Dangerous entertainment: easy-to-repeat high voltage generator

Good afternoon, dear habrovchane.
This post will be a bit unusual.
In it, I will tell you how to make a simple and quite powerful high voltage generator (280,000 volts). I took the scheme of Marx Generator as a basis. The peculiarity of my scheme is that I recalculated it for affordable and inexpensive parts. In addition, the scheme itself is simple to repeat (I took 15 minutes to assemble), does not require configuration, and runs the first time. In my opinion it is much simpler than a Tesla transformer or a Cockroft-Walton voltage multiplier.

Principle of operation

Immediately after switching on, the capacitors start charging. In my case, up to 35 kilovolts. As soon as the voltage reaches the breakdown threshold of one of the arresters, the capacitors will be connected in series through the arrester, which will lead to a doubling of the voltage on the capacitors connected to this arrester. Because of this, the other arresters are almost instantly triggered, and the voltage on the capacitors is added. I used 12 steps, that is, the voltage should be multiplied by 12 (12 x 35 = 420). 420 kilovolts is almost half-meter discharges. But in practice, taking into account all the losses, the discharges were 28 cm long. The losses were due to corona discharges.
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About the details:

The circuit itself is simple, consists of capacitors, resistors and arresters. Still need a power source. Since all the details are high-voltage, the question arises, where do you get them? Now about everything in order:

1 - resistors

Looking for 100 kΩ resistors, 5 watts, 50,000 volts.
I tried many factory resistors, but none of them could withstand such voltage - the arc punched over the case and nothing worked. Careful zagulglivanie gave an unexpected answer: the wizard, who collected the Marx generator for a voltage of more than 100,000 volts, used complex liquid resistors Marx generator on liquid resistors, or used a lot of steps. I wanted something simpler and made wood resistors.

I broke off two flat branches of raw wood (dry current does not conduct) on the street and turned on the first branch instead of the group of resistors to the right of the capacitors, the second branch instead of the group of resistors to the left of the capacitors. It turned out two branches with a set of conclusions through equal distances. Conclusions I made by winding bare wire over the branches. Experience shows that such resistors can withstand tens of megavolts (10,000,000 volts)

2 - capacitors

It's all easier. I took the capacitors that were the cheapest on the radio market - K15-4, 470 pkf, 30 kV (they are also screenshots). They were used in tube TVs, so now you can buy them for disassembly or ask for free. They withstand a voltage of 35 kilovolts well, none of them break through.

3 - power supply

I did not have a hand to collect a separate circuit for powering my Marx generator. Because the other day my neighbor gave me an old TV "Electron TC-451". At the anode of the kinescope in color TVs uses a constant voltage of about 27,000 volts. I disconnected the high-voltage wire (suction cup) from the anode of the kinescope and decided to check what kind of arc would come from this voltage.



Having played enough with the arc, I came to the conclusion that the circuit in the TV is stable enough, it easily withstands overloads and in case of a short circuit the protection is triggered and nothing is burned. The circuit in the TV has a power reserve and I managed to overclock it from 27 to 35 kilovolts. To do this, I rotated R2 in the TV power module so that the power in the horizontal scan was raised from 125 to 150 volts, which in turn led to an increase in the anode voltage to 35 kilovolts. When you try to further increase the voltage, punches the KT838A transistor in the horizontal scan of the TV, so you need not to overdo it.

Assembly process

Using copper wire, I screwed the capacitors to the branches of the tree. There must be a distance of 37 mm between the capacitors, otherwise undesirable breakdown may occur. The free ends of the wire, I bent so that between them turned 30 mm - it will be arresters.

Better to see once than to hear 100 times. Watch the video, where I showed in detail the assembly process and generator operation:

Safety engineering

Special care must be taken, since the circuit operates at a constant voltage and the discharge from even one capacitor is likely to be fatal. When you turn on the circuit, you need to be at a sufficient distance, because electricity breaks through the air of 20 cm and even more. After each shutdown, it is necessary to discharge all capacitors (even those that are on the TV) with a well-grounded wire.

Better from the room where the experiments will be conducted, remove all the electronics. Discharges create powerful electromagnetic pulses. The phone, keyboard and monitor, which are shown in my video, have failed and cannot be repaired! Even in the next room I turned off the gas boiler.

Need to protect hearing. The noise from the discharges is like shots, then it rings in his ears.

Interesting observations

The first thing you feel when you turn it on is how the air in the room is electrified. The intensity of the electric field is so high that it is felt with every hair of the body.

Corona discharge is clearly visible. Beautiful bluish glow around parts and wires.
Constantly lightly beats with a current, sometimes you won’t even understand what it was: he touched the door - a spark slipped, he wanted to take scissors - it was blasted from the scissors. In the dark he noticed that sparks jump between different metal objects not connected with the generator: in a diplomat with a tool, sparks between screwdrivers, pliers, a soldering iron jumped.

Light bulbs light up on their own, without wires.

Ozone smells all over the house, like after a thunderstorm.

Conclusion

All items will cost about 50 UAH ($ 5), this is an old TV and capacitors. Now I am developing a fundamentally new scheme, with the aim of obtaining meter discharges without much expense. You ask: what is the use of this scheme? I will answer that there are applications, but they need to be discussed in another topic.

At this I have everything, be careful when working with high voltage.