When do you need a portable Jacob’s Ladder? We don’t know, but apparently [mitxela] doesn’t want to leave home (or the laboratory) without one. So he built a portable unit that works for a few minutes on a battery. In the video (see below), he says he wouldn’t presume to claim it was the smallest Jacob’s Ladder ever, but he thought it might be a contender.
The battery is a LiPo cell and although it might last up to four minutes, [mitxela] points out that the transistors probably wouldn’t survive that much on time, despite the heat sinks he put in place. The whole device is 45mm square and 17mm thick. Of course, the wires add some height (about 150mm total).
We were hoping to see more of the insides, but we presume this uses one of the cheap high voltage modules you can procure from the usual Far East sources–or, at least–it could. The rest is just laser cutting and workmanship.
If you haven’t encountered them before (outside of old monster movies), a Jacob’s Ladder lets high voltage ionize the air down at the bottom of the narrow gap. The ionized air is hot and rises, and the current flows through it, despite the electrodes getting further apart. Of course, that means you shouldn’t put on in your zero-gee space station.
You might think a portable Jacob’s ladders is unique. Turns out, it isn’t. If you want something easy (and perhaps not as portable), you can’t get much easier than this one.
I made a jacob’s ladder out of brass welding rods and a neon sign 12,000 V power supply I picked up at a flea market for $12. It’s pretty fun.
I took a 4 kilovolt electric fence transformer and 2 paperclips and made a little jacob ladder on the first try. Now, about making a good voltage multiplier and a huge capacitor…
Not a cake. I come to cakeaday.com because I expect only posts about cakes. Do better
MMmmm, a fully functional Jacob’s ladder cake, krlrkrlrkrlrllhrhr
OW! MY TOUNGE!
Why are there thick copper wires sticking out of the top?
Because it is a Jacob’s ladder. You should be able to find videos of them running on youtube, if the text of the article above doesn’t explain it sufficiently.
Joke went over ya head Rando.
*zaps*
The cake is a lie
Probaly a “hacked” cheap generator like this ( http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/jurrbIu ) could fit in that enclosure. That devices aren’t meant to be used in a continuous way. They are advertised as “1000 kv”, but that seems unreal.
This is a likely candidate as well: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/diy-kit-Inverter-booster-high-voltage-generator-Arc-module-electronic-cigarette-ignition-coil-diy-small-suite/32690815701.htm
“1000 kV” — must be a trusted supplier of LHC :)
And where is the “how it was made”? Just end result is not that interesting.
Oh FFS.
You want spoonfeedmeaday.com
The only links shows a video of the darn thing working, and some photos and no clear show on how it is made. Simple. You post on HaD you post the links. Who has time to start sleuthing for these nonsense.
https://mitxela.com/forum/topic/jacob-s-ladder
That took me what, three clicks to find? Boy are my fingers tired from all the “sleuthing!”</sarcasm>
Gee. Another terrible looking laser cut enclosure. How inspiring.
Are you inspired to design and create a better one?…
No, he’s just inspired enough to leave a useless comment.
He does have a point. Using laser cut wood is like building something and then smearing it with shit. It just never improves anything.
Now my LEGO mad scientist can have the required equipment in his lab.
Needs a mini knife-blade switch though.
The high pitched sound coming from the video when the Jacob’s ladder is turned on is unbearable!
Cool project, but that sound…The sound reminds me of the “mosquito” tone that kids use on their cellphones so that old farts like myself shouldn’t be able to hear em.
Last time I ran into one of those kids, I could hear his cellphone before he could. The noise was painfully loud to me and he barely noticed it. The supervisor couldn’t hear it at all. There’s lots of diversity in how people’s hearing works.
Some kids now uses their headphones like 24/7. So probably they lose some hearing very soon, compared to older people that ocasionally wear headpones or listens to music all day long.
I wonder what kind of RF noise this is generating and how disruptive it might be?
The last time I made a Jacob’s Ladder was a self-defense project: I had a neighbor who was constantly playing music at extremely annoying levels. I built a Jacob’s Ladder, and the RFI put a stop to his enjoyment and I could sleep, study, program, or whatever in peace. It worked beautifully against his radios, but it apparently worked against his CD players also. (NOTE: I BOUGHT him some wireless headsets once as a means of enabling his enjoyment of loud music without disturbing me, but he wouldn’t use them. So screw him. I don’t object to lower levels of sound penetrating my space, but this was VERY loud and highly intrusive.)
One little correction to the write-up: The arc does not rise (primarily) because of hot air. The magnetic forces give it most of the push. It is the same effect that is used for railguns – a moving conductor on two parallell rails is always pushed away from the generator. It should work just fine even in a space station :)
Hmmm. I always thought it was hot rising but I will admit I haven’t done the math.
And if I’m wrong, at least I’m not alone: http://wonders.physics.wisc.edu/jacob-s-ladder.htm
This is what I was taught, but it might depend on the current. Higher voltage x lower current = hot air rising, lower voltage x higher current = arc is pushed away by magnetic forces. I’ll try to find some numbers :)
This German Wikipedia article (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakobsleiter_(Elektrizit%C3%A4t)) says we are both right and it does depend on the current.
For small ladders like this one, it’s primarily the hot air, but with large ones and the overvoltage suppressors of this form, the magnetic component is larger. I got my info from an electricity transmission book, so it makes sense that they would emphasise the magnetic part :)
What is the purpose of the resistors?