When getting parts together for a one-off project, we often find ourselves with some leftovers on hand. Most of the time these things go in the junk drawer, but [Brad] aka [AtomicZombie] was working on a project which required parts salvaged from several microwave ovens. That left him with enough surplus components to build a social distancing enforcement tool for the modern age; which will deliver a taser-like shock to anyone which violates the new six-foot rule.
The leftover parts in question were built around a high-voltage capacitor, which [Brad] strapped to his back to hold all of the electronics needed for the six-foot electrified hoop. The generator utilizes the output voltage from two magnetrons, but doesn’t start until the operator enters a code on the front control panel, which is about the only safety device on this entire contraption. To get power to the magnetrons a 12 VDC car battery is used with an inverter to get the required input voltage, and towards the end of the video linked below he shows its effectiveness by setting various objects on fire with it.
While this gag project is unlikely to get any actual use, it’s not like any of us around here need an excuse to play with high voltages. [Brad] is also unlikely to need it either; he lives on a secluded 100-acre homestead and has been featured here for some of the projects he built to make his peaceful life a little easier, like a robotic laundry line, mobile chicken coop, and an electric utility tricycle built from an old truck and motorcycle.
Fake!
Unfortunately, low-effort trolls are very real.
If it was fake, how could you have viewed it?
Sounds like the Higgs Boson paradox.
Radical Brad
The sparks in that video are quite fake. If we go by the rule of thumb that it takes about a kilovolt for every mm an ark travels, we get a voltage of
2 ft = 610mm = 610kilovolts.
Last time I checked (a moment ago), the transformer in a microwave oven doesn’t give out anywhere close to this value.
As for the magnetrons, they don’t amplify voltage. They convert it to rf radiation.
The easiest way to disprove the sparks though is to note that in the video they are sparking to the end of the rods, in spite of the exposed metal rod coming much closer to the magnetron. If it was a real spark, it would take the shortest path.
One more thing: point to point sparks don’t take multiple parallel paths. The spark will take 1 path. Look at videos of tesla coils for reference.
If you’re going to photoshop the video, at least be honest about it.
I appreciate your well thought out and exceedingly verbose explanation, but I stand by my claim that this machine does exactly what it is intended to do, and that with a little more “research” on your part, yo would most certainly see this as well. Start with the original HAD posting again, and then visit the complete build log if you are still not enlightened….
https://atomiczombie.com/forum/threads/the-covinator-a-physical-distancing-enforcement-device-p-ded.380/
Cheers!
Radical Brad
Bit late for the first of April isn´t it?
Been a long winter up there in Thunder Bay.
You got it!
Cabin fever out here in Gillies!
Radical Brad
Well, at least you’re ahead of the world in social distancing.
Not really since it’s 6′ diameter vs 6′ radius.
Gillies, Ontario, has always been into social distancing.
BTW that’ should be 2M, not 6′.
Completely fake, there is only one wire connecting each magnetron.
You can also see the arc have been added after in post as they do not follow the slight moves of the rig when he is turning.
Maybe keep this for April 1st post.
This machine does exactly what it is intended to do, I assure you of that!
You can find proof of that in the original HAD write-up above.
You only need one wire to each magnetron thanks to the centered tapped nature of the power supply. The frame becomes neutral, so each magnetron sees half of the potential. This anti-phase configuration also stops the megawatt of pulsed 2.4GHz radiation from cooking the operator. Glad I could sort that out.
Radical Brad
Megawat????
Ya, fake.
A car battery usually has in the ballpark of 40-50 amp hours capacity.
50 amp/hours at 1 megawatt at 12v (assuming 100% effeciency in the transformers) gives us a discharge current of over 83 THOUSAND AMPS.
W = V*A
1,000,000 = 12v * A
A = 83,333 amps
It would last about 36 milliseconds.
50 amp/hours at 12v = 600 w/h
600 w/h * (1/1,000,000 w) = 600 hours/1,000,000
= 0.0006 hours = 0.036 seconds.
There isn’t a type of battery on earth that can do anything like this. Also, the fact that his ‘spark’ lasts more than a frame disproves ‘a megawatt’
If you take the time to read the original HAD text above, you will surely see that this machine does exactly what it is intended to do.
You can also find a lot more detail in the build log here, which will address any confusion…
https://atomiczombie.com/forum/threads/the-covinator-a-physical-distancing-enforcement-device-p-ded.380/
I hope this finally clears things up.
Sorry that all your math didn’t apply, a little RTFM can often go a long way.
Cheers!
Radical Brad
Amp hours doesn’t work like that. You’re bound by the batteries discharge characteristics.
not to mention the charge pump, that creates a modulated output that is 100 times more powerful than the instantaneous ability of the primary battery. A very large amount of engineering and time went into making the Covinator – almost 4 straight hours if you include the video editing.
The key is not that the batteries or magnetrons generate a megawatt of instantaneous power. You can generate a swept frequency signal and use pulse compression techniques to increase the instantaneous power. This requires anti-dispersive networks or a metamaterial surface to compress the chirp signal to a sharp peak. This is similar to how a Tesla coil works. With sufficient pulse sharpening, you can generate enough voltage to break down any air gap. The spark in the movie is obviously not a continuous megawatt level, so it must therefore be very short but repeated; this ensures that successive frames of the video contain evidence of it.
Generating this frequency ramp, or chirp, can be difficult with a cheap magnetron, but they are notoriously susceptible to frequency slewing with differing anode voltage. I ran into this problem with the QK338 magnetron on the AN/FPS-6 radar. Replacing it with a coax magnetron (which stabilizes the frequency with an external cavity) resulted in a substantial reduction in power needed, due to the stable frequency generated. So a suitable drive voltage ramp could be used to generate the frequency sweep required. Possibly what looks like a large capacitor is actually a pulse forming network, since it is a radar surplus item.
The picture of the 3 magnetrons arcing between them is obviously a result of firing them at different times (one is off when the others are on), and the combination is imperceptible to the camera.
Oh, it’s stopped raining, so I’m going out to spread manure on my garden instead of here.
Why did he glue two magnetrons to the side of the backpack?
Read the article again – still doesn’t make any sense…
they emit microwaves to kill airborne viruses
Teh Interwebs say microwaves CAUSE the virus!! Wake up, sheeple!
You may be on to something there.
On the bright side, being inside the Covinator energy field protects you fully, not only from possible microwave radiation, but from those evil 5G waves. it’s a win win situation.
Are you the one that recently joined my forum and posted pics of the new Covinator build with the 3 phase magnetrons? If so…. great work!
https://atomiczombie.com/forum/threads/the-covinator-a-physical-distancing-enforcement-device-p-ded.380/
Radical Brad
Can’t catch/spread the virus when you are dead. Make sure you have a “do not resuscitate” note in case someone is getting too close to save you.
Foke!
No!…. Reol!
Radical Brad
Dear me, the magnetrons are not “glued” to the side of the backpack, they are held in position by a combination of quantum electrodynamic wave varience and anti-muon wave / particle interaction. Surely, even the meanest of intellects can see this!
What is jolly interesting however, is the spectral emission from the electrical discharge driving the field exciter. This seems to be well into the near ultraviolet and I’m wondering whether this would have the secondary effect of disrupting the probable RNA dependent polymerase structure of C19. This would therefore increase the point mutation rate of the virus leading (hopefully) to a form of high energy electron induced mutagenicity taking it into the area know as error catastrophe and resultant disruption. I am surprised that the interviewer wasn’t more inquisitive about this operational aspect of the apparatus.
We, here in Europe, are so glad that the spirit of American ingenuity is still alive and well even at this difficult time.
The inventor is Canadian, and will be very sorry that you mistook him for an American.
Canada is in North America, isn’t it?
Sadly, yes. But the USA-ians co-opted the more generic term. The United Mexican States are in a similar naming identity dilemma.
Your question of RNA disruption is very interesting indeed. I am going to add 2 more capacitors and try that tonight. I will use the simple scanning electron microscope I made from an old 1956 car radio to verify the results. Will post soon.
I am also glad that you understood the purpose of my Covinator project. There is hope after all!
Radical Brad
The inventor has taken Yooper Engineering and revised it Northward!
The disease is covid 19.
The virus that causes the above decease is conv-sars-2
To use this device to kill the disease convid 19 you would additionally need a fire extinguisher to extinguish the smoldering previously infected human.
Please remember to de-energise the field first.
Mad, but fun!
Best medicine I can actually create in my lab, thanks!
Radical Brad
That capacitor is actually rated at maybe 20-30 KV tops, not a “million”. But you’d better be careful with it. They can pick up a charge just sitting around in open air, and more if you have wires hooked to them. They keep a charge for a very long time, and if you get a thousand volts or so built up on them, a 1/2uF cap stores enough energy to be lethal. It’s safest to have a dead short across the terminals and to the case; a resistor chain is just as good if you need to actually put power on it, but you never know if the resistor is still working.
High voltage is not something to joke with. That’s why I’m still here.
You’re here to joke with?
No need to explain that to me. As you can see, I have used these capacitors on various other projects, and certainly understand their potential!…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAQabaA2DWE
Brad
I see what you did there
Hope the device fulfilled its intended purpose for you too!
Best “medicine” we can actually make right now for all of this.
Radical Brad
Hackaday posting fake vids unironically??
The video is completely real. If it was not, then how could you have watched it???
Also, the intended purpose of the machine has been completely fulfilled.
Just sayin.
Radical brad
Scoop o’ vanila, scoop o’ chocolate. Don’t waste my time.
Thanks for posting my project!
I give my word that this device does “exactly” what it was intended to.
Some will see it, some may not.
Stay safe, stay busy, and try to smile.
Cheers!
Radical Brad
If by “intended to do” you mean meant to be fake, then I wholeheartedly agree.
Update!
We have found that using a three phase magnetron ignition system creates a much larger social distancing field…
http://lucidscience.com/temp/Covinator13.jpg
More details can be seen here…
https://atomiczombie.com/forum/threads/the-covinator-a-physical-distancing-enforcement-device-p-ded.380/
Don’t forget to read all of the text posted at the top of the HAD article so that you can fully understand the intended purpose of this amazing innovation. Failure to do so may result in a wasted effort if you chose to build one.
Cheers!
Radical Brad – AKA : AtomicZombie
I’m curious as to the sound source.
I’m thinking that a sequence of a light saber start up followed immediately by some arcing / crackling sound and then a pulsating hum would be most effective.
The thump you hear is the glass trigatron dumping the megawatt of energy from the capacitor into the split phase induction system. The intense EMF seems to have affected my camera microphone. The crackling of the 1 million volt arc is pretty much the run of the mill sound we all hear when experimenting with these kinds of voltages in our labs. What is really odd though, is this radial pattern of dead grass in my hard where I made that video. it seems that the lawn may have been sensitive to the unrestrained megawatt of 2.4GHz microwave radiation.
I am also noticing some real soreness in my levator labii superioris, risorius, mentalis, depressor anguli oris, orbicularis oris, buccinator, and depressor labii inferioris.
But I do believe that may be a result of reading the “must be fake” comments here, especially the ones that offer proof backed up with mathematical equations.
Radical Brad
Reminds me of a time I had a higher than 100 kV flashover in a 3 foot vacuum tube only intended to run at 25 kV.
After the initial shock (not electrical shock obviously) I thought to myself ..
One day people will have hand held graphical non ionizating spectrometers and they will be able to see a perfect image of my skeletal structure on the concrete wall immediately behind where I was standing.
It can’t have been to bad though. Nothing has fallen off me yet and I went on to have two children and neither of them were glowing green at birth.
Fun days in the lab! Diode rectifier tube?
Was the generated X-Ray accidental or intended?
It was the pre drive to a rf output tube.
The ht for the output tube was around 120 – 150 kV and that rail flashed over to the 25 kV rail driving the pre drive.
It bring the smaller tube, became the shortest path.
Any large tube that is over driven will emit x-rays even old glass tube TV screens. TVs had a crowbar protection circuit using a scr directly across the rail driving the ht. If the rail went too high it would trigger the scr and drop a dead short circuit from the rail to ground and something in the PSU would explode.
All this to prevent the ht going too high and the screen emitting x-rays.
Waste of our time. Not even funny enough for a chuckle.
don’t include me in your “our” Bob, I am rolling on the floor with some of the comments!
Many would disagree with ya, ole Bob.
Doesnt appear to be a complete build instruction. The device is powered through modified MOT and Automotive style battery. Deep cell would be my preference if not LiFe. There is no indication Hacker has derived power from the magnetrons nor any circuit description indicating so author/reporter not helping. No schematics provided. So sad.
Lack of waveguides on magnetron and insufficient personal safety equipment suggest a failure to think it through. No conical tin foil hat very bad.
Would be helpful if an expected static field generation map and appropriate maths were included. Map of Interior protective field generation to exclude user from inherent radiation and electrical shock in particular. Have to assume a skin effect protective field is in use but theres no contact point to flesh. Should the devices anti-field be connected to genitals or wrapped around neck? Again assuming an anal insertion device due to highest conductivity and blood flow.
HAD more fun reading comments too.
So I am going to build this and had some questions.
Can I use any microwave, or does it have to be a matched pair?
How do I get more power? I want the force field to extend more than 30 feet.
How long will it run on the car battery? I may try using a small generator instead.
Will the megawatt pulses of 2.4GHz radio waves mess with my neighbors router?
I just want o make sure I make it as safe as possible, thanks.
Going from a three foot radius to a 30 foot radius is going to take 100 times the power so this method looses energy efficiency quickly with extended range.
A more efficient method would to use two computer vision cameras and some ai detection of people and how far away they are.
This information could then aim and fore a semi automatic gun.
If you want to walk through large crowds then a fully automatic gun like an Uzi would be better.
This may also give you some tactical advantage when purchasing toilet paper.
Fantastic project. Definitely not fake since it’s posted on the inter-webs.
And as luck would have it, I saw a couple broken microwave ovens on the side of the road while driving around searching for toilet paper and bags of flour. Hand sanitizer, check. Gloves, check. N95 mask, check. To the bat mobile!
– Thomas
Glad to hear you are going to build your own Covinator!
If those microwaves have been out thrown out of a moving car, then be careful when salvaging the magnetrons. These often have small amount of thorium mixed with tungsten in their filament, and although it is only slightly radioactive, you don’t want to be inhaling any dust.
Also, do not use any military radar capacitor dated before 1979, as these have been know to contain PCB.
Other than that, have fun, and remember to play it safe when discharging a megawatt of power into an exposed microwave emitter.
The new three phase design that users on my forum are now building also seems to offer a much larger social distancing field. I highly recommend this…
http://lucidscience.com/temp/Covinator13.jpg
Cheers!
Radical Brad
Ha, we have been watching this video almost all day now, playing it frame by frame and analyzing it using sophisticated forensic AI software in our University lab. Let me enlighten you on what we found so far…
1) If you look at the shadows on the ground, the sun is in the wrong place and some of the reflections are just wrong. Proof that this entire thing was filmed in an elaborate indoor studio!
2) There is also snow on the ground, yet you can’t see the pilot’s breath! Absolute proof that this was filmed in an elaborate indoor studio using sophisticated green screen techniques. Probably a massive green screen room using the latest RED Digital 8K camera.
3) Some kind of vehicle is seen moving down the road in the background, but the depth perspective seems completely off. This is just more proof that the entire scene is a combination of chroma key footage, highly accurate CGI elements, and controlled indoor lighting.
The voltage zappy thing is probably real, but this entire thing was not filmed in some remote field as he claims. Debunked… it was filmed in an indoor studio!
Case Closed – thank you!
Do not use any military radar capacitor dated before 1979, as these have been know to contain PCB.
Other than that, have fun, and remember to play it safe when discharging a megawatt of power into an exposed microwave emitter.
The new three phase design that users on my forum are now building also seems to offer a much larger social distancing field.