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 #514
Joined: Sun Feb 11 2007, 12:27AM
Location: Somewhere in Pirkanmaa, Finland
Posts: 295
Yes, they can be lethal. While most people will survive a shock from a NST, some might not be as lucky. It all depends on a lot of things. Better not take any chances.
Registered Member #27
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058
Ventricular fibrillation happens as a function of current and time, the formula and some other information is in our wiki:
Different people react differently so the formula is only valid as an average for a large sample of people. What kills one person instantly may be harmless to another person.
To answer the question, yes it may kill you under certain conditions. Passing the current from one finger to another on the same hand will not kill you directly if you are healthy. It may cause you to fall face forward over the PSU where you will be slowly fried.
Registered Member #1361
Joined: Thu Feb 28 2008, 10:57AM
Location: Cairns, Australia
Posts: 305
Ok, thanks for the replies guys! Once i make a tesla coil/good jacobs ladder the NST will be mounted in some sort of clear box, along with any of the other HV parts. Just a quick question, if you were wearing shoes, and you got shocked from say, only the HV + in your finger, would you feel anything apart from heat? Would it even arc to you?
Registered Member #1157
Joined: Thu Dec 06 2007, 12:11PM
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 307
Lets tell this one. . . I got juiced by probably less than half of my NST's voltage (15000/30) because I was tuning the coils safety gap with a variac. I would turn it up to full, and note for the gap firing, then dial it down to 0 to make adjustments. Well, I got complacent, and wasn't minding my "cobra" well enough. I had only turned the variac down till the coil wasn't firing, not till I had zero volts, and gave my safety gap a twist. I think if I hadn't recently gone to the restroom, I probably would have pissed myself. I bit clean through my tongue, as well. I was wearing good shoes, and luckily had one hand on my hip.
Now I have a variac with a power off button, and I unplug everything before I even think about touching anything to do with the transformer.
Registered Member #141
Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 01:14PM
Location: Southern California
Posts: 96
Yes, once the voltage gets high enough, the capacitive current is enough to severely shock you - you don't need to be grounded. I have been shocked by touching an insufficiently insulated wire from a 9kV NST. I was "floating" - shoes on, isolated from ground, not touching anything else, etc., and it was only half of the NST's voltage.
Registered Member #514
Joined: Sun Feb 11 2007, 12:27AM
Location: Somewhere in Pirkanmaa, Finland
Posts: 295
And that's the way it should be If you learn the proper safety procedures with something relatively safe like a NST, you'll be safe when you start working with more dangerous things like MOTs, PTs, pole pigs and the like.
Registered Member #53
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:31AM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 638
You guys have said most of the info I was going to share but what they told me in trade school (electrician) was that it take 10ma right through the heart to stop it from pumping and that it takes about 60ma from arm to arm to get that 10ma needed to stop the heart. But that is all at 120v, so you can safely assume that for an HV source 10ma could be enough to kill you if you were unlucky enough to stick to it.
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.
Is a NST lethal?
If you learn the proper safety procedures with something relatively safe like a NST, you'll be safe when you start working with more dangerous things like MOTs, PTs, pole pigs and the like.
