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Registered Member #1025
Joined: Sun Sept 23 2007, 07:53PM
Location: Czech Rep.
Posts: 566
I had too many other things to do in the past few months (moving from Denmark, buying new flat, finishing my PhD, getting married etc.), but now I’m back in the HV business…
Moving from Denmark back to Czech Rep. was a disaster for most of my HV projects. My 300KV CW was one of those things which had to be completely disassembled and during this process I found a major design flaw in the HV diodes which are also published as a protocol on HVWiki. The joints between diodes are too fragile for any even gentle manipulation. I solved this problem once and forever using the sink chain (see pictures below). I also built a new HV HF power source. It is an old simple and cheap one-switch design, always working for me (apart from all my bridge attempts), sucking 800W form the wall and giving 50KV at 3KHz.
All these things will be part of my future monster CW (I will start a thread soon)…
Questions and comments are welcomed!
Cheers Mates
all things together
Quality controller
100pc of 1N4007 = 100KV of DC
The diode in the testing setup
The setup
My HV source, 50KV 3.5 Khz, 800W. In the oil bath are the guts from the iggy-coil
Registered Member #95
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:57PM
Location: Norway
Posts: 1308
Hey Mates, Have you seen the CW I built using your rolled capacitor recipe? It's managed 1.5kW at 100kHz so far, and been used for both arcing and powering an x-ray tube. When I make diode strings I twist the leads together, solder, then cut them down so each leg consists of more than three twists. This make the strings fairly rigid. See . If you worry about corona losses due to the sharp edges, you can easily submerge several strings under oil after they have been rolled on a small PVC pipe. You should really try to get a half or full-bridge going so you can power some real transformers. An increase in frequency would really help the power output of your future CW.
Registered Member #1025
Joined: Sun Sept 23 2007, 07:53PM
Location: Czech Rep.
Posts: 566
Uzzors wrote ...
Hey Mates, Have you seen the CW I built using your rolled capacitor recipe? It's managed 1.5kW at 100kHz so far, and been used for both arcing and powering an x-ray tube. When I make diode strings I twist the leads together, solder, then cut them down so each leg consists of more than three twists. This make the strings fairly rigid. See . If you worry about corona losses due to the sharp edges, you can easily submerge several strings under oil after they have been rolled on a small PVC pipe. You should really try to get a half or full-bridge going so you can power some real transformers. An increase in frequency would really help the power output of your future CW.
Hi Uzzors, Nice project indeed… Pulling plasma from a CW - that’s really cool. However, my starting voltage and mainly the voltage I’m heading to are a bit different class. That’s why I decided not to use the “dirty†twisted joints and rather choose pearls-like based on the sink chain. Such diode has much better properties (believe me) and it is very flexible (you can work with it like with a piece of wire). Your comment to the frequency – I’m limited by my HV source and mainly by the speed of the used diodes. Moreover, 3.5Khz is fine even for high energy transfer, alternatively I can go higher with the power of the HV source (I tested 1,5KW – short term). 800W are enough for my plans anyway.
Otherwise your HV 100 KHz, 1.5KW home made transformer is amazing…
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
I bought some of these Russian rectifer valves recently which are rated at 55kV.
V1-0,15/55
They could be wired in series, to give 110kV, but there would be a problem with heater isolation - probably best solved by running the second heater from a rechargeable battery.
Note: the anode current at 55kV must be kept below 40mA.
Registered Member #1498
Joined: Thu May 22 2008, 07:08AM
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 72
Mates wrote ...
The joints between diodes are too fragile for any even gentle manipulation. I solved this problem once and forever using the sink chain.
How did you tightly connect the diodes by the chain?You soldered them? Are cooking oils suitable for filling the diode string?I don't have any mineral oil.
Registered Member #1262
Joined: Fri Jan 25 2008, 05:22AM
Location: Maryland, USA
Posts: 451
lhl_henrylui wrote ...
Mates wrote ...
The joints between diodes are too fragile for any even gentle manipulation. I solved this problem once and forever using the sink chain.
How did you tightly connect the diodes by the chain?You soldered them? Are cooking oils suitable for filling the diode string?I don't have any mineral oil.
I believe cooking oil will indeed work fairly well as a high voltage insulator. Mineral oil isn't very hard to come across though, you'll see it sold in most drug stores and supermarkets as "baby oil", or just plain "mineral oil."
Registered Member #1025
Joined: Sun Sept 23 2007, 07:53PM
Location: Czech Rep.
Posts: 566
Harry wrote ...
I bought some of these Russian rectifer valves recently which are rated at 55kV.
V1-0,15/55
They could be wired in series, to give 110kV, but there would be a problem with heater isolation - probably best solved by running the second heater from a rechargeable battery.
Note: the anode current at 55kV must be kept below 40mA.
Heater: 6.3V 7.5A
Hi Harry, you lucky bastard... But honestly isn't it more a piece of fetish than a real practical thing? ;) I mean if you consider all the ballast you need around. Anyway, I'd love to see them shining in some HV voltage project! BTW: Are there any speed limitations for vacuum tube based rectifiers?
lhl_henrylui wrote ...
How did you tightly connect the diodes by the chain?You soldered them? Are cooking oils suitable for filling the diode string?I don't have any mineral oil.
The diodes are connected by soldering. In case the chain is not covered by Cr but by Zn it is very easy to solder. The sun flower cooking oil works fine for most HV applications so feel free to use it...
Registered Member #1500
Joined: Sat May 24 2008, 04:38PM
Location: Ojai, Ca.
Posts: 44
Hey Mates, I'm intrigued by your diode chain. I am always stinging stuff. The beads probably add HV corona control too! Can you better explain the process??? Good stuff.
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The HV diode - revised…
