Some progress on my MARX
Dr. Shark, Mon Aug 14 2006, 06:40PMHey guys,
just so you don't think I have given up playing with high voltage alltogether, I got a few picures for you to laugh at:
Stress testing door-knobs
yup, thats the output of my 100kV Cascade arcing across it. The gap is set at something like 7cm (3"), but the 30kV doorknob stood up fine. Closeup:
The results (not the voltage rating, but rather all the surface tracking across the caps) persuaded me to double up on caps in the prototype marx:
This was probably a good idea, but not sufficient, since it now arcs over all over the place:
Oh, btw, don't be fooled by the rather short sparks: The gaps are only set at only 2cm, but because of the smoothness of the spheres, they probably only arc over at 50kV or so.
Re: Some progress on my MARX
..., Mon Aug 14 2006, 07:57PM
doh!
Looks like there is a reason that everyone builds marx'es with a lot of space between the stages...
Looks good otherwise
..., Mon Aug 14 2006, 07:57PM
doh!
Looks like there is a reason that everyone builds marx'es with a lot of space between the stages...
Looks good otherwise
Re: Some progress on my MARX
McFluffin, Fri Aug 18 2006, 05:59AM
Look cool even if may need some work. Maybe you can dip it in laquer to stop the arching :) I was wondering, if you put a flouresent tube near this, does it light up like a coil would cause it to?
McFluffin, Fri Aug 18 2006, 05:59AM
Look cool even if may need some work. Maybe you can dip it in laquer to stop the arching :) I was wondering, if you put a flouresent tube near this, does it light up like a coil would cause it to?
Re: Some progress on my MARX
Wilson, Fri Aug 18 2006, 01:59PM
i doubt whether it would, because a TC makes a sustained RF field, while this is just a single HVDC pulse discharge. Although I wonder what would happen if u hooked the outputs of the marx across a fluoro tube....
Wilson, Fri Aug 18 2006, 01:59PM
i doubt whether it would, because a TC makes a sustained RF field, while this is just a single HVDC pulse discharge. Although I wonder what would happen if u hooked the outputs of the marx across a fluoro tube....
Re: Some progress on my MARX
McFluffin, Sat Aug 19 2006, 07:16AM
BOOM! Thats what I'd think, but I really don't know a lot about Marx. I thought they pulsed rapidly like a TC does. Guess not. What are those brass ball things? They look nice.
I had an experience a while back where and LED exploded on me. Remembering that and then having a fairly large capacitor bank(~7kJ) I put the LED across it curoius what would happen, hit the button. It shorted out the LED and nothing happend(not even a flash). How dissapointing. So, what I am trying to say is, maybe nothing, but it would be worth a try.
McFluffin, Sat Aug 19 2006, 07:16AM
BOOM! Thats what I'd think, but I really don't know a lot about Marx. I thought they pulsed rapidly like a TC does. Guess not. What are those brass ball things? They look nice.
I had an experience a while back where and LED exploded on me. Remembering that and then having a fairly large capacitor bank(~7kJ) I put the LED across it curoius what would happen, hit the button. It shorted out the LED and nothing happend(not even a flash). How dissapointing. So, what I am trying to say is, maybe nothing, but it would be worth a try.
Re: Some progress on my MARX
williamn, Sat Aug 19 2006, 04:49PM
Have the marx dishcarge into a antenna.
williamn, Sat Aug 19 2006, 04:49PM
Have the marx dishcarge into a antenna.
Re: Some progress on my MARX
Steve Ward, Sat Aug 19 2006, 05:34PM
What size are those resistors? Im running low in carbon comp stuff, so it would be nice to learn of a new source of resistors that would take HV pulses.
I recently made an inductively charged marx generator using magnetos as the inductors (even with the core removed they are 4H). This generator worked great with 15" discharges from 280kV ideal output. I then began trying my own inductors. I tried a 2.5"diameter x 3" winding of 36awg, which provides about 12mH. This seemed to work fine for 3 stages, but dang thats a lot of work winding those things. I then tried 1.2mH, but it didnt perform as well. I think i found my best spark for the 3 stage test unit using inductors (1.2mH) was 4", but with high meg resistors it hit 7", mainly limited by surface tracking across my temporary setup. But, the inductor marx banks do have the unique feature that the output is oscillating at many khz, and i *did* get small streamers to form (that is, sparks, but without ground connection). I was hoping to get it up to 100+ shots a second, but spark gap quenching is turning out to be a real pain. I guess i will return to this next summer.
Steve Ward, Sat Aug 19 2006, 05:34PM
What size are those resistors? Im running low in carbon comp stuff, so it would be nice to learn of a new source of resistors that would take HV pulses.
I recently made an inductively charged marx generator using magnetos as the inductors (even with the core removed they are 4H). This generator worked great with 15" discharges from 280kV ideal output. I then began trying my own inductors. I tried a 2.5"diameter x 3" winding of 36awg, which provides about 12mH. This seemed to work fine for 3 stages, but dang thats a lot of work winding those things. I then tried 1.2mH, but it didnt perform as well. I think i found my best spark for the 3 stage test unit using inductors (1.2mH) was 4", but with high meg resistors it hit 7", mainly limited by surface tracking across my temporary setup. But, the inductor marx banks do have the unique feature that the output is oscillating at many khz, and i *did* get small streamers to form (that is, sparks, but without ground connection). I was hoping to get it up to 100+ shots a second, but spark gap quenching is turning out to be a real pain. I guess i will return to this next summer.
Re: Some progress on my MARX
SpyrosF, Sat Aug 19 2006, 07:28PM
are you looking for emp ?
SpyrosF, Sat Aug 19 2006, 07:28PM
Have the marx dishcarge into a antenna.
are you looking for emp ?
Re: Some progress on my MARX
GimpyJoe, Sun Aug 20 2006, 09:17PM
GimpyJoe, Sun Aug 20 2006, 09:17PM
williamn wrote ...
Have the marx dishcarge into a antenna.
Thus killing your computers, and the computers of all your neighbors... If you want to do this, definetly make a faraday cage.Have the marx dishcarge into a antenna.
Re: Some progress on my MARX
Marko, Sun Aug 20 2006, 09:24PM
Considering I ran a DRSSTC meter away from open computer case and grounded to same mains 0 (no green wire) I think such and ''EMP'' is a hard way to go...
Marko, Sun Aug 20 2006, 09:24PM
Considering I ran a DRSSTC meter away from open computer case and grounded to same mains 0 (no green wire) I think such and ''EMP'' is a hard way to go...
Re: Some progress on my MARX
williamn, Sun Aug 20 2006, 09:40PM
Maybe in the movies.
I built just a device to sizzle RFID tags and it had a hard time at a distance of 3". It consisted of 1nf 30KV caps x 10stages.
williamn, Sun Aug 20 2006, 09:40PM
Thus killing your computers, and the computers of all your neighbors...
Maybe in the movies.I built just a device to sizzle RFID tags and it had a hard time at a distance of 3". It consisted of 1nf 30KV caps x 10stages.
Print this page