Generators

[mixos]

although not finished yet this more compact hand powerd generator , will have 2 circuit boards inside it, as shown in one of the pictures, ones a high voltage multiplier circuit to multiply the output ac voltage from the microwave oven motor, the other cirvcuit board when finished is the full length parralell capacitor stack , so when the boards are filled to the end these will be inserted and fixed into the pvc pipe houseing, upside down and above each other, the parralell capacitor stack has a 1/2watt 1m bleeder resister to charge it up so at 630 volts the current will be higher. on the motor turn peace i fashioned a pvc lever to make turning more easyer , the front end of the pvc pipe is flared out to an oval shape to make more space. inside the pvc body are 4 pvc quarter sections fixed in place and modified to holde the long component boards, the unfinished parralell capacitor stack i tested before , chargeing it up from another high voltage multiplier circuit powerd by another hand powerd generator , and it sure works good .


by Steven (received throught email)

[quantum]

Mixos, off subject, but your penguin cloth on your table is awesome, best thing since sliced bread!

[audioguru]

Quantum,
Actually, that is the work of Steven, as reported by Mixos.
I was going to mention those penguins too. With that much high voltage, they will fly!
Have you ever seen a penguin fly? They can't, look at those tiny wings.
Notice that Steven uses his finger instead of a voltmeter. Ouch!

[steven]

:) re audio guru and quantum\ thankyou for such a good peace of humour this was the best contact paper i can get for my work desk as i had to get rid of the last contact paper before that, as it was metalic highly conductive and i had a lightening storm on my desktop as the arcs from my high voltage exsperiments was arcing to this conductive desktop , it was awsome , i can asure yous these pengiuns wont feel a thing as there none conductive as pictures, on this latest contact paper,

[audioguru]

Steven,
If you get your voltage high enough then anything will conduct, including those penguins! ;D

[mixos]

here are the resisters id like to have identified and like to know if they are 10 or 20m

by Steven (received throught email)

[steven]

: re audio guru oh i forgot about the puncture voltage yes your right, those pengiuns would be toasted, say how do you like them choose from the following, well done. medium .rare or . do you like crumbs , batter or flour,

[steven]

ive made a boo boo some where here are pictures of resisters i was ment to go to the parts general reqest section but i dident know how to do that so they ended up here, im looking into makeing a high voltage devider circuit but these resistors were amoungst some sent to me by a contact and i like to know there values as my resister colour code calculator dose not cover that many bands and i havent any info to check them

[quantum]

If I am not mistakened, just put the first three bands together, multiply/ divide the number by the fourth band.

[hotwaterwizard]

Here Try This.
http://www.micro-ohm.com/colorcode/rescolor.html

http://www.mbarron.net/Resistor/#dll

[steven]

reply to hotwater wizard, sorry for the delay thankyou hotwater wizard this was realy handy the information you gave me.

[steven]

:)from steven with the final completion of my latest hand powerd , generater with the full length high voltage multiplier circuit and 20x 630 volts 0.33uf capacitors in parrallel all in the one unit i found that the microwave motor ,used as a generator ,if it has a plastic shaft with plastic internal cogs,although there hard to turn , but with the turn peace if you rotate it hard enougth that after a while the internal plastic cog easily gets damaged. so it may pay to use a motor generator with a metal shaft,

[mixos]

in one picture is the high voltage multiplier circuit inserted, and allso the 20 stage parralell capacitor board. fireing this up resulted in 20 x 630 volts capacitors blowing so i took out the parralell capacitor setup pending on some investigating. so if i reduce the 20 parralell caps down to 16, would be better, as i tested this when i had 16 parralell caps and it allways fires with a bang when i shorted them , in the picture some of the 4 extra caps dident go flatt to the board , and dispite blowing 20 caps which i think was a bit to many to have , the hv multiplier circuit still fires up good , and even charges up my mini 2 cap marx generater, which firesa good loud fat arcs. in one of the pictures i decided to dress up the hand powerd units, pvc houseing with bits of white pvc shaped to fit.







by Steven (received throught email)

[audioguru]

Steven,
When you parallel two capacitors, the voltage rating remains the same, not doubled. But the capacitance is doubled.
If you put two equal-value capacitors in series, the voltage rating is doubled, but the capacitance is halfed.

Hi Steven,
I'm sorry that you blew-up all those nice big greencaps. I think that your voltage-multiplier fed them too much voltage.
If turning the motor produces AC, then its output needs a rectifier to charge those capacitors. But keep the voltage within their rating.

[steven]

:) reply to audio guru thanks audio the ac output from the generator is fed to the parralell capacitor stck via a 1m bleeder resister when the parralell capacitor stack was only 16 long i was haveing no troubles untill i increased it to 20, and i think the values of the hv ceramics in the high voltage multiplier circuit, are higher than i had with the other hand powerd generater that i may of used to power up the 16 long green caps before i increased them to 20 , if you were refering to a bridge rectifier, all capacitors are non polarised, yes the voltage would remain the same 630 volts but higher current, i will rebiuld the parralell capacitor stack but stick to 16 and see how i go there to. or try increaseing the bleeder resister.

[audioguru]

Hi Steven,
I have lotsa questions for ya:
1) How much AC output voltage does your microwave-motor generator produce? If you crank it hard, what frequency is its output?
2) Why do you connect the parallel capacitors to the AC output of your generator? The AC voltage is continuously changing in amplitude and polarity. When you stop the generator, you don't know how much voltage (if any) or what polarity the charge will be. If you feed the capacitors from the AC generator through your 1M series resistor, then the voltage across the capacitors will be very low. If you feed the capacitors from the generator through a series rectifier or full-wave bridge, then the capacitors will charge to the peak DC voltage of the AC every time.
3) Isn't the 1M resistor in series with the capacitors? Why such a high value? The fully-charged time for a 1M resistor feeding 5.3uF to 6.6uF is about 30 seconds from a smooth DC input and minutes from rectifier pulses. If you reduce the value of the series resistor, then the capacitors will charge quicker, but the higher load on the generator will make it more difficult to crank.
4) What is the DC output voltage of your voltage-multiplier when fed from the generator that is cranked hard?

BTW, your fancy white PVC decoration looks great! ;D

[steven]

:) reply to audio guru thanks for the compliment of my pvc decoration. i havent measured to ac voltage from the generater yet, ive been to busy with everything, i will concider it, i dont know the ac output from the hv multiplier circuit as it produces great hv arcs and in case it exceeds the limit of my digital multimeter 1000 volts range , im not ready to risk it yet as my meter costs $78 so untill i complete my hv resister devider circuits im working on ,which will enable me to measure high voltage with my multimeter, so when its done ill be able to give more info, as for the parralell capacitors well at first i had 16 in parralell for more current capacity , and the 1m bleeder resister was what i tested at first and it worked i charged up i6 parralell caps at 630 volts , at a higher current level that i assumed would be, but i dident measure it yet and i got the same results i get from shorting a high voltage photo flash capacitor . a pop , as for the bridge rectifier , ill try that when i reconstruct the parralell capacitor setup. ive dismantled many photo flash camera circuits before and they seem to use the 1m bleeder or feeder resister to the hv capacitor so i used it in my exsperiment but the hv camera circuit has 250 volts to the trigger coil . but as for the capacitor.s i used in parralelll well for the unmeasured voltage from the hv multiplier i assumed to be over a thousand or more volts , judgeing by the hv arcs i get from it . i decided to test it useing the same 1m feeder resister used in most flash circuits, to the hv parralell capacitor circuit , as soon as my hv resister devider is completed ill measure the multiplier circuit hv output and then adjust the resistance from there ante if your gona have a go at biulding a hv output hand powerd generator. im behind you all the way.

[steven]

:)reply to audio guru just measured the ac volts output form the microwave oven moter generater well at the speed i rotated it i was getting between 400 and 556 volts ac output around that so i havent exceeded the voltage rateings of any one 3kv ceramic capacitors yet, now ive got a few different looking microwave oven motor generators so they may vary in ac output i geuss. my hand powerd units are made so you can rotate the moter shaft turn peace half way, backwards and forwards . and i recently replaced one generater with plastic shaft and internals, for a moter generater with metal shaft as the hard cranking of the microwave oven /motor generaters dose damage the plastic cogs inside thuss breaking the teeths of the main plastic cog inside, so i hope the steel shaft type microwave oven motor generater has metal cogs inside, to pro long the moters life.

[audioguru]

Hi Steven,
Your generator puts out quite a high AC voltage. Of course, your voltage multiplier will have much more, but DC (doesn't it have rectifiers?).
There is a formula for the amount of voltage that is required to arc between terminals in air. It is about 1mm/5KV, or something like that. In addition to reducing power dissipation and increasing speed, modern digital ICs operate at only 3.3V or less to avoid arcing inside. Their wiring is very close together.
I think that photo-flash capacitors have a parallel "bleeder" resistor to discharge them to avoid dangerous charged capacitors in the garbage-dump. Isn't your resistor in series?

Maybe the generator's gears should be replaced with a belt-drive system, like superchargers! What do modern windmill-generators use for a drive-train? Have you tried blowing air or the blast from a jet-turbine on a vacuum-cleaner's motor/fan?

There's a big advertising sign in a field. It has a small windmill like is used on pleasure-boats, and solar cells. I have never seen it lighted at night, so I think that the generator and solar cells are phoney, and the owner charges big bucks for his high expenses!

[steven]

:) :)reply to audio guru, very well siad audio guru you are a master of words, the 1m resister is in sieries with the parrallel capacitor stack, and the microwave oven motor generator before that one with the metal shaft i put in, got its internal plastic cog damaged, so i used it as follows the round disc shaped magnet i stuck to the end peace on the shaft of a large 12 volts high speed motor from a remote control boat, and the coil section of the moter i used by inserting the magnet into it, and when i fired it up i got ac output as this magnet i secured with super glue . i once used a hot glue gun to do another magnet but the heat destroyed the magnets magnetic feild, so useing super glue is better, ill post the info to the generaters topic as soon as ive completed it. hopefully ill get more continiuous arcs when powerd by moter.ive been informed by someone from :) tesla down under site on net who ive had email contact with before, that the disc magnet s in the microwave oven motors have several poles, i though was a bit strange for such a small magnet i dont know the frenquency of my arcs or other as i dont have a frenquency meter ,

[ante]

Guys,

About the formula, I have seen 1mm/1kV at normal humidity (whatever that is).

[steven]

:)ante i dont worry about the tempiture, i just biuld it test it or fire it up and share the details to everyone . :) thats the hand powerd generater or other hv stuff ive biult.

[audioguru]

Steven,
Are you aiming to produce 1 metre arcs? That'll take lotsa volts.
Have you tried spraying a fine water mist between your charged electrodes?

[steven]

:)reply to audio guru no i havent tried that before whats it suposed to do . spraying fine mist of water between the electrodes. it would create a rainbow , but with the hv arcs what else.

[steven]

:) from steven the high voltage output mini marx generator setup which i power from the generators high voltage multiplier circuit still fires up well, and if yous dont have a turn peace for the microwave oven motor/generator a thick peace of perspex filed to the shape of a lever will provide more leverage in turning the shaft of the motor generator, drill a small hole in it for the shaft, then file it to shape, close to that of the shaft. if you dont have a thick enougth perspex bblock or peace you can make your lever by glueing a few sheetes or strips of perspex together then cut and file it to shape.