This is regarding FSM device which are extremely low current devices (1000 lower than TENS) using two channels waves applied to the body. These devices cost 1000 to 2000$ however they look very very simple and I presume a 200$ signal generator could do the same.

In https://frequencyspecific.com/ufaqs/how-does-frequency-specific-microcurrent-work/ we can read

"The frequencies are delivered using a ramped square wave that includes high frequency harmonics to create the square wave."

Anyone has access to such FSM device and can take a picture of what is a "ramped square wave"? Is it a sawtooth wave, triangular wave?

Thanks!

 

We don't make pulses or square waves by combining sine waves. We use multivibrator circuits for that purpose. With careful design we can adjust both the frequency and the duty cycle. Yes, you can do the same thing with an arbitrary waveform generator. IMHO, this is all a load of hogslop.

 

Disclaimer: This is part response, and part rant. However, unlike the concept being discussed, the rant is based on testable scientific fact. Also (this is important), exactly 0.000% of this is directed at the TS. As is probably clear, I have some experience in the "frequency therapy" area (don't say "field"), and he, unfortunately, poked the bear.


This device is in the same area as Rife machines, the Hulda Clark Zapper, etc. The idea that electromagnetic energy, radiated or conducted, can target and cure something really nasty without drugs, surgery, any real effort or discipline, or serious money, has been bouncing around for over a century with virtually zero qualified research results to confirm just about anything. And don't get me started on the Synchrometer.

Separate from that, the page you linked is very revealing. Considering that this person has been involved in FSM "education" for ***20 years***, the writing is, both technically and grammatically, atrocious garbage. The title includes the words "how it works", but the text says nothing technically useful. In fact, it is critically ambiguous.

The term "ramped square wave" can have two meanings. One is that for a square wave of a fixed frequency, the amplitude varies up and down, probably periodically, like someone constantly turning the volume up and down, up and down. The amplitude is said to "ramp" up and down. The other meaning is that the square wave is not actually "square", that the vertical edges are ramps. Based on zero useful information, let's assume this is what she means.

A true square wave has a 50% duty cycle: in each cycle of the waveform, it is "up" for the same amount of time it is "down". Thanks for Fourier Analysis, we know that the energy in the waveform is equivalent to a combination of sinewaves in specific amplitude and frequency ratios. For a true, 50/50 square wave, there are only odd harmonics. That is, the frequency components above the fundamental are only odd-order multiples of the fundamental frequency (3x, 5x, 7x, etc.).

The wave form described in the link is not a sawtooth wave nor a triangle wave. It is a trapezoid. The tops and bottoms of the wave are flat and a constant amplitude, but the edges no longer are perfectly vertical. They have a noticeable slope. This introduces even-order harmonics into the frequency spectrum of the waveform. The original Clark Zapper did the same thing by having a squarewave that was not perfectly 50/50. Note that no one *ever* has addressed this as being intentional, accidental, beneficial, etc.

The trapezoid shape can be approximated by passing the square wave through a lowpass filter, but don't be fooled. That attenuates the (supposedly beneficial) high-frequency harmonics without introducing *any* even-order harmonics. To get the effect they are touting, you need a true trapezoidal shape. At this low frequency, it is relatively easy to do with a squarewave oscillator and an integrator.

There is zero useful information in the page you linked for one simple reason: 100% of the statements about actions and benefits are conditional. After 20 years, she still has nothing specific to say, and her lawyers are keeping her out of jail. And, her "research" is so riddled with incompetance that she admits to it in her own writing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_specific_microcurrent#History

Might this technique actually work? Don't know. The point is that no one knows, and if you press the proponents, they will admit that. OTOH, alternative medicine has a better track record than alternative-(just about anything else; especially physics). A pulsed electromagnetic coil wrapped around a spiral fracture in the lower leg really does speed healing, and red/infrared radiation really does aid in healing scalp wounds. I'm not saying all fringe ideas are junk and fraud, just that what the proponents present as "research" is junk, and charging for it is fraud.

ak

ps.

In the alt-medicine universe, a *very* common comment about such devices, from both users and sellers, is "I don't know how it works, but trust me - it does." - No. That no longer is acceptable.

111 years is a long time, long enough for the accepted standard for explaining something to change significantly. Before the invention of the telescope or the microscope, high-end science was very much a cult of personality; the #1 asset in getting your ideas heard/considered/accepted was political connections. 100 years later, not so much; people who before would have ruled supreme now were brushed aside like children. In round numbers (OK, an odd, not-round, prime number), the triode vacuum tube was invented 111 years ago. With it came amplification and oscillation, and the world moved from electrics to electronics. But in those 111 years, both our knowledge of and our standards for medical devices has improved dramatically. Today, the "standard of proof" for an electromedicine or biomedical device is a scientific rigor that must be at least one step up from the Salem witch trials.

 

This is regarding FSM device which are extremely low current devices (1000 lower than TENS) using two channels waves applied to the body. These devices cost 1000 to 2000$ however they look very very simple and I presume a 200$ signal generator could do the same.

It's about $20 worth of parts (or less). It is expensive because people in bad situations are willing to pay anything for a chance to get out of the bad situation, no matter who tells them it doesn't work. I've made a similar device for someone with very specific voltage, current, frequency, waveform requirements. It only made the user happy when I told him I was done building it. After he tried it, nothing. So he bought one for $2000. It only made him happy while he was unpacking it. It didn't help him at all.

 

This is in the same area as Rife machines, the Hulda Clark Zapper, etc. The idea that electromagnetic energy, radiated or conducted, can target and cure something really nasty without drugs, surgery, or any real effort or discipline, has been bouncing around for over a century with virtually zero qualified research results to confirm just about anything. And don't get me started on the Synchrometer.

Separate from that, the page you linked is very revealing. Considering that this person has been involved in FSM "education" for ***20 years***, the writing is, both technically and grammatically, atrocious garbage. The title includes the words "how it works", but the text says nothing technically useful. In fact, it is critically ambiguous.

The term "ramped square wave" can have two meanings. One is that for a square wave of a fixed frequency, the amplitude varies up and down, probably periodically, like someone constantly turning the volume up and down, up and down. The amplitude is said to "ramp" up and down. The other meaning is that the square wave is not actually "square", that the vertical edges are ramps. Based on zero useful information, let's assume this is what she means.

A true square wave has a 50% duty cycle: in each cycle of the waveform, it is "up" for the same amount of time it is "down". Thanks for Fourier Analysis, we know that the energy in the waveform is equivalent to a combination of sinewaves in specific amplitude and frequency ratios. For a true, 50/50 square wave, there are only odd harmonics. That is, the frequency components above the fundamental are only odd-order multiples of the fundamental frequency (3x, 5x, 7x, etc.).

The wave form described in the link is not a sawtooth wave nor a triangle wave. It is a trapezoid. The tops and bottoms of the wave are flat, but the edges are no longer perfectly vertical. They have a noticeable slope. This introduces even-order harmonics into the frequency spectrum of the waveform. The original Clark Zapper did the same thing by having a squarewave that was not perfectly 50/50. Note that no one *ever* has addressed this as being intentional, accidental, of benefit, etc.

There is zero useful information in the page you linked for one simple reason: 100% of the statements about actions and benefits are conditional. After 20 years, she still has nothing specific to say, and her lawyers are keeping her out of jail. And, her "research" is so riddled with incompetance that she admits to it in her own writing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_specific_microcurrent#History

Might this technique actually work? Don't know. The point is that no one knows, and if you press the proponents, they will admit that. OTOH, an electromagnetic coil wrap around a spiral fracture in the lower leg really does speed healing, and red/infrared radiation really does aid in healing scalp wounds. I'm not saying all fringe ideas are junk and fraud, just that what the proponents present as "research" is junk, and charging for it is fraud.

ak

Will the TS accept or decline thy gauntlet which hath been so eloquently thrust upon the ground?

 

See post #3 update. I feel much better now.

 

Disclaimer: This is part response, and part rant. However, unlike the concept being discussed, the rant is based on testable scientific fact. Also (this is important), exactly 0.000% of this is directed at the TS. As is probably clear, I have some experience in the "frequency therapy" area (don't say "field"), and he, unfortunately, poked the bear.


This evice is in the same area as Rife machines, the Hulda Clark Zapper, etc. The idea that electromagnetic energy, radiated or conducted, can target and cure something really nasty without drugs, surgery, or any real effort or discipline, has been bouncing around for over a century with virtually zero qualified research results to confirm just about anything. And don't get me started on the Synchrometer.

Separate from that, the page you linked is very revealing. Considering that this person has been involved in FSM "education" for ***20 years***, the writing is, both technically and grammatically, atrocious garbage. The title includes the words "how it works", but the text says nothing technically useful. In fact, it is critically ambiguous.

The term "ramped square wave" can have two meanings. One is that for a square wave of a fixed frequency, the amplitude varies up and down, probably periodically, like someone constantly turning the volume up and down, up and down. The amplitude is said to "ramp" up and down. The other meaning is that the square wave is not actually "square", that the vertical edges are ramps. Based on zero useful information, let's assume this is what she means.

A true square wave has a 50% duty cycle: in each cycle of the waveform, it is "up" for the same amount of time it is "down". Thanks for Fourier Analysis, we know that the energy in the waveform is equivalent to a combination of sinewaves in specific amplitude and frequency ratios. For a true, 50/50 square wave, there are only odd harmonics. That is, the frequency components above the fundamental are only odd-order multiples of the fundamental frequency (3x, 5x, 7x, etc.).

The wave form described in the link is not a sawtooth wave nor a triangle wave. It is a trapezoid. The tops and bottoms of the wave are flat, but the edges are no longer perfectly vertical. They have a noticeable slope. This introduces even-order harmonics into the frequency spectrum of the waveform. The original Clark Zapper did the same thing by having a squarewave that was not perfectly 50/50. Note that no one *ever* has addressed this as being intentional, accidental, of benefit, etc.

The trapezoid shape can be approximated by passing the square wave through a lowpass filter, but don't be fooled. That attenuates the (supposedly beneficial) high-frequency harmonics without introducing *any* even-order harmonics. To get the effect they are touting, you need a true trapezoidal shape. At this low frequency, it is relatively easy to do with a squarewave oscillator and an integrator.

There is zero useful information in the page you linked for one simple reason: 100% of the statements about actions and benefits are conditional. After 20 years, she still has nothing specific to say, and her lawyers are keeping her out of jail. And, her "research" is so riddled with incompetance that she admits to it in her own writing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_specific_microcurrent#History

Might this technique actually work? Don't know. The point is that no one knows, and if you press the proponents, they will admit that. OTOH, alternative medicine has a better track record than alternative-(just about anything else; especially physics). A pulsed electromagnetic coil wrapped around a spiral fracture in the lower leg really does speed healing, and red/infrared radiation really does aid in healing scalp wounds. I'm not saying all fringe ideas are junk and fraud, just that what the proponents present as "research" is junk, and charging for it is fraud.

ak

ps.

"I don't know how it works, but trust me - it does." - No. That no longer is acceptable.

111 years is a long time, long enough for the accepted standard for explaining something to change significantly. Before the invention of the telescope or the microscope, high-end science was very much a cult of personality; the #1 asset in getting your ideas heard/considered/accepted was political connections. 100 years later, not so much; people who before would have ruled supreme now were brushed aside like children. In round numbers (OK, an odd, not-round, prime number), the triode vacuum tube was invented 111 years ago. With it came amplification and oscillation, and the world moved from electrics to electronics. Today, the "standard of proof" for an electromedicine or biomedical device is a scientific rigor that must be at least one step up from the Salem witch trials.

One of the very finest directly on target post I have seen in years.

Thank You
Ron

 

Will the TS accept or decline thy gauntlet which hath been so eloquently thrust upon the ground?

Apparently...NOT!

 

Will the TS accept or decline thy gauntlet which hath been so eloquently thrust upon the ground?

No gauntlet expressed or implied. The TS is simply asking a question, which is a good thing. That I chose to respond to not only the question but also the context is on me.

ak

 

No gauntlet expressed or implied. The TS is simply asking a question, which is a good thing. That I chose to respond to no only the question but also the context is on me.

ak

You are too TOO modest.

 

I'm surprised my post got replies so fast, thanks everyone.
I think this might be what it looks like, the bottom blue wave form?
It is from PulsePal, a nice project. But I don't think people use it for FSM.
Pieces for DIY are around ~300$, fully assembled is 935$
They call the waveforms "patterned voltage pulse train"
https://open-ephys.org/pulsepal
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneng.2014.00043/full

The wave form described in the link is not a sawtooth wave nor a triangle wave. It is a trapezoid.

You mean something like this? Have you seen this from one of those device?

Thanks