is highly topical at present, considering the strong political and
commercial interest in converting natural energy resources into useful electrical power.
This research project starts by examining the basic theory of electrostatics, and the relationship between
electrostatic energy and mechanical energy. In particular
it considers what happens when a capacitor is charged, isolated and changed in value. The resulting analysis
suggests that, with appropriate
machines, an alternative and less expensive technology might replace the currently popular types of power
generators.
- Grossi, P.C. (2022-) Railway signalling projects
Documents and technical files in this section relate to a continuing development project that investigates
a new way of sensing trains on miniature railwaty networks, and processing the information available.
This is an ongoing project and reports will be published as ideas and experiments are pursued.
- Grossi, P.C. (2023-) A Virtual Signalbox
The Virtual Signal Box is a design and visualisation application for railway networks.
It provides for the design and operational visualisation of railway networks of any scale, from model (tabletop)
gauges through miniature (ride-on types) to commercial (narrow and standard gauge), allowing also for a mixture of
gauges to be incorporated into a single site plan.
Design features include tracks, junctions of different sorts and signals. These can be rapidly draughted or
positioned with geographical precision, and are not referenced to standard commercial items of any brand.
Background graphics can be applied for context or as a template for modelling from existing plans or aerial images.
Synthetic trains can be specified and run on the network, with semi-automatic operation.
The application runs off-line on Windows or Linux computers, either installed or from a removeable memory device.
- Grossi, P.C. (2023-) Energy recovery in miniature trains
Electric motors powered by batteries are a popular power source for miniature trains. But the capacity
of the batteries limits the time on task before they need to be swapped or the vehicle taken off task while they are charged.
Kinetic energy recovery systems are now well understood and widely used, so the possibility of recovering kinetic
energy from miniature trains seems a worthwhile ambition if it can extend their time on task.
This article explores the technical issues involved.
- Grossi, P.C. (2025-) Amperes law unified
Ampere's law, as modified by Maxwell, depends on a phantom current to account for the magnetic field created around an insulator.
This seems an unsatisfactory fudge, so this paper identifies a single unifying phenomenon that accounts for both the real and phantom currents.
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