If you need assistance, please send an email to forum at 4hv dot org. To ensure your email is not marked as spam, please include the phrase "4hv help" in the subject line. You can also find assistance via IRC, at irc.shadowworld.net, room #hvcomm.
Support 4hv.org!
Donate:
4hv.org is hosted on a dedicated server. Unfortunately, this server costs and we rely on the help of site members to keep 4hv.org running. Please consider donating. We will place your name on the thanks list and you'll be helping to keep 4hv.org alive and free for everyone. Members whose names appear in red bold have donated recently. Green bold denotes those who have recently donated to keep the server carbon neutral.
Special Thanks To:
Aaron Holmes
Aaron Wheeler
Adam Horden
Alan Scrimgeour
Andre
Andrew Haynes
Anonymous000
asabase
Austin Weil
barney
Barry
Bert Hickman
Bill Kukowski
Blitzorn
Brandon Paradelas
Bruce Bowling
BubeeMike
Byong Park
Cesiumsponge
Chris F.
Chris Hooper
Corey Worthington
Derek Woodroffe
Dalus
Dan Strother
Daniel Davis
Daniel Uhrenholt
datasheetarchive
Dave Billington
Dave Marshall
David F.
Dennis Rogers
drelectrix
Dr. John Gudenas
Dr. Spark
E.TexasTesla
eastvoltresearch
Eirik Taylor
Erik Dyakov
Erlend^SE
Finn Hammer
Firebug24k
GalliumMan
Gary Peterson
George Slade
GhostNull
Gordon Mcknight
Graham Armitage
Grant
GreySoul
Henry H
IamSmooth
In memory of Leo Powning
Jacob Cash
James Howells
James Pawson
Jeff Greenfield
Jeff Thomas
Jesse Frost
Jim Mitchell
jlr134
Joe Mastroianni
John Forcina
John Oberg
John Willcutt
Jon Newcomb
klugesmith
Leslie Wright
Lutz Hoffman
Mads Barnkob
Martin King
Mats Karlsson
Matt Gibson
Matthew Guidry
mbd
Michael D'Angelo
Mikkel
mileswaldron
mister_rf
Neil Foster
Nick de Smith
Nick Soroka
nicklenorp
Nik
Norman Stanley
Patrick Coleman
Paul Brodie
Paul Jordan
Paul Montgomery
Ped
Peter Krogen
Peter Terren
PhilGood
Richard Feldman
Robert Bush
Royce Bailey
Scott Fusare
Scott Newman
smiffy
Stella
Steven Busic
Steve Conner
Steve Jones
Steve Ward
Sulaiman
Thomas Coyle
Thomas A. Wallace
Thomas W
Timo
Torch
Ulf Jonsson
vasil
Vaxian
vladi mazzilli
wastehl
Weston
William Kim
William N.
William Stehl
Wesley Venis
The aforementioned have contributed financially to the continuing triumph of 4hv.org. They are deserving of my most heartfelt thanks.
Registered Member #3147
Joined: Sun Aug 29 2010, 10:53AM
Location: Finland
Posts: 56
This is my experiment on making a CW multiplier with ordinary components that I could get ahold of in this city. (cheaply!!)
The caps are made following the instructions found at this place: And the HV diode chains are made following these instructions: ,_30_A_peak but I changed it to 30 diodes (only needed them to hold up to 30kV) and I didn't put oil in the PVC tubing.
Current limiting resistor is made out of 250 0,6W resistors making the total resistance to ~35kohm, I filled this PVC tube with sunflower oil.
The longest spark I have gotten with this is about 10cm (shown in pictures)
The purpose of this experiment was to test if a CW multiplier with this capacitance is enough to drive my coolidge x-ray tube (small dental tube) and I can say it was enough, update on that is coming in a new thread in the future.
Sidenote on x-ray testing: I'm getting some real HV caps and diodes from ebay so I can make the whole machine portable.
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
Golly what fun, Freitsu!
I especially like the very literal circuit diagram layout on the table. Does it make a good hiss?
My smallest tube - a Svetlana BS7 - starts talking to the outside world through a beryllium window at 4kV, and would run away and hide in the woods (of which you have a great many in Finland!) if anything like that giant spark came anywhere near it.
I look forward to hearing more of your adventures with nanometric waves.
Registered Member #3147
Joined: Sun Aug 29 2010, 10:53AM
Location: Finland
Posts: 56
A quick update, a decided to upgrade it to a 5-stage for more voltage and add ZVS driver instead of 555 driver for more power. Look at the video in first post!
Registered Member #1938
Joined: Sun Jan 25 2009, 12:44PM
Location: Romania
Posts: 701
ZVS is nice, since it gives you a lot more power / shorter charging times, but you might want to double check your voltage output and make sure it is optimum.
For me most ZVS drivers put out a relatively low voltage, compared with a PWM driver. Some flybacks however seem to do a better job than others.
Registered Member #3147
Joined: Sun Aug 29 2010, 10:53AM
Location: Finland
Posts: 56
GluD wrote ...
How much capacitance are you using? Very nice cloud in the 555 video Im also building a CW.
It's actually more corona in the second video but it was somehow not the optimal filming contions when I shot it so it doesn't show well...
Capacitance is approx. 3nF for each cap.
radhoo wrote ...
ZVS is nice, since it gives you a lot more power / shorter charging times, but you might want to double check your voltage output and make sure it is optimum.
For me most ZVS drivers put out a relatively low voltage, compared with a PWM driver. Some flybacks however seem to do a better job than others.
The AC flyback is outputting quite high voltage with ZVS actually (est. 15-20kV at 200W power) but ofcourse PWM driver would output more voltage (maybe even 25-30kV at best)...
Registered Member #1225
Joined: Sat Jan 12 2008, 01:24AM
Location: Beaumont, Texas, USA
Posts: 2253
Very nice . If i ever get some diodes, i think i may try to repeat your results! I would likely use polyethylene instead, even though the capacitance per given area would be lower, because i have a lot of it.
Registered Member #3147
Joined: Sun Aug 29 2010, 10:53AM
Location: Finland
Posts: 56
Thanks, Arcstarter! It was very satisfying (you know what I'm talkin' about! ) to see those long sparks flying from something as simple as this! I must say though it was very tedious work soldering those diodes and resistors together but was well worth the effort.
Something that is really tempting me is to try and run it non currentlimited, I can only imagine how loud that spark would be, but the diodes would surely not survive that kind of abuse...
This site is powered by e107, which is released under the GNU GPL License. All work on this site, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. By submitting any information to this site, you agree that anything submitted will be so licensed. Please read our Disclaimer and Policies page for information on your rights and responsibilities regarding this site.
3 (and 5) stage CW multiplier
) to see those long sparks flying from something as simple as this! I must say though it was very tedious work soldering those diodes and resistors together but was well worth the effort.