High frequency capacitor discharges

[Jetijs]

Thanks stephen.

Hey I just connected this (see image) to the anode to see what would happen.

The spark became continuous (or appeared to be), and was a very soft purple. It also had a really high pitch sound, nearly inaudible.

I thought it was an inductor but now I'm not sure. It says lrc, is it an inductor resistor capacitor all in one?

The total markings are:
lrc
MVX-1 1/2
6 MEG
20% 7636

This looks like an high power, low resistance wire wound resistor

[johnb003]

Cool, that makes sense, thanks Jetijs!

I just added a new video:
YouTube - HV Power Supply Oscilloscope Readings

Seems to indicate that my driver circuit is nice and stable!

Now I can concentrate on improving my spark gap and getting the fastest possible discharges.

I'll try using 2 of the rare-earth magnets this weekend and see how much stronger of an effect I can get. I'm also tempted to try an electromagnet, since I can probably make a stronger magnetic field, but on the other hand I like not having to spend any energy on the quench, as I am doing with the permanent magnets.

[Jules Tresor]

Thanks John !

Thanks John for the new videos, and for the explanations to reproduce your circuit It makes it clear for beginners like me

We never stop learning ... if we want
Thanks again,
MDG

[johnb003]

Follow up

So, I haven't been on this forum in a long time, but I thought it'd be nice to follow up.

I posted the info about the power supply, and schematic with accompanying videos here: DIY High Voltage Power Supply with Flyback Transformer | JCB Energy

I posted the magnetic quench experiments here:
Magnetically Quenched Capacitor Discharges | JCB Energy

And I've since also made a high voltage power supply from microwave oven transformers, and using mains current. This is lower voltage but much higher current, and I was able to show more experiments showing the effects of magnetic field on a spark gap both from my flyback transformer and from the mot hv power supply.

I partially got over my troubles designing and actually building stuff, and I made a nifty adjustable spark gap to do these experiments.

All of that info can be found here:
High-Voltage Discharges With An Adjustable Spark Gap | JCB Energy

Please do check it out, there's some really cool effects with the magnetic field on the high current discharges. Earlier in this thread someone mentioned using glass as an insulator, I did exactly that and it worked for a while. For this video and a few other attempts, but later the arc cut a perfect semi-circle in the glass, the crack extended from both ends to the edges of the glass resulting in pretty much just splitting the glass in half with a rather strange circular cut in the middle.

In the future I'll have to use pyrex or something instead so it can handle the heat.

[johnb003]

Next Steps Electromagnet

I've always been really interested in this stuff, by my focus has been really off an on as I've been getting busy with other stuff including work. I wish I had my own garage I could do the work in. I did however find a local community of people sharing rent and equipment with all kinds of cool stuff. Variable DC power supplies, small bell jar vacuum, and lots of metal working equipment. They even have a cryogenic refrigerator :P. A few guys there are into maker bots and stuff too.

The next thing I want to do is build a really nice electromagnet that I can ramp up from the variable power supply, that way I have no moving parts or anything and I can just simply show the effect of the magnetic field as I increase the intensity.

I wanted to be able to create a very strong electromagnet, so I didn't just want to sloppily wind some wire around a chunk of iron; I wanted to be more precise, possibly include some active cooling, and a modular enough core to try a couple different spark gap configurations. I'm also thinking about eddie currents in the core, and I'm thinking if I use iron, I should probably do something about that, perhaps I could just use sheets of metal, and use some kind of insulating epoxy to join the sheets to make the final core shape. I've seen that done in lots of beefy transformers. Can anyone recommend a good insulating epoxy for such cases?

For the windings, I was kind of thinking of inserting some plates every so often axially (like washers), which could disperse the excess heat, but then I have a tradeoff between space used for cooling and space used for more windings.


Aside from this I've been spending time building a simulation for particle physics to study the Bussard Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion (Polywell) design. I also posted my current progress on that simulation on my site if you're interested:
Computer simulation of an IEC Fusor | JCB Energy

[humanetiggor]

Road to truth

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