Electronics

Im into designing and building custom electronics from modifying Xbox controllers to building Tesla coils!

what if anything have you built, modified or working on?

I have worked on home built high current transformers to xboxes to computers and even ICs.
im working on a 4 or 5 foot tall Tesla coil hopefully giving off 1 million volts with 4 foot arcs now but i need to gather up money for wire

TC ?

Yeah, I like dangerous science like HV, laser, ... and old school things too

There are some articles that talk about on my website if you want to read them (in french, but pictures are universal )

edit: yes, enamelled copper wire is hard to find and very expensive...

I have a TC project too, about 5-6 feet tall and a goal of one million volts

The power supply is based on 4 MOTs in serie for about 8 kV ~ (and 10-12 in DC) at 0.5A... don't touch the wrong wire...

But I still miss a lot of elements... I have 5 MOTs, Al tube for te top electrode, some pieces of wood and plastic but still missing copper wire, secondary support PVC tube, ...

well pvc is easy to get at a dopt hardware store.

the cheapest magnet wire i have ever seen was on ebay about 5lb for $190

8kv is rather low for powering the primary. ive seen it done with mots but they suck power.

as you should know they are not current limited and will suck up to 900 watts if they get the chance

if you hook them up primary in series too you might get way with it

i am going with a 14,200 volt way with NSTs but at only 60ma this is what might hurt me by not having enough amps but then agen its over 14kv on input

mots are not meant to have 1kv powering them the magnet wire not rated for the voltage they come with (i blame china) so 8kv is going to really push it. i suggest keeping them in motor oil and that will help with its overheating problem too.

"(10-12 in DC)" ??? 10 to 12 inch in diameter or direct current??

Yes, PVC isn't a problem

Argh >< it's very very very very expensive... xD

Yes, the MOTs can sustain about 1 kW each so I've 4 kW

Nop, primary in parallel and secondary in series

But with a clever arrangement of secondaries 2 of the MOTs aren't overvoltaged and the 2 others are overvoltaged by only 2 kV. When I go home I upload a schematic

Yes, I had the same idea :p I have to check the breakdown voltage of motor oil before but I think it's ok

Sorry, I meant "(10-12 kV DC)", about Ueff * sqrt(2)

"Nop, primary in parallel and secondary in series"

mots are not current limited and there for in a arc accost the spark gap will not brake unless you do a rodery gap. you need to current limit them by wiring the primarys in series too this will choke down the current consumption while keeping the 8kv. or you will need an inductive ballast or your beakers will flip rite away.

why direct current ? DC are you making it musicale?

ac is much more efficient at creating magnetic fields to power a tesla coil if you have no reason for this then i suggest agents it

Yes, I know for unlimited current (mouhaha ) ahem... ^^

They will be preceded by a variac to limit the current and a lot of security of course. In fact the HV PSU is a rack of my lab rack cabinet that you can see the WIP here: http://brigole.1fr1.net/t1985-armoire-de-labo-en-rack

I thought to test with two types of power to see which works best

i will tell you that AC will work better just because you can tune it to be in residence too

variacs are expensive as hell too and i need to get one

once you get it set up you need to try neon sgin transformers and see if it is better or worse results alot lower amps but higher voltage

Ok

Yes, but... I've an idea

An electronic variac but without triac (replaced by a bridge rectifier and a MOSFET drived by PWM at high frequency) http://biduleohm.free.fr/fichiers/ascii.html#hacheur

The promised schematic of MOTs: https://i.servimg.com/u/f45/13/95/52/26/teslam10.png (like the shematic isn't designed by me, the only interessant part is the MOTs cabling, the rest can differ without importance)

Yes but my alone NST died in mysterious circumstances... I'm thinking to re-use the flyback transformer (wich seems good) with a DIY driver but it's only a 9 kV / 150W NST so...

NSTs are hard to find and expensive in France...

but at such a high Hz you will have trouble getting the TC to be tuned but that will make a solad state TC and making arcs coming off of it to be a solad stream of death!

the fly back will not do

hm.. nsts are rather easy to get here. ah fuck it buy 1 or 2 on ebay eaven if they are American and wire it to the variac and cranke it up to only 120v or to make things interesting try using one of you crappy phone connectors you use in France! ! and turn it on the over wind and see what kind of arcs you can get by dubbing the in voltage forcing you phone connector into slavery for betraying you and getting a near 3x voltage output

haha yes i know about your huge phone connectors and i think it is funny that they brake all the time

I think if I choose correctly the frequency it's ok

^^ I know, it's a very old connector, now we use RJ11 connectors

you should get a tun of American electronic and hook them all up to European outlets and see what they do.. i think it would make a vary interesting vid

well its all trial and error with hv so you will need to try alot of different things

But our power socket is better than your's (<-- it's english this sentence?) because it can hold bigger currents

Moreover the current is double in 110 V for the same power that in 230 V...

You're in 110 V or 230 V in USA ? it's seems to me you've changed from 110 V to 230 V but I'm not sure

no we are 110 to 120 v you can never tell without testing but its normally 120v

yes your normal sockets can handle alot more amps but are 2x as big for a standard appliance

i dont know if you have stores that sell them or if its just in the US we sell plugs that you can attach to more power sucking tools normally that can range from 20 amp to 60 or more amp plugs and sockets. what will let you replace or whatever you need to do if it needs more amps

just take some American appliances and cut off the plug and replace it with yours and plug it in its meant to be on 120v but you have 230

Ok

In fact we have two different socket: http://www.ifnot.fr/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/prise-courant-150x150.jpg (for <= 10 A) and http://images03.olx.fr/ui/5/54/70/1272642951_22315470_1-Photos-de--FICHE-ELECTRIQUE-MALE-220Vca-16A-1272642951.jpg (for <= 20 A)

But we have 2 other sockets, a lot bigger but identical to the one on second pic fo very heavier currents (32 and 63A if I remind correctly)

How to overclock everything...

can you plug them into each other?

are 3 phase plugs universal? all over the world or do you have different ones too?

For the 2 first, yes, but the 2 last are bigger

Hum... not in houses, but in industry yes (I'm very tired --> bad english, sorry)

really? i thought 3 phase would be different too. the outlet should conect to groung, hot, hot, nuteral and from hot to nuteral should be 110v but hot to hot should be 220v

This is 2 phases, 3 phases is ground, hot, hot, hot, neutral.

In France hot to neutral is 230 V (220 V in old standard) and hot to hot is 400 V (380 V in old standard)

so yes 3 phases different by alot

Yes

why do people only feed fly back transformers pulsed DC at high frequency and not AC?

and what is the maximum voltage you can feed them?

Because it's simpler ("simpler" exists ?)

Feed what flyback ?

a fly back transformer is the hv transformer in computer monitors

i can not see why a high hz DC is easier than just an AC supply

do you know max voltage you can feed them?

I know what is a flyback, I just ask for the model

A tv flyback, ok

In theory any voltage between 10 and 200V it's depend on the primary winding

The original primary use 150 to 180V but for DIY we re-wound a primary for use it with 12 to 30V generally

Th DC is easier because a 555 + a mosfet suffice. Moreover, with a push-pull design (just one more mosfet) you feed the FB with AC from DC psu

AC isn't a good solution, the FB need a square signal à high frequency, not a sinus at 60 Hz...