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Links? OK.
Here's the Combilift contract.
The separation agreement that spun off WHE GEN says that the Phoenix Power contract went to them, along with Ohio State and Precision CNC.
Google JP8 generator for all the different generators that came out of the Army R&D contracts.
Now, my turn. How 'bout some links that show a Cyclone Mark 5 actually running and powering something?
Or a link to a customer testimonial?
Or one showing a repeat customer?
Oh, and here's the History of the Mark 5 engine production. No links, but references to filings.
CYPW.. Corporate Partners..
Raytheon has been gone since 2011. The Raytheon guy who was dealing with Cyclone, Kevin Bowen, has since retired. No one else at Raytheon has said "boo" to Cyclone.
Combilift paid a $100K development fee and ordered two Mark 5 engines for delivery in Q2 2012. As of right now, they've gotten exactly nothing.
Phoenix Power left and has a contract with WHE GEN, but nothing with Cyclone.
Tardec issued an R&D contract for a small generator that ran on JP8 (the Army's standard fuel). They let out many R&D contracts for generators that run on JP8, and got a lot of successful designs. They have no more contact with, or use for Cyclone.
Ohio State is now working for WHE GEN and has no more dealings with Cyclone.
Same with Precision CNC.
Team Steam USA is owned by Cyclone and has a land speed record race car with no engine.
So much for "Corporate Partners". Notice that they don't have any testimonials from "Satisfied Customers" after 10 years in business.
There was no $2.5 million gain for Cyclone.
Separation of the WHE division got them (1) a $80K note paid off, (2) a $175K license payment, and, (3) $350K from the sale of most of their WHE GEN stock.
Some liabilities were transferred, but they were minor compared to the total liabilities.
The $1.3 million CYPW put out a PR on was capital raised by WHE GEN, not CYPW.
PS: Cyclone has been claiming "engine production will start in six months" continuously for the last 5 and a half years.
That video is even better when it's watched closely.
You see a burner and flame. You see non-functional mock-ups of engines with a red top. You see an artist's sketch of a car with a Cyclone engine under the hood. You see the end of a pipe that steam supposedly comes out of.
But you don't see an engine running.
You don't see the boat in the water being powered by steam.
The mock-up engine with wheels Harry leans on isn't seen turning the wheels.
That video is from April 2011, almost four years old now.
Any videos of the Mark 5 engine actually powering anything?
Cyclone has capital?
Cyclone Power Technologies (OTC PINK: CYPW) will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2014
Given they're required by law to do so, no surprise there. (Unless they fold first.)
Current receipt of funding from the sale of $500,000 of Cyclone's WHE Gen stock has been reduced to $350,000.
WHE GEN purchased that $500K in stock with proceeds from their second funding round. Apparently Chris Nelson isn't paying his bills.
Cyclone generated $315,527 of revenue during the nine month period ended September 30, 2014
Revenue for the first 6 months was $140,527 (Army contract final payment). That leaves $175K in Q3, which was the "Consulting payment" made by WHE GEN. So no sales and no customers.
Operating expenses for the same period in 2014 increased by 16% and higher funding related interest expense increased by 209%.
Last year's operating expenses (1st 9 months) were $2,024,988, making this year's $2,348,986. Operating expenses for the first 6 months were $1,310,503, meaning that in Q3 they were $1,038,483, or almost as much as the first 2 quarters combined. Given that they had let go their entire technical staff by then, makes you wonder where the money is going.
My guess: deferred salaries for Harry and Frankie, and payments to Schoell Marine.
Interest expenses for the first 9 months of 2013 were $371,902. 209% increase would be $1,149,177.
Lessee, first 9 months revenue = $315K.
Interest + operating expense = $1,149K + $2,349K = $3,498K
Then there's Cost of Goods Sold, and Derivative Expenses.
Revenue is considerably below 9% of spending.
With the royalty streams that are projected from the subsidiaries and licensees
The WHE subsidiary is gone. The only subsidiary left is the "Performance Division" which is led by Nelson Hoyos, who's been gone for a couple years.
The only licensee is WHE GEN, who's not paying their bills now.
OK, I guess Combilift could be called a licensee, but the license required Cyclone to deliver two engines almost 3 years ago.
(Cyclone Mk V Combilift) and we are hopeful for a January 2015 delivery. ... This is a remarkable engine that we expect to have available for manufacturing in mid-2015.
Given the "major success" in September was that sickly rotary valve engine struggling just to turn itself, nothing will be delivered in January.
But, what do you know, the standard "production will start in 6 months" story pops up again.
we believe that our story is quite compelling:
-- Globally patented engine technology with potentially "game changing" attributes.
And never a public demonstration of a working engine in 10 years.
-- Worldwide markets with a current invested customer base that includes the U.S. Army and Department of Defense.
That's former customer U.S. Army and Department of Defense. They've not made a hint of buying anything else from Cyclone. And "Worldwide markets"? Renovolia in Spain gave up on Cyclone years ago, as did Great Wall in China. Combilift in Ireland ordered engines three years ago and has gotten nothing.
-- Focused path to commercialization for our initial engine products.
After only wasting 10 years and $23 million in operating losses, they now have a "path to commercialization".
-- Experienced technical team, manufacturing experts, and new directors and management.
New directors, yes. They fired all their engineers this year. Their "manufacturing experts" must be the fiberglass workers repairing boats at Schoell Marine. Management is limited to Harry and Frankie, who are definitely not new.
-- Current revenue with consistent sales forecasted to start in 2015.
This one is golden. Other than finishing the Army contract, they had no revenue from sales this year. The only order on the books is Combilift, almost three years late for delivery now, and they determine what the acceptance tests will be. They're not going to pay anything even if working engines do show up.
"Consistent sales" have been forecast continuously for years. For instance, there was this little gem from the last annual report:
Should plans to commence manufacturing of the WHE continue on schedule, we expect to generate approximately $2 million in engine sales over the following 12 months.
Actual revenue from engine sales: 0
Harry and Frankie are busy cashing out. They didn't say it in this PR, but the 1.1 billion new shares were for two purposes:
1) to sell more convertible notes, and,
2) to sell for cash to pay Harry and Frankie's deferred wages and to pay the debt to Schoell Marine (Harry's company).
That's why they're begging current shareholders to not sell.
Ohboy, the PopSci award...
The 2008 article has a video of Harry describing his engine. As it turns out, he is showing the non-working mock-up of the Mark 6 truck engine. It's just a shiny plastic simulation of what Harry thinks a real engine would look like.
But, Harry Schoell being Harry Schoell, he doesn't give the slightest hint that it's not a real engine and that a real engine had not even been built by that point. He just goes on about how great the performance is.
It wasn't until the end of 2009 that Cyclone put out a PR Cyclone Power Technologies Runs Flagship Mark V Engine on Steam. And this "milestone" wasn't even for a complete engine, just a bit of one.
The originally promised delivery date for the Mark 5 was January 2010. They are still working on that, and no one outside of Cyclone has ever admitted seeing one run yet.
So Popular Science never saw an engine run before handing out the 2008 award. They mistook Harry's imaginings and hopes for fact.
Dilution is the risk, ladies and gentlemen.
Each time CYPW got some interest on the boards, the floodgates opened and the stock quickly dropped to below where it started.
Look at what happened in August. Huge push. A blip for a few days, then drop.
Then a smaller push at the end of November. A blip in volume, but not price.
CYPW's authorized shares went from 900 million to 2 billion on December 17th. Shares Outstanding:
534,582,390 a/o Jul 31, 2014
734,864,045 a/o September 30, 2014
844,328,217 a/o November 11, 2014
Sept 30 to Nov 11 averaged about 3,800,000 new shares issued per trading day.
The only purpose for that 1.1 billion new shares is to raise enough cash to keep the lights on, and/or for the owners to cash-out:
Certain directors and executive officers of the Company may be issued shares provided in the Share Increase Amendment in return for the elimination of their debt to the Company and deferred salary
"Team On-Track for Gen 1 Engine Production and Sales in 2014"
That's the sub headline for the March 12 PR.
Boy, they better get a move on. Only one more day to get the first prototype to pass the 200 hour durability test at Ohio State, then design of the Gen 1 engines, then production, then sales.
Of course, even if it did happen, it wouldn't matter. WHE GEN has been separated out into an independent company. CYPW has sold almost their entire stake in WHE GEN, so CYPW would see no cash from any WHE GEN sales.
On the other hand, given that Ohio State engineers have not been able to make the simple, low pressure waste heat steam engine work means it's even more unlikely that the complex, high pressure Cyclone Mark 5 steam engine will ever be made to work.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Hi Terry, sorry, when you were talking about all the commercial steam engine products, I though you meant reciprocating engines of the scale (e.g., ~100 hp) of the Cyclone engine.
Yes, there are many companies supplying commercial scale (e.g., a megawatt on up) systems for biomass and waste heat recovery. I know of a utility company plant in Washington state that has been burning forestry waste for many years to produce electricity.
Turbines are the way to go in larger systems, but they become increasingly inefficient at lower sizes. They also spin faster and become difficult to connect to anything. For instance, Cummins has a waste heat recovery system for truck engines 40 hp or so but spins at 130,000 rpm.
Turbines also have a "sweet spot" for speed and load. They don't work well unless they are at that operating point. Lots of experimental gas turbine cars have been built since the 1950s, but nothing practical for street use has come out of it.
My sympathies don't really lay with German engineering. I think the reason the Spilling steam engine costs about 10x a reasonable amount is because of the "meister" attitude of making everything perfect. (An example from WWII was tanks. From Wikipedia "While the Tiger I was an excellent design, it was over-engineered, using expensive materials and labour-intensive production methods. Only 1,347 were built between August 1942 and August 1944. The Tiger was prone to certain types of track failures and breakdowns, and limited in range by its high fuel consumption." The U.S. produced 49,234 Shermans. They weren't nearly as elegant in design and construction, but they were much cheaper to build and more reliable.)
Now the Pratt & Whitney system also uses organic fluids instead of water. That's great when there's a low temperature heat source you want to utilize, but if you are burning fuel, you've got high temperature heat, so why not use it to greatest efficiency?
Organic fluid systems have to be hermetically sealed, which is expensive and makes repairs very difficult. Most of the organic fluids are toxic and/or flammable as is, but if they get overheated they thermally degrade into things like phosgene gas. Organic Rankine Cycle systems will need be used in large scale systems to get the necessary economies, and to have the highly qualified personnel to work on them.
As for the Cyclone engine, I've been looking for months to find evidence that it has ever powered anything. They've built two speedboats to set a water speed record, and neither apparently has ever been launched. They sponsored Chuk Williams' land speed record car in 2009, and he got another engine in 2012 after the promised Cyclone engine never showed up. They reputedly spent half a million dollars on their own land speed record car in 2012, and Harry made a lot of statements about how powerful the engine was on the dyno and how they rented the shuttle runway at Kennedy Space Center and then were going to a drag strip for testing, but there's been not a peep about that car even having an engine installed, let alone run under its own power.
Cyclone has sold Mark 5 engines starting in 2009 to Phoenix Power, Raytheon and Combilift, but no Mark 5 has ever been delivered. (Although Cyclone has been confident commercial production will start in 6 months continuously for the last 5 years...) They also sold a license to Great Wall Power Systems to build Mark 5s for the Chinese market, but all Harry provided was the blueprints for an engine that didn't work in Florida. Great Wall couldn't make the Mark 5 work either, and eventually gave up on the license.
Although Harry's been claiming for years the engine is "runnin' sweet on the dyno", when challenged he refuses to provide any test results, or a video of the engine powering a load. He typically claims the SEC prohibits him from doing so.
I've never found a case of someone other than Harry saying they've seen the Mark 5 run.
Oh, and the Mark 5 burns liquid fuels, not biomass. The P&W system burned biomass.
Terry, could you let us know who the commercial steam engine producers are?
I've only heard of Spilling in Germany. Cost data is hard to find, but for an installation in Australia:
The final plant configuration is a 500 kW Spilling steam engine, with an installed cost of AUS $1.84 million (€1.1 million). This included the steam driven generator, condensing tower, electrical switchgear, construction, upgrading of existing factory pipework and upgrade to boiler ancillaries (pumps, controls and safety equipment).
The unit has been operating as expected, producing approximately 350 kW on average with a peak of approximately 425 kW,
Hi Terry, I actually agree with you. If you look at one of my early posts on this board I also said that biomass fuel is THE potential market for steam engine technology.
And, wow, was I off the mark with "Dinosaur juice isn't going to get cheaper or more plentiful in our lifetimes. "
I still think there's huge potential for steam engine technology with biomass fuel, even if petroleum is not in a temporary glut.
I'm not a big believer in magic or hope when it comes to if a technology will work, so I started to read whatever I could find about the Cyclone engine.
Harry wrote a lot in the steam car club forum. Advanced search for author "Harry Schoell" brings up his posts from 2002-5 and for "HLS" for posts after that.
Then add in the PRs, website claims (the Internet Wayback machine at archive.org stores older versions of the website) and the financial reports.
My impression of Harry has evolved from him being a sincere, although inept, "inventor", to being an egotistical prima donna, to being an outright fraud.
Jaundiced eye? I suppose so. The patterns over the many years are always the same: Claims of working hardware far better than the technical state of the art, boasts of how fantastic the performance will be and the accomplishments soon to come, dismissal of anyone who says different, failure to disclose that claimed performance is all based on speculation rather than actual measured results, and silence once the predicted result fails to appear.
The Mark 5 engine was first ordered in July of 2009 for promised delivery in January 2010. Phoenix Power was the customer, and they were clever enough to put in a late delivery penalty clause. They got $400K in stock in penalty payments for their $100K up front license fee. Good deal for them, bad deal for the stockholders who paid for that.
Cyclone still has not delivered a working Mark 5 although they've been continuously working on it since. The latest was the "success" of the rotary valve. Notice that the engine isn't powering anything, doesn't have the steam generator, condenser, fans, pumps, "regenerative Schoell cycle" or much else covered in the patents. And still it's struggling just to turn itself.
That's as far as the Mark 5 has come four and a half years after the original promised delivery date.
Here's something from the James Landon Letter to Shareholders from Jan 2, 2013:
Commence work on the Mark 5 engines for Combilift: Achieved
We began work on the Combilift engines in Q2 2012 as scheduled. We estimated delivery of these engines by the end of 2012, which has not been achieved. The development path for the Combilift engines follows the LSR engine; however, the complexities and operational requirements for Combilift engines are greater. To assist us in moving this project towards completion, we have recruited contractors with expertise in certain areas such as condensing systems. We are confident that we can start delivery of engines to our customer in the first half of 2013.
Uh oh, more trouble for CYPW
Cyclone Power Technologies (OTC PINK: CYPW) will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2014
Given they're required by law to do so, no surprise there. (Unless they fold first.)
Current receipt of funding from the sale of $500,000 of Cyclone's WHE Gen stock has been reduced to $350,000.
WHE GEN purchased that $500K in stock with proceeds from their second funding round. Apparently Chris Nelson isn't paying his bills.
Cyclone generated $315,527 of revenue during the nine month period ended September 30, 2014
Revenue for the first 6 months was $140,527 (Army contract final payment). That leaves $175K in Q3, which was the "Consulting payment" made by WHE GEN. So no sales and no customers.
Operating expenses for the same period in 2014 increased by 16% and higher funding related interest expense increased by 209%.
Last year's operating expenses (1st 9 months) were $2,024,988, making this year's $2,348,986. Operating expenses for the first 6 months were $1,310,503, meaning that in Q3 they were $1,038,483, or almost as much as the first 2 quarters combined. Given that they had let go their entire technical staff by then, makes you wonder where the money is going.
My guess: deferred salaries for Harry and Frankie, and payments to Schoell Marine.
Interest expenses for the first 9 months of 2013 were $371,902. 209% increase would be $1,149,177.
Lessee, first 9 months revenue = $315K.
Interest + operating expense = $1,149K + $2,349K = $3,498K
Then there's Cost of Goods Sold, and Derivative Expenses.
Revenue is considerably below 9% of spending.
With the royalty streams that are projected from the subsidiaries and licensees
The WHE subsidiary is gone. The only subsidiary left is the "Performance Division" which is led by Nelson Hoyos, who's been gone for a couple years.
The only licensee is WHE GEN, who's not paying their bills now.
OK, I guess Combilift could be called a licensee, but the license required Cyclone to deliver two engines almost 3 years ago.
(Cyclone Mk V Combilift) and we are hopeful for a January 2015 delivery. ... This is a remarkable engine that we expect to have available for manufacturing in mid-2015.
Given the "major success" in September was that sickly rotary valve engine struggling just to turn itself, nothing will be delivered in January.
But, what do you know, the standard "production will start in 6 months" story pops up again.
we believe that our story is quite compelling:
-- Globally patented engine technology with potentially "game changing" attributes.
And never a public demonstration of a working engine in 10 years.
-- Worldwide markets with a current invested customer base that includes the U.S. Army and Department of Defense.
That's former customer U.S. Army and Department of Defense. They've not made a hint of buying anything else from Cyclone. And "Worldwide markets"? Renovolia in Spain gave up on Cyclone years ago, as did Great Wall in China. Combilift in Ireland ordered engines three years ago and has gotten nothing.
-- Focused path to commercialization for our initial engine products.
After only wasting 10 years and $23 million in operating losses, they now have a "path to commercialization".
-- Experienced technical team, manufacturing experts, and new directors and management.
New directors, yes. They fired all their engineers this year. Their "manufacturing experts" must be the fiberglass workers repairing boats at Schoell Marine. Management is limited to Harry and Frankie, who are definitely not new.
-- Current revenue with consistent sales forecasted to start in 2015.
This one is golden. Other than finishing the Army contract, they had no revenue from sales this year. The only order on the books is Combilift, almost three years late for delivery now, and they determine what the acceptance tests will be. They're not going to pay anything even if working engines do show up.
"Consistent sales" have been forecast continuously for years. For instance, there was this little gem from the last annual report:
Should plans to commence manufacturing of the WHE continue on schedule, we expect to generate approximately $2 million in engine sales over the following 12 months.
Actual revenue from engine sales: 0
Harry and Frankie are busy cashing out. They didn't say it in this PR, but the 1.1 billion new shares were for two purposes:
1) to sell more convertible notes, and,
2) to sell for cash to pay Harry and Frankie's deferred wages and to pay the debt to Schoell Marine (Harry's company).
That's why they're begging current shareholders to not sell.
Looks like they're done for the Holidays. From Facebook two days ago:
Happy Holidays to all of our friends from Cyclone Power. Cheers to a great new year filled with growth, advancement, and achievements!
Was the market closed for a holiday today? ZERO volume!
Hey Tom, I had heard somewhere that Chuk Williams never got a promised engine for his land speed record car from Harry because the steam generator tubes were constantly burning out and failing during testing. Your explanation certainly backs that up.
I was thinking about it from more the stress and strength of the tube material point of view. If you are running thin wall tubing at 3200 psi internal pressure, the wall stress is going to be very high.
Now add in that the steam is at 1200F, which means the wall will be hotter, and it is going to be glowing red. The strength of the tube material is going to be dropping rapidly at this point. Slow the steam flow, or have a gust of flame at one spot, that point of the tube gets a little warmer, strength goes down, and the tube bursts.
Like you say, Harry was designing (if we can call it that) to the limits.
The other thing he kept up about was that he was running at precisely 3205 psi. This is the boundary between normal liquid-vapor and supercritical water. Why would he pick the boundary as his operating point? One psi less and the stuff in the tube goes from a uniform fluid to a liquid and vapor mixture. Just the pulsations from the plunger pump and/or the cylinder admission valve are going to do that.
So you are guaranteed to have vapor in the tubing, low heat transfer rates, overheated tubing and tube bursts.
It's not a mystery.
But Cyclone has spent years bursting boiler tubes, and the design of the Mark 5 boiler has not changed. They've shown lots of pictures of flames from the burner, but never 3200 psi/1200F steam coming out of the boiler.
I think we can chalk this up as another fundamental design flaw of the Cyclone engine.
Another interesting part of Harry's post: "I haven't heard a good reason why not ." When you read the threads back then, there were actually a lot of good reasons why supercritical pressures would be trouble. The only problem was, he didn't "hear" them.
More wisdom from Harry Schoell (from the steam car club forum):
Harry schoell
Re: Hi presure
April 10, 2003 06:41PM
Andy,
what I am trying to do ,as in my original thread (searching), the higher the pressure the smaller the machine. At SC their is no control problems as you are dealing with a super heated fluid only. Multitubes present no problems. Tube burnout is no problem, no dry spots. I haven't heard a good reason why not . Please enlighiten me. I am designing and building test engines. They are very unusual and are a complete package. Should have been done by now, other enginering projects have taken up my time. Frustrating to look at half finished engines. thank y
I think the challenge is that this hooker has been around the block quite a few times already. A new shade of lipstick isn't going to cover the wrinkles.
A new outfit claiming a cure for cancer, or ebola, or starting marijuana shops or mining lithium or whatever else is in the news can generate buzz. Lots of traders will get in on the action.
CYPW, with 10 years of continuous broken promises and nothing to show after wasting $23 million on development will lead to profits only if enough new bagholders can be found. The trouble is, CYPW already has 5000 bagholders of record (OK, the SEC calls them "shareholders of record"), plus a lot more who got burned and got out.
So, challenge #1 is to find these new bagholders. How'd the November 23-26 campaign work out? Not so good? Now what?
Did you catch this in the 14-C?
? Authorize a reserve of 300% over the current conversion of shares at above-market price as required by the convertible debt holders.
Certain directors and executive officers of the Company may be issued shares provided in the Share Increase Amendment in return for the elimination of their debt to the Company and deferred salary.
Which "fine minds" are we talking about?
Cyclone fired all their engineers 6 months ago.
Harry Schoell, self-proclaimed "ingenious inventor" is now the total of the technical fine minds on staff. Granted, he's a master of BSing people with technobabble, but he never even went to college, let alone engineering school.
Here's an example of his technical prowess with this technology from the steam car club message board:
HLS
Re: Steam Bearings
December 20, 2008 11:30AM
HI Guys
We make our own bearings the roller type are ceramic. and just a note water is a better lube than oil as it doesnot break down. The problem is that oil is an electrical insulater where water is a conducter. What happens in metal bearings is they act as a small generator and cause a metal to metal atomic attraction hence gualing. Composits and ceramics do not have this problem and they roll so sweetly. Of course any contaminates do not work well with anything. A total closed loop system with out contaminates is by far the best. The ceramic bearings can live 7 to 10 times longer than a steal bearing.
Harry
A recent CYPW Pumping Failure: Nov 23-26
There was a big burst of Twitter traffic on CYPW from November 23rd to the 26th. All just repeating old news, of course.
So how'd it work?
Hard to say. Diminishing volumes don't argue for much effect.
Tom, it's short term damage to traders that's of interest here.
Long term, and by that I mean next month, Cyclone's likely to be wrapped up. Their technology just doesn't work. Ten years and $23 million in operating losses, yet not even one public demonstration of a running engine proves that. We've also shown that it's physically not possible that their valves, condenser or water lubrication can work.
In pump-and-dump daytrading some money may be made. People just have to avoid some things. For instance,
- The 10-Q will come out any minute now, and will be gruesome. As horrific as the last one was, this one will be worse.
- Each time one of their many convertible notes comes due, millions of new shares are issued and get dumped on the market by the note holder. Remember, the notes convert at 45% below market, so a $50K note now converts to 80 million new shares.
- Remember in August when a dozen or more posters swooped down on this board and filled it with praise for CYPW? Remember what the stock did? Pretty much nothing. That was with huge hype. Nothing like that's happening now.
- What about great news popping up? Well, match up each PR in the last year to what happened to the stock price. The stock price would go up a little during the day. Some days the close was higher than the open, but mostly not. In all cases the stock steadily dropped over the following few days. "Sell on news". If you're hoping the price will go up, better hope CYPW doesn't release any good news.
- On December 17th 1.1 Billion new shares will be authorized and ready for issue.
- Not to mention the size of the market lately. Daily volume has been averaging about $600. At 3:30 today a 35 share trade (i.e., 3 pennies) dropped the price 18%, and it stayed there til close.
The trouble is that to make money you've got to find enough suckers to buy this stock in spite of all these factors being well known.
That's the short term risk.
CYPW 10-Q now 2-1/2 weeks late for late deadline.
The SEC late filing deadline was November 17th.
Given how little business they did in Q3, is there any explanation for why it's taking so long to file?
Boy, that James DiPrima must have taught Harry Schoell & company how to BS investors.
In the last three years his company RSII has been an animation company in south east Asia (with no credits), a co-producer of a $100 million Hollywood action film (that hasn't been made), developer of retirement communities (which don't seem to have been built) and now a big player in the fast food industry (with no restaurants). And maybe some others I've missed.
Breathless PRs everywhere.
Just like Cyclone... The most trivial action is spun into PRs promising great things, followed by.... nothing. Then other PRs predicting other great things.
You'd think people would look at who they're throwing their money at.
$CYPW, Financials NOT current or up-to-date.
http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/CYPW/financials#
SEC Reporting - Delinquent
OTC Pink Limited Information
Be prepared as you are "doing this". There was a huge amount of hype in August, and the stock did nothing.
The problem is CYPW is being actively diluted.
Shares Outstanding:
534,582,390 a/o Jul 31, 2014
734,864,045 a/o September 30, 2014
844,328,217 a/o November 11, 2014
Sept 30 to Nov 11 averaged about 3,800,000 new shares issued per trading day.
On December 17 the AS goes from 900,000,000 to 2,000,000,000.
Cyclone's been operating the last two years by selling convertible notes, or by issuing new shares directly.
Maybe they've hit the 900,000,000 issued share number, and more dilution won't happen for two weeks, or maybe they haven't, and a price increase would trigger a quick release of new stock.
And maybe potential buyers won't notice that more than a billion new shares are in the pipeline.
Have fun!
Hi MTM, here's my guess. I don't know about bankruptcy in Florida, either, but I would suspect no one would go for a Chapter 11 restructuring and wiping away the debts. Their business plan has always been that they'll hemorrhage money until the technology works. Hard to imagine a bankruptcy court cancelling debt with such a plan.
All of Cyclone's assets had been secured by Schoell Marine before Harry had to pledge them an outside lender. Part of the deal giving WHE to Chris Nelson was that WHE GEN would pay off that note and release the security.
The Q2 10Q listed $476,962 in deferred salaries and $785,004 owed to Schoell Marine.
I'll bet that Schoell Marine has secured all Cyclone's assets again.
WHE GEN paid Cyclone $675K cash. If Harry and Frankie were planning to wind up Cyclone, where do you suppose they'd put that cash? I'd guess to deferred salary and the remainder to the Schoell Marine debt.
Stock can continue to be sold for a while to raise some more cash from the market. Some can keep the lights on and pay for more PRs, and some can go to Schoell Marine.
Once that dries up, Harry will put Cyclone in bankruptcy. Schoell Marine, as the only secured creditor, has first pick on the assets. I don't know the law, it might be that Schoell Marine would have to liquidate the assets, take cash for their debt and distribute any remainder to the other creditors.
In that case Harry (or a proxy) would buy his patents and toys back at the auction for 5 cents on the book value dollar.
The shell might be worth something. The cash raised would all go to paying the Schoell Marine debt.
Cyclone would be gone, creditors get nothing and Harry and Frankie ride off into the sunset with a LSR car and boat full of money.
2,000,000,000 shares authorized by December 17, 2014
A new definitive statement filed today with SEC
Interesting bit: None of the three independent directors hold any stock.
DILUTION is the Big Potential here:
Shares Outstanding:
534,582,390 a/o Jul 31, 2014
734,864,045 a/o September 30, 2014
844,328,217 a/o November 11, 2014
Sept 30 to Nov 11 averaged about 3,800,000 new shares issued per trading day.
Any time now the number of authorized shares will go from 900,000,000 to 2,000,000,000
If the price starts to rise, CYPW will just open the floodgates.
And, not ONE PENNY has come from that PO.
The first condition is that Ohio State University makes the WHE engine run for 200 hours without breaking down. Here's Chris Nelson from one year ago predicting that was going to happen by the end of last year:
WHE GEN is not CYPW
WHE Generation is a new company that was spun out of Cyclone. Cyclone has sold almost its entire stake in WHE GEN. Even if WHE GEN succeeds, Cyclone won't benefit.
The Waste Heat Engine (WHE) was the only thing Cyclone had that has any chance of commercialization, and now it's gone. It was the only asset Cyclone could sell.
Smart(er) money is investing in WHE GEN while CYPW is left to sink with the liabilities.
CYPW gets PO from Ark Technologies based in Foley, Alabama, August 23, 2014. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cyclone-power-technologies-signs-letter-131610614.html
Look up Ark Technologies of Foley, Alabama.
That company doesn't exist, either.
"$CYPW Signs LOI With Leading Turbine Systems Integrator Steam Logic Inc. of Canada"
Look up Steam Logic Inc of Canada. I dare you.
They don't exist outside of that CYPW press release.
$CYPW .0008 youtube Rankine Engine demo
Hey Tom, the way these scams work is that MMs who hold lots of stock get their 'friends' to load up boards with hype.
I doubt Cyclone is involved. Now that they've announced work on the Mark 1 and Mark 3, whatever those are, it means Harry has given up on the Mark 5. Frankie's recent statements are that Cyclone is both a pure R&D company and will generate all its revenue from engine manufacturing, so there's not even an attempt at a coherent business plan now.
They're just winding things down. Dilute the stock to zero, go CYPWQ, and save face claiming it's the market's fault they failed.
Harry's company probably has secured all Cyclone's assets, so Harry will keep his beloved worthless patents, and Frankie will be able to put a working engine in her speed boat.
So will the pumpers or the dilution win this round?
August had a huge effort to raise the price, but CYPW is actively diluting the stock so badly that nothing much happened.
Check out these numbers:
Shares Outstanding 534,582,390 a/o Jul 31, 2014
Shares Outstanding: Common: 734,864,045 - as of September 30, 2014
844,328,217 were issued and outstanding on the Record Date (November 11, 2014)
Any time now the number of authorized shares will go from 900,000,000 to 2,000,000,000.
Good luck to current stockholders.
Hey Tom, I agree completely with your analysis.
I started digging into the details to find out of small steam systems just aren't viable, or if Cyclone's execution was the problem. After figuring out that nothing Harry says is true, the pieces started coming together.
I used to think Harry's problem was monumental ego. As in having the arrogance to design a complete engine far different than anything that's been built before, and just expect it to work.
My opinion has now changed to the problem being he has no idea just how clueless he is. For instance, the first Mark 5 was sold to Phoenix in July 2009 for delivery in January 2010. It still hasn't been delivered.
Now can you imagine spending more than five years trying to make the Mark 5 work? Other than the new rotary valve, that five years was spent trying to make the design in the patent work.
And it's not like there was a lack of resources, he was burning millions of dollars per year.
We've figured out that the water lubrication doesn't work, that the valve design can't work, that the condenser is far too small and that trying to make a small supercritical steam system work is its own complete can of worms.
But Harry still believes in all that stuff. He's in way over his head and clearly has never had any idea of what to do. So he tinkers and guesses and tries things. And after five years there's no progress at all.
A month or so ago there was a discussion on the steam car club forum about the Army generator. Karl Petersen, who was Cyclone's VP of engineering for maybe a year, said he bought the first pressure sensor for measuring what was going on inside the engine. I think he had also bought the first dynamometer to measure engine output. (Some people got pretty critical of Cyclone and this discussion was deleted.) He posted a graph of measured engine power output, but apologized because the RPM of the engine was going up and down over a big range. He attributed that to their home-made boiler.
Harry was working, for years, without knowing what the engines were actually doing. When you see pictures of at test setup, you see mismatched gauges from boat instrument panels and Harbor Freight Chinese multimeters duct taped to the test stands.
How can anyone spend millions on engine development without an instrumented test cell? If you are developing a steam engine, how can you not have a commercial boiler that provides steam at a fixed pressure and temperature for engine testing?
One of the correspondence schools in Popular Mechanics many years ago had a motto: "The man who knows HOW will always have a job. The man who knows WHY will always be his boss."
Harry knows how valves and condensers and bearings work, he just has no idea why they work.
Definitely agree.
MTM, sounds like your instincts were right on. It sure shows the value of getting to know who you're giving your money to.
I'm also wondering what we'll hear next from Chris Nelson. Apparently he's looking for a Chief Technology Officer for WHE GEN. To show just how clueless he is about his company's technology, have a look at the requirements:
Licensed Engineer – Master’s degree or Doctorate in Engineering, Mechanical, Thermal or Material Sciences from an accredited college or university and 20 years’ solid, directly related working experience; or equivalent combination of education, appropriate internship and experience may be applicable.
Working knowledge of external combustion engines is required.
Working knowledge of high temp / high pressure materials and systems required
Knowledge of SolidWorks part & assembly drawings required; proficiency in SolidWorks Simulation (stress, thermal, fatigue analyses) required.
Experience in prototype simulation, construction and testing required.
Must demonstrate, by example, successful product development histories from concept to market.
Machinist and Fabrication skills and experience required.
Extensive working knowledge of IC/EC engine components, mechanical power systems, prototype designs and mass production methodologies required
Applicable Academic publishing and recognition preferred.
Engineering innovation as evidenced by successful patent filings as sole party or team member inventor is highly preferred.
Highly knowledgeable of AMSE Standards preferred
All the automakers are doing major projects on exhaust waste heat recovery. It was in the New York Times even.
Once these systems hit mass production, reliability will be high and costs low. Hillbilly outfits like Cyclone and WHE GEN won't have a snowball's chance.
Hi Tom, I think you've put your finger on the crux of the issue: "but there was no analysis to find a best quality practical solution."
Someone with a mechanical bent and some engineering knowledge will do just that when trying to solve a particular problem. In this case, for instance, listing the different options for valves and doing some preliminary calculations like you and I have posted here. Then the promising candidates get designed, prototyped and tested and the best picked for further refinement.
Someone who is a self-described "technology visionary", however, doesn't need to bother with that mundane stuff. If they did, they wouldn't be a "visionary", now would they?
Now if that person also has no engineering training and doesn't understand the fundamentals, they have no reason to believe their "vision" won't work due to conflict with the Laws of Physics or such. If eventually when they try to build their design and it doesn't work, it's not because the concept is flawed, it's because some detail needs to be tweaked.
So you get years of secret trial and error with claims that the engine is "runnin' sweet".
Harry knows he's running out of time. He didn't have the technical understanding to see why the poppet valves won't work, and he doesn't have the technical understanding to see why a rotary valve is also a bad idea. He sees the OSU eggheads think a rotary valve is a good idea so jumps on that bandwagon.
There's a kind of mentality of people who don't understand something themselves to rely on the credentials of "experts". Harry lives this. Look at all the PRs about their Technical Advisory Board (which he never consults...). It's been a major part of Cyclone's marketing. I think Harry is now relying on the OSU people because of their credentials rather than his understanding of the technology.
This is how he is minimizing risk in his own mind, not because he understands the rotary valve is technically appropriate for the application, but because the OSU people say it is.
I wonder how Chris Nelson is doing at WHE GEN. He's supposed to get a bonus for registering the common stock with the SEC, but nothing seems to be started with the SEC yet.
Funny thing, though, the Separation Agreement included:
Section 1.2 Conversion Round Financing : Prior to or concurrently with the First Series A Closing, Cyclone will complete a separate offering (the “ Conversion Round ”) of no more than 2,210,400 shares of common stock of WHE GEN that Cyclone owns. The Conversion Round offering shall be completed at no less than $.27 per share of Common Stock of WHE GEN, with the exact terms (including possible issuance of Cyclone warrants with a forced conversion feature as a Unit) to be determined by Cyclone; provided, however that Cyclone must obtain prior written consent from WHE if Cyclone uses a Securities Purchase Agreement (“SPA”) that is not materially similar to the SPA used by WHE GEN in the Series A Round Cyclone sale shall be limited to not more than 25 investors, and such transfer shall only be made to accredited investors in full compliance with applicable securities laws. Christopher Nelson will assist Cyclone in the placement of the Conversion Round, for which he will not receive any additional compensation. Without the parties reasonable approval to the contrary, the First Series A Closing may not occur until a Conversion Round of at least $500,000 is also completed and closed. Any WHE GEN shares held by Cyclone and sold to third parties shall be subject to the terms and conditions, including transfer restrictions, found in the Stock Purchase Agreement in the form attached hereto as Exhibit 1.2 .
Hi MTM, If anything, I think you're being too kind to Harry. It's not the advanced math and engineering he missed, it's the elementary math and engineering.
When I started looking at investing in Cyclone I went to the steam car club forum and read his posts that started in 2002 or 2003.
The process was that he dreamed up the "perfect" steam engine, which eventually was given the name Mark 5. He did all the drawings down to the last detail then applied for patents.
If you look at the drawings of the original engine patent that was filed on Sep 13, 2005 and compare them to any other drawing or picture of a Mark 5 (except for the new rotary valve version), there are no differences. The complete design for the Mark 5 was locked down when Cyclone started.
But here's the thing: Harry never tried to build one until the order from Phoenix Power in 2009. Every last bit of the design was based on Harry's opinion of what a perfect steam engine should be, rather than the result of a coherent program of design and testing.
I'll bet that a lot of the design came from Harry's thoughts on visual appeal rather than utilitarian functioning. Hence all the really attractive non-functional mock-ups from weedeater to truck engine size.
But, the guy has spent his life in the South Florida powerboat scene. Shiny toys and big talk. Image over substance. And he's been successful at it.