I do not have a picture of the ring with four square holes, but it is easy to see that as the diameter of the ring increased, it would be necessary to add four plastic spacers per layer instead of two as used on the smaller diameter speaker designs. This would prevent the rings from cocking and providing an unsightly cosmetic design.
As for the chrome, this was chromed plastic "C" channel that was glued to the rings as an after operation, again for cosmetic purposes. Durban explained this to me and you can see the channels peeling away in some of the photos.
Here is a photo showing the chrome trim peeling away on a smaller, perhaps 6" diameter ring:
@ION
Thanks for that photo. If those are the disks, then they would have to be modified with the magnet squares, plus the outer diameter would have had to be trimmed down to about 1" wide for the rim where the coils are wound. Of course he could have had them custom made but it is obvious the influence of the OTPU disk design stems from his speaker grills.
Don't forget, FTPU(1), OTPU(1), MTPU(1) , LTPU(2) all have one or more toroid coils as the numbers indicate. Also, I know this is going back to the beginning but them damn toroid dimensions where never found to exist in any standard line of toroidal cores. You will never see a regular toroid core with those dimensions. Also, for such a massive core dimension, it is totally crazy to think a one layer 32 something coil turns will be able to effectively transfer anything from one coil to the other without major losses. But the dimension of the toroidal core falls in perfectly with dimension of standard speaker magnets on the market. I had researched that also.
Ha. Does anyone know why speakers use the magnets that they use since generations, we still use the same magnet types. Have you ever seen very big speakers using a 16oz. neo-magnet? Hmmmmmmmmmm. Not really.
So what if the toroid was not used for half/coil to half/coil coupling so let's just turn the theories completely on their heads once again.
What if the toroidal core was made of hard plastic having no coupling ability at all. Maybe a static deflection quality of a non permeable core. That would explain why the toroid coil wires sink into the core material. That would make the toroid a simple air core where any pulsing would be then available outwards and into the center of the toroid. Why? It would act like a smart or virtual speaker magnet.
Maybe that's why SM spent so much money on magnets, trying to find the perfect already available flux density that he could manipulate with a coil, but then realized it is very hard to do (I have tried it many times wrapping coils over magnets to deflect the field to then catch the deflection with another coil and it is very difficult to do and requires endless R&D), why not just make your own smart magnet that can deliver exactly the flux needed for the effect required.
But what is the effect required?
Let's go on, but, before that remember this one important thing. SM never showed anyone the toroids from underneath. Even in the OTPU, we can see the front or top of the toroid held vertically behind the circuit board, but we never see behind or under the toroid in all cases. What is constant in the toroids is that metallic bracket with the connection stubs. Now why would you build a toroid with two half coils of one layer, then go to all the trouble of mounting it on a metal bracket? Well, brackets are usually used to hold things together meaning in plural sense more then one thing is held with a bracket. But we only see one thing, the toroid. But there could easily be something under the toroid. In the FTPU, there is more then ample room for his first cruder build. Then in the OTPU it is hidden behind the circuit board, then in the MTPU and LTPU they were safely mounted on black boxes again offering room below the toroid.
You all know what SM flat out said "you can move a magnet a foot over one wire, or a foot over 1000 wires" and this is true when you do it 5 times per second or 100 times per second. Yes indeed. But you can also do the same thing by moving the magnet only 1 mm over a wire, 5000 times per second. SM was refering to the distance/time/frequency factor. He says it in feet, but it could be only mm's.
Now, think of how a speaker works. Speakers that he was working with for years. We all know how a speaker works, right. Outer magnet, speaker coil, inner metal core. So what if the SM Toroid is a smart speaker magnet, a speaker coil and an outer pickup coil all working in feedback mode.
I think the FTPU, OTPU, MTPU and LTPU produces their outputs 100% via the Toroids and what was under the Toroids. Everything else was distractions. At best the outer coils were acting both like a capacitor and an inductor for the sole purpose of storing gain, but the same coils could be made in so many ways.
I will stop here because those that will catch this post will understand I don't need to say much more because they have now caught onto a new line of thinking. Part of the TPU is real, the other parts are decoys, and knowing SM's high level of paranoia against industrial espionage, he would not have it any other way. I have prepared a diagram to show you guys what I am thinking. In the FTPU where SM put the magnet, then in the LTPU there were the same bracket terminals on the toroids but he never placed a magnet there. In the FTPU, the magnet was pre-biasing the center core as in the diagram, since the outer toroid was not a magnet from which a regular speaker core uses to be semi-magnetic.
wattsup