Comments on: Easy high voltage power supply

By: Ninja

Ninja — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:05:13 +0000

@ crash override

What was it…. mess with the best, die like the rest??

lul

By: hack

hack — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:56:32 +0000

Hehe good thanks Eliot

By: Crash Override

Crash Override — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:38:09 +0000

Reminds me of arc welding, although it is more controlled, this is still an amazing example of what power raw electricity possesses. Rivetgeek and EchoLynx are right though that UV flash can blind you pretty fast, and I have ruined a few $3,500 camera lenses for not using an ND or UV filter when filming instructional videos on how to weld properly.

By: drew

drew — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:27:54 +0000

i built one of those before if you stack the chips on top of each other it saves alot of space since its a parallel circuit you can just link them together like your stringing popcorn for a Christmas tree

By: jim

jim — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:03:41 +0000

thought, even ._.

By: jim

jim — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:02:20 +0000

i wonder if vaporised aluminum foil has medicinal properties? because i would have though all signs point to no

By: jordan

jordan — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:16:31 +0000

I wish people would post custom charge circuits. I rebuilt a camera charger with my own custom transformer but it refuses to oscillate.

By: ac7zl

ac7zl — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:09:19 +0000

Projects like this are always interesting, but a few comments/concerns come to mind.

First– what’s with the cardboard box? In the spirit of hacking, any of a hundred different kinds of metal or plastic cases could be used, salvaged from defunct appliances/electronics.

Second– I didn’t see mention of bleeder resistors.

Third — If discharging the caps while the charger boards are on will damage them, then you should probably rig the circuit so that this can’t occur. Use a SPDT or DPDT switch. Arrange it so that in one position, the cap bank is connected to the chargers, in the other position, the cap bank is connected to the output terminals. This makes the fault condition impossible to achieve.

You will want a very robust switch with large points, otherwise you may end up spot welding the switch contacts together. Alternately, you could use a large relay/contactor to implement the same function. In fact, if you arrange the circuit so that the contactor is powered whenever the charger is on, then the switching function becomes essentially automatic.

Fourth — I think this was mentioned…but if you want rapid discharge, you want to conduct the current out of the cap bank with bus bars, not with thin wires.

By: Joe Cephus

Joe Cephus — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:07:26 +0000

It’s too bad that the inductance of those long, thin wires connecting the caps will severely hinder his dI/dt. Short, fat bus bars are called for if he *really* wants to dump the energy in a hurry.

By: funylilman

funylilman — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:54:16 +0000

Correct me if I’m wrong but wouldn’t that be more of a high current supply. High voltage supply would be more along the lines of my flyback transformer outputting 10kv and up. While that stores and discharges a high amount of current @ 450 volts.

By: Frogz

Frogz — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:52:14 +0000

made 1 of these when i was a kid
bunch of capacitors in paralell with a 2 aa camera
(for the record, dont try to up the power with more caps on the default xenon tube, they tend to go explodey)
a standard 10 amp wall switch is effective at dumping the entire load nearly instantly, solenoids make good cheap coil guns as well

By: spikey

spikey — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:48:55 +0000

Cool – as long as I see that kind of stuff I know that pioneering spirit is not dead.
We all (I am ‘older’) grew up blowing things up, and only a few got hurt.
Kudos!

By: Jynx

Jynx — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:40:46 +0000

@tony
I wholeheartedly agree.
and will also have to build one of these :D

By: tony

tony — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 02:24:39 +0000

I love how he just destroys a bunch of stuff with all that voltage. thats exactly what i would do. i mean eventually i’d have to do something more constructive, but i have a feeling it would take me a while to get to that point.

By: EchoLynx

EchoLynx — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:32:46 +0000

Yea, and it’s sure not good for your camera either.

Advantage(?)- Instant sunburn.