Everyone loves to play with electricity and plasma, and [Hyperspace Pirate] is no exception. Inspired by a couple of 40×20 N52 neodymium magnets he had kicking around, he decided to put together a hand-cranked generator and use it to generate plasma with. Because that’s the kind of fun afternoon projects that enrich our lives, and who doesn’t want some Premium Fire™ to enrich their lives?
The generator itself is mostly 3D printed, with the magnets producing current in eight copper coils as they spin past. Courtesy of the 4.5:1 gear on the crank side, it actually spins at over 1,000 RPM with fairly low effort when unloaded, albeit due to the omission of iron cores in the coils. This due to otherwise the very strong magnets likely cogging the generator to the point where starting to turn it by hand would become practically impossible.
Despite this, the generator produces over a kilovolt with the 14,700 turns of 38 AWG copper wire, which is enough for the voltage multiplier and electrodes in the vacuum chamber, which were laid out as follows:
Some of our esteemed readers may be reminded of arc lighters which are all the rage these days, and this is basically the hand-cranked, up-scaled version of that. Aside from the benefits of having a portable super-arc lighter that doesn’t require batteries, the generator part could be useful in general for survival situations. Outside of a vacuum chamber the voltage required to ionize the air becomes higher, but since you generally don’t need a multi-centimeter arc to ignite some tinder, this contraption should be more than sufficient to light things on fire, as well as any stray neon signs you may come across.
If you’re looking for an easier way to provide some high-voltage excitement, automotive ignition coils can be pushed into service with little more than a 555 timer, and if you can get your hands on a flyback transformer from a CRT, firing them up is even easier.
A microwave oven transformer can also be plugged directly into the wall, but it’s considerably more dangerous with 2 kV at 1-2 Amps.
Yeah… don’t do that. Many people have died by using un-contained microwave oven transformers and the high voltage and current they produce.
Goin’ fishing…
My friend’s dad had one of those. Strictly for curiosity’s sake of course, highly illegal to use them…
I don’t recall, if I ever knew, what voltage it used but I’ve seen electrofishing in action during a count performed by game wardens. It’s extremely effective. And, it doesn’t kill the fish. They claimed that the only dead fish they ever encountered during the process was one that had been regurgitated by a live fish.
I guess I always thought a fish’s buoyancy was inherent rather than consciously controlled. I assume now that it’s controlled, probably they swim against a positive buoyancy to stay submerged. Anyway, unconscious fish float to the surface fairly rapidly.
Used to hang with biologists and was invited on the occasional fishing expedition. It -can- kill the fish, if not done with some subtlety and finesse.
I used to work in a Motorola shop and recovered a 12v dc to 300v dc motor-generator unit from a scrapped mobile tube radio. The boss asked what I wanted it for and I told him ‘I dunno, maybe I’ll shock fish’. “Oh, no’ he says, ‘you need AC to shock fish, 180 to 300 volts, 20 to 80Hz’. He knew way too much about the topic for a radio guy.
Now we only need the distance between the electrodes as well as their surface, if that counts.
Rather timely to read on Earth.com about (fish suffer more than we thought from being out of the water), fish deserve a quicker death than they get laying in the bottom of the boat. Percussive and electrical methods are mentioned, but not specific values.
They’re called stringers.
Keep the fish alive and in the water until you’re ready to clean and eat them, as good as a live well.
Not for some fruity PETA adjacent reason, because stress makes for bad tasting fish.
‘Calling up’ a fish using a hand cranked phone generator only stuns them.
You pick out the big ones, the rest recover and swim off.
It’s how game wardens do fish counts.
So I’ve heard…
As always, I only post these things so everybody knows what not to do.
If only they cranked out one more volt for that photo… we were so close
If he had put iron cups over the magnets to redirect the field he could have made the magnets stronger in that direction without the cogging effects
Just realized that would also do wierd things with the poles.