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Registered Member #15
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 01:11PM
Location:
Posts: 3068
UPDATE:
PM's sent to the first responders here. Unfortunately, we only have a limited amount of kits, so we weren't able to accomodate everyone. Sorry.
Please following instructions on PM with your name and address information.
These are free kits and all I ask in return is your comments and feedback and well as how well your kit performed. If you loved 'em, if you hated 'em. If you think they're great - if you think they stink. All feedback appreciated!
Also, as Suilaman pointed out, if you are international, you may need to use alternative capacitors on the CW multiplier and/or use a different input source. The input source is rated for 120VAC operation. The capacitors on the Marx. are rated for 6kV.
Registered Member #89
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145
Hi Allison
May I offer some evaluation/advice without you having to send a kit to me? :)
The spark gaps in your marx seem to be made simply from bent capacitor pins. While I can see this was the easiest solution here, I wouldn't recommend it for several reasons:
- The thin wires could be easily bent by handling or transport, and setting them back to their original position can be painstaking.
- Even worse, they could quickly suffer metal fatigue and get torn completely.
- The sharp edges of the wires render the gaps even more difficult to adjust, because breakdown voltage will wary greatly depending on how the wire was cut. That's why people bend the wire ends into little loops on their marx generators!
Ideally, you want all the gaps to fire reliably at almost the same voltage, which is just a bit less than your maximum charging voltage for the best effect. There are a number of ways to construct good spark gaps, but here's one idea that just fell to my mind:
Buy a bag of small decorative acorn/dome brass nuts like these:
Then solder them from beneath the PCB, facing each other. Before soldering, space them with an adequate spacer (which could be a sheet of thick paper or a thin PCB). I've had good success with simple spark gaps made this way.
Registered Member #15
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 01:11PM
Location:
Posts: 3068
Thanks Marko. Thats an excellent tip. I had thought about using a different type of electrode configuration, but most of my ideas were too cost prohibitive. The acorn nuts look like a great idea. If they can be easily soldered by the typical general purpose soldering iron to a pad then that would be a great solution. A suitable spacer could then be included in the kit for the proper distance.
Registered Member #89
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145
EasternVoltageResearch wrote ...
Thanks Marko. Thats an excellent tip. I had thought about using a different type of electrode configuration, but most of my ideas were too cost prohibitive. The acorn nuts look like a great idea. If they can be easily soldered by the typical general purpose soldering iron to a pad then that would be a great solution. A suitable spacer could then be included in the kit for the proper distance.
Thank you Marko
Allison
Hi Allison
To facilitate soldering of the brass nuts, it is a good idea to sand the surfaces that are going to be soldered with some fine grit sandpaper. Small M3 or similar sized nuts shouldn't be a problem to heat up and solder with any hobbyst soldering iron.
If you're lucky, you might even be able to get some nickel plated brass nuts (rare in my country) which should be even easier to solder as they resist oxidation.
Registered Member #3943
Joined: Sun Jun 12 2011, 05:24PM
Location: The Shire, UK
Posts: 552
EasternVoltageResearch wrote ...
UPDATE:
PM's sent to the first responders here. Unfortunately, we only have a limited amount of kits, so we weren't able to accomodate everyone. Sorry.
Please following instructions on PM with your name and address information.
These are free kits and all I ask in return is your comments and feedback and well as how well your kit performed. If you loved 'em, if you hated 'em. If you think they're great - if you think they stink. All feedback appreciated!
Also, as Suilaman pointed out, if you are international, you may need to use alternative capacitors on the CW multiplier and/or use a different input source. The input source is rated for 120VAC operation. The capacitors on the Marx. are rated for 6kV.
Thanks for you interest.
Allison
Thanks, just replied to it and payed for shipping to the UK.
I look forward to testing this kit out and being a beta tester!
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Marx Generator Kits - FREE Kits for Evaluation!
