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 #2919
Joined: Fri Jun 11 2010, 06:30PM
Location: Cambridge, MA
Posts: 652
I finally decided to get into this hobby by building a little flyback powered coil, since I'm lacking proper parts.
The coil's specs are: Secondary: 1.5" diameter, 9" tall, ~900 turns of AWG 30 wire. JAVATC says its resonant frequency is 1.4 Mhz. Primary: 5 turns of wire, 1.7" diameter. Tank Cap: Homemade rolled cap made of 2 5"x4" pieces of foil and some overhead transparency. I don't know its capacitance, since my multimeter doesn't measure capacitance Spark Gap: 2 bolts bolted to a plastic frame. Power supply. A flyback transformer driven using the single-transistor feedback method. The flyback is powered by a 12 V, 1.2 A adapter wall adapter.
I can get 1.5" sparks to a piece of grounded metal, but the coil refuses to produce streamers. Anyone have any ideas why?
Registered Member #2677
Joined: Mon Feb 08 2010, 03:06AM
Location: Palo Alto, California, USA
Posts: 64
Are you using a toroid or some kind of topload? It is possible that the coil does not produce enough voltage to make the topload breakout and make free air streamers. Try putting a breakout point on the topload. Just take a peice of magnet wire like an inch long and sand the insulation off it then tape it onto the surface of the topload and then try turning the coil on.
Registered Member #2919
Joined: Fri Jun 11 2010, 06:30PM
Location: Cambridge, MA
Posts: 652
I'm not using a topload. Perhaps the voltage is not high enough. Would a stronger power supply help? EDIT: I tuned some more, and got sparks to break out. I think I'm losing most of the energy in the spark gap, though Time to get a new power supply...
Registered Member #2481
Joined: Mon Nov 23 2009, 03:07PM
Location: ITALY
Posts: 134
If you are powering the flyback with a 12V 1.2A wall adapter it means that you are giving a ridiculous power to the coil... Even with the best tuning you will have very small sparks...
Registered Member #2838
Joined: Fri Apr 30 2010, 07:55PM
Location: tehachapi, CA
Posts: 333
You could try bumping up the flyback input voltage and current. Maybe 24v? I was using 36v on my 3/4" secondary and had the same problem. It never worked out unfortunately. But made a cool plasma globe. You should definitely try a toroid-- As smooth as possible with a single break point. Good luck!
Maybe you could get a hold of this guy? This is by far the best SGTC that I have seen powered by a flyback.
Registered Member #1408
Joined: Fri Mar 21 2008, 03:49PM
Location: Oracle, AZ
Posts: 679
I have never seen better either. I looked at that video over and over, looking at his setup for any idiosyncrasy that was unique & the only thing that APPEARS to be something special is that his secondary coil itself seems like it was wound with very fine wire (32awg or thinner?) & may be perfectly in tune with other elements to make a super efficient system. I think he did a lot of background work before he set it up; as you note the primary is a helical coil w/ minimal adjustment.
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.
First coil, no streamers
