Donald Smith Devices too good to be true

[cody]

h2ocommuter,

I am interested in hearing your results. Ive started the plasma globe replication too. What have you got so far?

[h2ocommuter]

My progress....

Hi Cody,
Everything I have compiled is in the PDF I have put together,
except the minutia. I have gone through lots of material. But still there is so much out there.

I bought the plasma globe "Illuma storm" from an e-bay sale, I got the speaker wire that has something like 488 strands in each lead. I wound 14 turns on a 7" PVC pipe, I got a 7,000 to 12,000 KV isolation transformer from another e-bay sale., I just missed three great sales for the Caps. these monsters are kind of illusive. I may have to build my own or I may build it with no caps. I still need to find the right Varistor and the two different kinds of spark gaps ( I think I will use spark plugs anyway. I have a circuit breaker box that is adequate but I would like to find one with a PG&E meter .

I have been ordering meters right and left... I got and electrostatic volt meter that will measure from 1 Volt to 100,000 Volts, I am bidding on a gauss meter now, I hope I win. If you dig deep in Dons writings this value starts at the gieger counter values; .1 Gamma! OMG, I have purchased a frequency meter, and two LCR meters trying to save money, Any way I am in the hunt.
If you would like a copy of my replication journal I will attach it. on reply.

Zane.

[cody]

Sounds like we are right about at the same place on the build, except i havnt ordered all those meters, but i would like to I was intending to use a spark plug for the spark gap too. It should probally be a plug that dosnt have a resistor in it or one with the resistor removed. I would say that the capacitors are an important part of the circuit and would suggest not leaving them out, but it wont hurt to play around of course. I think that there is a big typo in the pdf with the plasma globe instructions. It states that smith uses more than 2 30uf caps rated at 4000V. There is no way thats right, if you look at the picture of his globe you will see 4 small caps that are no were near big enough to meat those specs. If you have done any work with tesla coils you will know the huge difference adding capacitance to the spark gap makes. I would love to see your pdf.

[h2ocommuter]

PDF Disclaimer

I am reevaluating these words continually, so by the end of the day I will have probably chainged something.

This copy of my pdf is not to be used as an authority or attested to in any such way.

I hope everyone who uses it will keep my personal information private.

Just let me know if you are using it. Send me an e-mail and I will send you any new copies. When my device is working I will supply you with a completed copy including pictures and such.

Lastly, I encourage your personal input to this pdf. Anywhere I have left somthing out your helpfull input would add to the validity.

Stand tall deliver with honor.

Thanks

[baroutologos]

needless to say, i am interested as hell to see results.

baroutologos

ps: one minor observation of mine regarding usina a Tesla coil and ground. Maybe something, maybe nothing..
http://www.energeticforum.com/renewa...html#post75567

[h2ocommuter]

Capacitors in plasma globe Picture

This thing keeps bugging me. I too have had questions about what you said, so I went to Cornell Dubilier Electronics, Inc. - Your Source for Capacitor Solutions
This is the direct supplier of some of Don's Caps and other related supplies.

I talked to an engineer there, he sent me a CD of the caps they make there.
I am not quite ready for a total emersion on this subject just yet. I will soon after my test equipment comes in. My anxiety is quite high. Also, I am trying to beat out everyone on the gauss meter auction.

I know absolutely nothing about what I am doing in this field. I am simply trying to read the directions and construct an assembly process.

As you have probably noticed by now my referances are different from yours.
more than two 5,000 V or more and 34 uF as many uF as possible which facilitates easier manipulation of frequency with the resistor.

It states that smith uses more than 2 30uf caps rated at 4000V.

[cody]

Ok....You caught me there
I think out references are the same, i just didnt feel like looking up the exact specs, but i knew it was in that ballpark range. Regardless, my point was simply that those specs can not be correct. Try to find a cap that meets those specs, you probally wont find it, and if you do it will be pretty big. Much bigger than the four small caps you can see in the picture of dons device here (Page 101 in the big picture)
http://www.free-energy-info.co.uk/Smith.pdf

More likely the caps are more like 0.34uf or even 0.034uf

Wow you have a ton of stuff in that pdf. Good stuff. I noticed at the end that you have also noticed the caps on dons picture, yes those are capacitors in the picture. You were wondering weather to use a series or parallel configuration. Its too hard to see in the picture which way he has it wired. But if he is correct in that the globe is putting of 40,000V then i would imagine that they are wired in series to give them a higher voltage rating.

[h2ocommuter]

Caps /uF?s

Cody,

Thank you for reading through my doc.
I have wrestled with understanding that a lot.

I think I may be building my own so I will start with .034 uF and see what that will do for storage. See if I can get the timming down to 60 or 120 Hz.
I'll put the spark gap in and try one with grounding and one without on the L-2 and see what the readings come out like. Freq. volts and gamma. All I need is 24 gamma. I'll have to order the resistor for L-2. and the IT. I am going to stuff 240 volts into my IT so this operation is not going to be a joke.
I don't have any varistors yet and I have to get the circuit breaker box wired up also. for this thing to be clean. I think I can use only one ground rod for the whole thing. Don did with the briefcase and it has what 5 or 6 grounds connections. Varistors, timming things, and whatever connected there.

Crudely lets look at this, My output transformer will handle between 9 and 16 HP, per watt measurment "734 watts". That is a pretty good rating.
If Don's writing is correct, lets say 600 joules each cap, lets say three.
The kenetic energy in each one of these caps is equal to a 45 calliber shell being fired. pritty high. yea that only equates to about 1800 volts for the storage tank. excluding the L-1. I just do not know yet.
Then lets look at the 40,000 volts. When I get my gauss meter and Electrostatic voltmeter and learn how to use them, I'll be ahead of the curve.
To me, thoes seem to all be kind of equal?
I do not know.

I have to build the caps first, then I will have a better Idea how things work.

I'll say it here because it is not in the doc. yet. Don states, it is our ignorance of measuring electrostatic voltages and gauss readings that is lacking in our understanding of electricty. I may need to buy the book he referanced on the subject before I can figure it out, we'll see.


Did you get an Illuma storm?

ok buddie thanks again

Zane

[cody]

No i dont have the Illum storm, mine is called the electrostorm. Yours is probably superior because i dont have tuning pots on mine, but its what i had. Making capacitors or just ripping apart some caps found in junk electronics is a great way to understand what capacitors are. But i dont know if i would suggest making them for this build. manufactured caps are guaranteed to be withing a certain accuracy, and a cap around .034uf @ 5000V should be easy enough to find and relatively cheap too. Just look on ebay for oh like tesla capacitors or something like that. You should come up with a whole list of caps commonly used in tesla coils. You will probably want a self healing cap, that way if you expose it to too much voltage, it will still be good. But if you still want to try making one for this project, i would recommend a saltwater capacitor. Those are commonly made for these high voltage projects, ive done it before, its not to hard.

[boguslaw]

The problem with this plasma bulb device are :
1 . There is something hidden below metalic box where wires from coil on top of plasma globe are connected.I assume this is Wheatstone bridge of diodes.
2. Who said this coil is wound on plastic ring ? Don ? What if that's steel painted ? Is that possible ?
3. There is missing a lot of informations , for example entire output stage.I don't believe that all you have to do is to connect load directly to capacitors

[h2ocommuter]

What is that?

1. Yes I agree, There are some questions about that thing. Looks like a what?
I think a wheatstone bridge is a air cap for radio freq tuning. Hummm. That kinda makes a lot of sense! Wow. This may be a way to tune Cody's Plasma too.

2. I grabbed all the related information about the last of the generator circuit from all the information I could find. I put it all in My Replication Journal PDF Page 25

3. I had wrestled with that many times. I thought about contacting Patrick Kelly for a couple of weeks about the phrase "on the circuits page". I decided not to because Don had mentioned Nicola Tesla's book By Thomas Commerford Martin, these are directly from that book. I figured came from Don himself.
Also, every device Don has displayed, nearly everything Nicola Tesla did used caps, spark gaps and a transformer or two. To me this all fits nicely. Again pg 25

I.ll send and updated version "My Replication Journal PDF". I am not changing the name, you do it to keep them seperate if you like. Let me know if it's becomming any help to you.

Thank you for the comment.



Zane

[cody]

boguslaw,
well i dont know about something thats hidden, weather or not thats true... your guess is as good as mine

Its written right in the pdf to wire the coil on 5-7 inch pvc, I dont think steel would be any good because we are dealing with high frequency.

For the output section, the pdf directs you to a tesla circuit lower down on the pdf. I think its pretty well described right in the pdf, its just not completely spoon fed, you got to think about it a bit and do some research. As most tesla based things, there is an issue of tuning things. Might be a good opportunity to learn some new stuff. Its probably going to come down to someone actually throwing this thing together and messing around with it a bit before we really know anything. Im getting closer to getting it together, but ive been really busy, ill do some more work on it tonight.

[baroutologos]

One mysterious question i had, seems that can be addressed.

Experiments with a Tesla Coil, shows how a high voltage, (high frequency), low current (top of TC) can be "transformed" via capacitative coupling to lower voltage, higher current without spark gaps etc ect.

see... Google Çeviri

How the heck does it happens??
weird huh?


Now remains my second question regarding Don Smith's sayings to be addressed. How a resistor or LR can adjust frequency...

Baroutologos

[wrtner]

How a resistor or LR can adjust frequency...

Any LR circuit which is driven by an alternating source, will
show a trough in its graph of current v. frequency.
That frequency will be the most efficient, the resonant
frequency; the frequency that the circuit best behaves at.

[bobo36us]

Does anybody have a video of a Don Smith device running?

I've heard him talk, seen some diagrams, and
seen some models, but has anybody actually seen
one of his devices running?