Gray Tube Replication

[Electrotek]

Electrotek, looks like maybe each one of the white wires goto the rear pair of same size boxes. Also, note that they are the negative if you notice the meter probes.

Well, if there's two boxes in series, that would explain how stretching the inductance could change the frequency. As opposed to just battery wires. And there is a significant difference between the two white coils. Obviously deliberate. This supports the likelihood of different frequencies interacting with whatever kind of spark is inside the tube. And yes, I noticed the polarity, but I haven't sorted it out yet.

[Ghst]

I put a new rotor on my points chopper and can now open the points six times per revolution. The improvement is now getting scary. I am having red Plasma worms, Balls, or a entity appear inside the tube and outside the tube, right before, and during these huge plasma bursts. Turn up the volume and listen to this!
YouTube - Six Point Rotor
I will post some stills later

[Ghst]

Stills of Huge Bursts and red Pre-burst

Here are the stills in order
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/2664/hugeblast.jpg
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/8...beforeblas.jpg
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/4276/hugeblast2.jpg
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/687/hugeblast3.jpg

Photo1 is just a huge burst
Photo2 is a predischarge red burst appearing below the board inside the Tube and with no connections anywhere close.
Photo3 followed photo2 You can also see the plasma leaking down thru the holes in the board.
Photo4 has green Blast and red discharge on outside of tube!The electrode is a drill bit. The red discharge appears to be coming off the drill bit above the connection. You can also see a red glow emmitted from the front side of the tube along with the Bright flash.

[Electrotek]

Ghst: Wow, that's impressive.

Apparently then, having the interrupter on the line side makes a difference. It would seem that every time you have a spark, it produces an inductive kick when it collapses. So this throws a higher voltage into the primary of the ignition coil.

I suppose you'll put a grid around the outside of the tube since you're getting an external effect? I saw one CSET theory which said the HV rod should be insulated.

[Ghst]

Let me try to explain the Board. The Board is about 5 inches long (length) by 3 inches wide. The Grids on each end are laced to the board with bare copper wire. On opposite corners of the board I laced a wire down the length (in the outside set of holes) and in the middle of the board I turned each in toward the center. These wires are now pointed towards each other. I have a "T" on the ends of each with the head of the T facing the other wire. The current must cross across about 1 3/4 inches of isolated holes to get to the other wire. One of the wires will be like Ed Grey's Grid. the other side will be the HV. I have a drill bit used for the Low voltage electrode, that is positioned between the two "T" head wires, about 3/8 inch over the board. This is positioned closer to the Grid wire's T head So that the HV has to run under it to get to the Grid wire and charge the capacitor. As the capacitor charges you will see small thin spark strings going every which way. This signals a discharge is immanent. You can spiral lace the HV wire around the boards edge to the second set of holes instead of using the T. The spacing between the Hv wire and the Grid wire should be the closest point so that you can control where the current flows. Does any of this make sense?

[Electrotek]

Ghst: Sounds good to me. I think I could replicate it if I had a board. I've been looking at old PCB's and some have a couple of rows of holes. Probably not enough.

Now, are you using an ignition coil or a MOT?

[Ghst]

I'm using a single ignition coil. Oh and I'm using that 7 turn coaxial cable for a induction coil. All other coils I have used eventually burnt. May be why Grey took it off the wall and put it around the tube. Once one of my coils showed any sign of sparking, they would burn out. Even the one wound around my other CSET. All though It did last longer than the others. Oh by the way the circuit board came from radio shack, Its a large one, I cut into, so I have a spare in case I mess up one. (I almost did) The large board from radio shack cost about 4 bucks. But I think a small board, at least 2 by 3 will work just as well. Remember my first one was 1 1/2 inches by 2 inches.

[Ghst]

Replication Circuit Board Mod

I drew up this sketch to try to show what I'm doing with the circuit board mod. This drawing is close to actual size.
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/2821/boardlayout.jpg
The "T" on the HV can be just laced from about where the "T" head is, around the edge like the Grids.
Also the LV electrode needs to be adjustable. I used a 1/8" drill bit and drilled through the clear water housing, where I wanted the electrode. Then I am using the same drill bit, inserted through the drill hole, turned up side down. I plan on tapping threads in the hole and inserting a screw to make the electrode permanent and adjustable.

[BASHydro]

Capacitance

I have everything setup, just need some HV Caps. So if i use 1uF or 0.01uF caps, how does this effect the strength of the coil being fired? Same coil.

Which should we be using?

Also I was just wondering if ARRON could share his thought on why GHST is cooking coils.

[Ghst]

Circuit Board - Observations

Hey Guys, I have something to note. Today i installed a neutral grid inside the proto-board tube. Its just like the standard Grey tube grid (cylinder expanded metal) only I cut a large circular hole into the side so that the LV electrode wouldn't contact (arc over) the grid. I had to insulate the protoboard from the Grid by splitting clear tubing (nylon I think) and slipping the split tubing onto the edge of the board, then sliding this back into the tube and the new grid.
I don't have a outside shop so I conduct my experiments inside the house (Spare Room). Anyway as soon as I started it up with the neutral grid, I noticed that the RFI was raising hell with my cable TV. The crackling sound that the board usually makes was being broadcast from my cable TV. The screen was a jumble of judder. This doesn't effect the PC monitor, Its clear as a bell. But..... When the tube discharges it freezes up my PC. It doesn't matter if I'm using the PC or if it is shut down (sleep or power save mode). At first I thought I was getting a virus or something on the PC. But then I noticed that it only froze when the tube discharged.
I've had a little RFI to bring static lines across the TV screen before, but this is now been magnified to the extent that you can't tell that the TV is receiving a channel (while the protoboard is running). The discharge causes no noticeable difference on the TV but instantly freezes the computer.
The grid is neutral , meaning there is no sparking to the grid and there is no wire to the grid. Its basically the Grid that Electrotek suggested, only inside the tube. I do plan on attaching a wire later, after I figure out how to do it smart and sharp

[Ghst]

Its Alive!

Ok with the neutral grid inside the tube I went one step further. On the outside of the container. I have another grid. separated by the 1/4 inch thick plastic water filter housing. To this I attached a jumper strait to my capacitors positive. This outer grid is not connected to anything inside the tube. I'm getting plasms running sparks, sparks that just leap across one side of the tube to the other, Its confusing, at what is going on inside the tube. Its looks like a mini thunderstorm! And then.... it blast out a whopper discharge. I think the same effect may happen with a extra grid wrapped around the outside of the Grey tube. Camera batteries are dead. Have to show this later!

[Electrotek]

Ghst: This sounds pretty good so far. The multitude of sparks inside the Tube isn't unusual. A single spark can easily have six nodes around it's length. Two sparks can go to a cylindrical electrode as close as five or ten degrees apart, but 90 degrees or more is even more common. The big whopper discharge you describe sounds like it may be a Superbolt effect. This involves the air itself taking on a capacitive charge, due to the bidirectional sparking. When I got this with a glass sheet capacitor, I had an interrupter on the input of the NST. (And no diode at all, just two direct connections to the cap.) If this is what you're getting, it's likely your Tube has a higher Farad rating than your cap. This is what we're looking for.

[Ghst]

Here is the uploaded video. There is a lot of things happening in the tube it looks like a lightening storm. Some of the stills are really cool. I'll up load them later. Enjoy:
YouTube - Outside grid to capacitor
Thanks Electrotek, for suggesting the outside grid.

Here Are a couple of stills:
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/2...andagreenl.jpg
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/2...gredplasma.jpg
http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/114...redplasma1.jpg

[martin]

Here is the uploaded video. There is a lot of things happening in the tube it looks like a lightening storm. Some of the stills are really cool. I'll up load them later. Enjoy:
YouTube - Outside grid to capacitor
Thanks Electrotek, for suggesting the outside grid.

Here Are a couple of stills:
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/2...andagreenl.jpg
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/2...gredplasma.jpg
http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/114...redplasma1.jpg

Ghst, Ive been silently following your posts and Im impressed to say the least. Do you have a diagram of the tube and how everything is laid out and insulated?

[martin]

Electrotek, how did you have your glass capacitor constructed?