Donald Smith Devices too good to be true

[Wistiti]

OK! I have no time right now for more testing but I just whant to give a short test to my last setup.

Results: way more voltage than my first set setup! My new flyback may be the cause... the PPV fire quite well.
The light on secondary barely glow. ( I think to had more turn on the secondary...

Strange things: The antenna emit a strange isssssssshing sound... AVOID touching it!!!
When I connect the power on ,with alligator clip on the 12v batt, I get schocked!!! I can see the spark hitting me . For sure it is im to close to the ground rod with my boots and there is still some leakage on my board. I have put the board directly on the snow close to the ground for the quick test... Next time I will drive some hv wire from the antenna and ground inside for more isolation...

Any experimented comments are welcome!

But hey guys; the light glow!!!

ps: sorry no photo this time; I have not bring my camera with me...

[tswift]

Shunt regulator completed and tested, at least up to 1A current. At 1A it's possible to use the 12V zener to directly drive a 3055, measured base current for this case was 70 mA (transistor beta of ~14) so this will make a 2W zener warm but not cook it. Using the darlington arrangement this transistor then drives another bigger transistor for up to around 15A of current. Note that the heat sink I'm using is only good for about 50W continuous power, but the transistor can handle 15A intermittently. Both transistors are 3055's, one is a 2N3055 (TO-3 case) and the other is a TIP3055 (TO-220 case). Obviously the power dissipation on the drive transistor is much smaller. Sure enough, at 1A both heatsinks get slightly warm after a few minutes. I don't have an adjustable bench supply capable of supplying more than 1A for testing, so hopefully the circuit works as intended at higher currents too. It would probably also be a good idea to put a fuse on the whole regulator, in the event of a short right now the entire energy in the cap bank is going to dump through it with probably unpleasant results.

Full resolution pictures:
http://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmWEEojP...GmVQQDF88uiAs6
http://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmPjmA5V...P7ispARgE84AdF

[Wistiti]

Nobody has anything new to report this morning? My, this is the quietest it's been around here in days.

Just let you know I finished to isolate from the wood base plate the hv side yesterday. But I have no time to connect to ant/ground and put power on yet.
Maybe soon...

[tswift]

Nobody has anything new to report this morning? My, this is the quietest it's been around here in days. I got the shunt regulator circuit partially built yesterday, I should have it finished today. Then I will be able to make genuine apples-to-apples power measurement comparisons when running in either open loop or closed loop mode. No more of this "how bright is that lamp?" guesswork. If the device shows a power gain, it will read on the meters, period. If it does not, then we will know. What I am expecting at this point is that even running at 24V input on the ZVS, giving about 26KV on the antenna, I doubt this is enough to show a net gain yet. I have a slate of parts on order to make two multiplier stacks, one for each polarity so the HVM drive circuitry can be close to neutral potential. I also ordered a replacement transformer for my PVM12 so I can either fix it or use the transformer as an AC flyback with the ZVS if more power is needed. Running at 24V+ of input that ZVS should be able to deliver some serious grunt, but as I said previously I don't think that will be necessary if the output is being truly powered by the environment and not by the HVM itself.

More parts, always more parts. I also need to get some high value, HV rated resistors to use as safety drain resistors for the caps. They don't store a large amount of energy but safety is never a bad idea. The mirror circuit is particularly difficult to drain with a shorting jumper, because if you dump the cap on one side, it transfers most of the energy right into the cap on the other side. You have to jumper both at the same time, and if the flyback has an internal cap too this complicates matters as well. The kilovoltmeter with 1G resistor serves as an effective drain on the flyback, but I need some more resistors to put on the two doorknob caps. The trick is to find an available resistance value that is high enough not to dissipate more than a trivial amount of power in operation and yet still drain the caps quickly after the power is off.

Also, the multiplier stacks will need to be potted in order to reach higher potentials. I'd really like to do this in an acrylic tube with acrylic casting resin, so the whole thing will be crystal clear and look nice. However, to get good results will do doubt require putting it under vacuum. I have a vacuum pump and I can use a canning jar as a small bell jar, but I have no prior experience working with casting resin, so no doubt some trial and error will be involved. Since this is the coolest technology on the planet, my inner geek really wants it to look the part as well. Of course, it doesn't HAVE to look like a prop from a science fiction movie in order to do what it does, I just WANT it to....

I am thinking of reorganizing the arrangement so that instead of the baseplate being basically 15x29 inches, it will be more like 12x28 inches. The main coils will be horizontal axis in the center, with the HV section on one side and the LV section on the other side. I can build up the boards in vertical stacks, so basically the HVM would be the bottom board on the HV side, then on top of it the multipliers, then on top of that the PPV's and input circuit. On the LV side the bottom board would be the rectifiers, then on top of that the caps or batteries, then at the top (where it can dissipate heat effectively) the shunt regulator. The boards can be 12 inches wide, to match the length of the coil forms, so the whole device should be a box basically about 12x28x12. I just got some more funds so I'm planning on ordering some green fluorescent acrylic sheet to build out of. The fluorescent acrylic is UV-reactive and glows very strongly. It's possible the HV/HF coming from the coils themselves will be strong enough to drive a fluorescent tube when in operation, so I'll put blacklight tubes next to the coils and the whole thing will light up and glow. Perhaps also some electroluminescent wire strategically placed, I haven't figured that out yet. If I can pull it off, it will indeed look like a prop from some sci-fi movie when I'm done. Then a decal that says "21st Century Motor Company"-- a few might get that reference....

[tswift]

What I'd like to do is drop a pipe in the ground with an insulated rod centered in the pipe. It appears that I may have to build a capacitor in a steel box adjustable above ground...It occurred to me that something similar could be used above ground to simply adjust the height of the plate.

This sounds interesting. Not sure what results you might obtain, but if we already knew everything then there would be no need to test! I think I understand what you are describing and I think there is at least some chance of producing the desired effects similar to the antenna. Obviously the antenna arrangement, even a much more compact one, isn't going to be practical for everyone everywhere. I think merely having the "capacitor in a capacitor" arrangement, so to speak, is one of those "necessary but not sufficient" conditions. I think that in order to produce the effect, some current must flow through the environment. It might be tiny, I measured it at 250 microamps, but some current is necessary so there will have to be some ionization happening around the inner rods. If they are completely insulated with no breakdown I don't think you will get anything. But I could certainly be wrong, I am not the jedi master, I am a mere padawan.

[dragon]

Mine is resonant at 2.4 Mhz (1/4) with a reading of around 300pf. I suspect the reading isn't completely accurate because there is a small amount of electrical activity, can't get around that. Just looking for a ballpark figure.

Calculating just the area and distance I get somewhere in the range of 1 pf, 55 pf similar to what you described above and a reading of 300pf. What I'd like to do is drop a pipe in the ground with an insulated rod centered in the pipe. It appears that I may have to build a capacitor in a steel box adjustable above ground...It occurred to me that something similar could be used above ground to simply adjust the height of the plate.

With the antenna/ground connection, Bruces design is simply charging a cap between 2 capacitive plates ( a cap in a cap as it were ). So, I started doodling different arrangements on my white board and came up with some interesting things I'd like to try.
.

[tswift]

Sure enough, I can't get a valid reading on it at all. The meter just reads 0.00 pF. If you press the button to display the frequency it reads about 1.4 MHz, so it's looking around the antenna third harmonic and it's just completely confused. What kind of readings are you getting?

[tswift]

I was going over some calculations on a project I'm working on and things didn't really add up - at least to my satisfaction...

Has anyone measured the capacitance between their ground and antenna connections? If you have the capability to do this I would greatly appreciate any numbers you could supply as a comparison to what I'm reading on mine.

Thanks...

Hmm.... interesting, and a bit tricky. Theoretically for a small wire suspended a significant height above ground it should be around 6 pF per meter. In practice it's going to be difficult to measure with an LC meter because all the meter does is measure the resonant frequency of a tank circuit, and with a capacitance that small, at least on my cheapo meter the resonant frequency is likely to be in the ballpark of the antenna 1/4 wave resonance at 500 KHz. It's easy enough to put the meter on it and find out what it says, mine should be around 900 pF (theoretically) at DC and frequencies significantly below the first resonance. The only way to get an accurate reading on it is probably an antenna analyzer, or at least a better LC meter that has selectable inductances. For reference:

http://www.pulsedpower.eu/toolbox/to...acitances.html

[dragon]

I was going over some calculations on a project I'm working on and things didn't really add up - at least to my satisfaction...

Has anyone measured the capacitance between their ground and antenna connections? If you have the capability to do this I would greatly appreciate any numbers you could supply as a comparison to what I'm reading on mine.

Thanks...

[dragon]

You might be able to regulate the input current easier than the output - in turn regulating output... experiment with the lowest current input it would operate on with a reasonable output.

[Wistiti]

Those are designed as a drop in module for hand held taser's - they pack quite a punch but I don't believe it would make a good unit for what your doing. They draw a considerable amount of power and are meant for short bursts, not continued use... fun to play with though...

Thank you Dragon for the reply!
I have think to use a serie of hv resistor at the output to reduce the power consumption of the module... Do you think it's a good idea?

I already order one so if it not good for this project, I will use it in an other one!

[dragon]

Those are designed as a drop in module for hand held taser's - they pack quite a punch but I don't believe it would make a good unit for what your doing. They draw a considerable amount of power and are meant for short bursts, not continued use... fun to play with though...

[Wistiti]

Hvm

Hi guys!
What you think of this HV module?
https://www.amazon.ca/CNBTR-Power-Mo.../dp/B01969RF6C

[Wistiti]

Partially finished the isolation of the hv side. I use cutting board piece and plastic spools. Brief the things I have around...
I have also replaced the flyback transformer and connected a dc/dc boost converter for the source of the zvs driver. So i will be able to start it with 7v to 12v and feed the zvs with a steady 30v.

[Mwtj]

do you mean the hr8503 is the same as my tfb4100ad?

if so 51,1kv is really nice!!!

i'll give it a try. thank you for your help and the nice diagram!

hr8503 is replacement part for the tfb4100ad.