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 #135
Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735
My first projects were long before the internet existed, and my parents were really disapproving of them because I was really young. But, whenever I had the chance at my grandfather's house we would take old TV sets apart for their gigantic flybacks and attempt to get them working outside of the set. I also tried to get a ladder going from a 2kv 30VA transformer (which I still have), but you know, I was only 12, what did I know.
I guess that means i've been playing with HV for 16 years now, which is as long as some of you guys have been alive, heh, imagine that, now I feel old.
Registered Member #14
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 01:04PM
Location: Prato/italy
Posts: 383
The initial infection was dated back in winter 2003 when I was studying phisics II for my chemistry degree, but remained latent since spring when i saw the first flyback driver, so decided do build it. First I did read lots of tutorials since my knowledge of electronics was scarce. When started experimentation with a friend also interested with HV.
My first HV project (it worked) was a small wall transformer with primary stripped run in self resonant flyback with the 2n3055 (I didn't manage to get my hands on a flyback). It made small 5mm sparks before the insulation fails. Decided to stick to a 555 driver but the result was the same. After driving around my town in search of a car repair facility I could get on my hand a Audi-separate-windings-ignition-coil (german technology?). I still remember the beautyful purple spark at high frequency (and resultin corona). All this was in spring 2003. The 555 driver was able to sweep in a large range of frequencies, so i used it also to charge caps at 300V and started the very first experimentation with coilguns (straw + wire + nail) and was amazed with that (since than my knowledge of coilguns is much more improved with 3 models built, 2 simulators and tons of data). The real fun whas when i dissected a PC monitor got from the scrapyard. My girlfriend helped me a bit in collecting the components, but the more important, surprise surprise was the flyback transformer. I plugged it on my driver (using the original primary), brusched the hot wire on the bottom and got a beautiful 1inch purple DC spark. Also i charged some caps got from the monitor to see them sparking. Man how I was amazed. I still remember that ozone smell from corona.
Although my principal interest is Coilgunning, I have lots of flybacks (2 driven in the royer mode), and a small tesla coil.
The first finished coilgun was a tabletop single stage glass tubed coigun with 100J worth of caps, i finished it the day before going on summer holydays.
Registered Member #561
Joined: Sat Mar 03 2007, 02:46AM
Location: Adelaide Australia
Posts: 230
TheMerovingian wrote ...
The initial infection was dated back in winter 2003 when I was studying phisics II for my chemistry degree, but remained latent since spring when i saw the first flyback driver, so decided do build it. First I did read lots of tutorials since my knowledge of electronics was scarce. When started experimentation with a friend also interested with HV.
My first HV project (it worked) was a small wall transformer with primary stripped run in self resonant flyback with the 2n3055 (I didn't manage to get my hands on a flyback). It made small 5mm sparks before the insulation fails. Decided to stick to a 555 driver but the result was the same. After driving around my town in search of a car repair facility I could get on my hand a Audi-separate-windings-ignition-coil (german technology?). I still remember the beautyful purple spark at high frequency (and resultin corona). All this was in spring 2003. The 555 driver was able to sweep in a large range of frequencies, so i used it also to charge caps at 300V and started the very first experimentation with coilguns (straw + wire + nail) and was amazed with that (since than my knowledge of coilguns is much more improved with 3 models built, 2 simulators and tons of data). The real fun whas when i dissected a PC monitor got from the scrapyard. My girlfriend helped me a bit in collecting the components, but the more important, surprise surprise was the flyback transformer. I plugged it on my driver (using the original primary), brusched the hot wire on the bottom and got a beautiful 1inch purple DC spark. Also i charged some caps got from the monitor to see them sparking. Man how I was amazed. I still remember that ozone smell from corona.
Although my principal interest is Coilgunning, I have lots of flybacks (2 driven in the royer mode), and a small tesla coil.
The first finished coilgun was a tabletop single stage glass tubed coigun with 100J worth of caps, i finished it the day before going on summer holydays.
Registered Member #540
Joined: Mon Feb 19 2007, 07:49PM
Location: MIT
Posts: 969
Maybe he didn't know where to look or maybe it was a town where they don't put stuff on the side of the curb. He was new to HV and I had a hard time getting a flyback too. It was hard cause I didn't know where too look.
Registered Member #89
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145
I guess that means i've been playing with HV for 16 years now, which is as long as some of you guys have been alive, heh, imagine that, now I feel old.
psssssssssssss, I have been a EE for 22 years at Intel and first Tesla coil built in 1967.....Now we are really talking old, hehe.
I will be a grandpa this year!
Ah, so i'm sort of an opposition to you... I'm 15 year old teenager and and not much of old seawolf coiler!
Maybe 2 years ago, an OBIT powered Tesla coil was probably my first 'serious' project.
At that time my knowledge was really poor so the coil had humongous, grossly overcoupled helical primary wich flashed over badly and tiny, long secondary in the middle.
At that time I had no clue for importance oc coupling and quenching, so my gap didn't quench at all and from all that coil managed some 10..15cm arcs.
It's still collecting dust in my wardrobe, as it was simply pointless to try fixing it in any way. I'l try to take pics of it when I manage...
Yet, nothing stopped me from starting to build working DRSSTC's maybe a year later!
Registered Member #72
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:29AM
Location: UK St. Albans
Posts: 1659
My first HV thing (that worked anyway) was way back at the end of the 60s when I was 14. Just as a man was landing on the moon for the first time, I was building better and better igniters for our gas cooker. Our very old platinum catalyst igniter stopped working well when the supply changed from town gas (CO + H) to North Sea gas (CH4). The challenge was something that worked well, but was electrically safe enough for me to be happy with my Mum using it day-in, day-out.
Mk1 was battery powered, moveable contacts at the business end ran DC into a fluorescent tube choke, and created a spark when they broke. Worked well, but the thin contacts made from a steel tape measure burnt fast. It was a proof of concept really, you had to pull a string and it looked like shite. Mk2 had chunky stainless steel rod contacts in a sort of pistol-grip thingy that was more user-friendly. Mk3 was a mains powered mk2. Mk4 is missing from my memory.
I changed tack for Mk5, to get away from moving contacts at the sharp end, and built an all-discrete version of what would now be called a lamp-dimmer powered iggy coil. Dimmers weren't available then, it was my take on capacitor discharge ignition systems that were just becoming popular, with an RC delayed triac to connect a 1uF cap in series with raw mains. The HV went up normal 3A 240V flex to a spark gap fashioned with steel tube and araldite, looking like a stretched car spark-plug. The third core in the flex went to the "on" button. It produced such a hot fat arc at the gap that it burnt the gap out quickly in testing, before the 400v capacitor died taking out the 400v triac. It was just as well that one crashed and burned as, with the direct mains connection, it violated my safety standards.
After the glorious failure and useful experience from the mk5, I went balls-out for safety and design margin on the mk6. Astonishingly it was still working only a few years ago, and was retired rather than binned. It used an isolation transformer, sent low voltage up to the control switch on the wand, was half-wave rectified onto a 0.1uF cap, with an RC delayed thyristor to kick the iggy coil on the other half mains cycle. A fraction of the power of the Mk5, but more than enough to light gas, and to impress visitors. The 600v thyristor and 1000v cap, together with working on half cycles to avoid excess voltage stress, probably contributed to its longevity.
These days I swear at the feeble spark from my Bosch gas hob, and threaten to rebuild the lighter of my youth, but somehow never do.
Registered Member #227
Joined: Mon Feb 20 2006, 10:47PM
Location: Cambridge Ontario, Canada!!
Posts: 127
a couple years ago, i though that IGY coils ran on normal DC... wow....My first project was the IGY coil, I found out that when You take current off the coil, it arcs. so I pused the current my my hand on/off. and make some small arcs... then I built a 555 pulse deal, and tada, HV.
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.
Post you first HV project or thing
