Electricity experiments

[inflater]

//EDIT: Till Brendan's post this was a former thread about me building a Tesla coil... now it's been changed a bit and I didn't want to create a new topic.

[Brynet-Inc]

This may sound like a stupid question, but "why" are you building something like this? What useful purpose would it serve?

Is it the patent pending Inflater Incinerator?

[01000101]

its a great way to quick fry your computer/hdd in case of a bust.

[Alboin]

its a great way to quick fry your computer/hdd in case of a bust.

You can never be too careful.

[Stevo14]

This may sound like a stupid question, but "why" are you building something like this? What useful purpose would it serve?

If it ends up failing as a transformer, he can always make it play music.

[inflater]

"why" are you building something like this?

To make you wonder.
And yes, it's a pretty stupid question .

Is it the patent pending Inflater Incinerator?

I don't give a **** about the US patents. AFAIK Tesla coils aren't patented in Europe, and if they even would, who gives a heck. The transformer is made solely for fun.
As for the "inflater incinerator", you're right. Come over here for a day, we will be playing "The Gray Mile" if the transformer will work. We had in mind to use a plush teddy bear as the victim, but you could make a great replacement.

its a great way to quick fry your computer/hdd in case of a bust.

In case of a bust, the person near the power supply or the tesla coil itself is fried. Or at least heavily injured.
Some other things may arise, such as fire or even wire melting in the house electrical installation, so I'm putting a circuit breaker in the 230V part of the tesla coil power supply. Of course, the electroinstallation has already breakers, but you can never be too sure: if the coil would start a fire,there's no such thing as running up the stairs to the 3rd floor to get to the breakers (I live in a flat).

If it ends up failing as a transformer, he can always make it play music.

I wish... but the tesla coil itself is made using a spark gap, no MOSFETs like a normal SSTC would have. Plus, the power supply willn't have a frequency regulator for the output current. I like to make things simple.

Regards
inflater

[Brynet-Inc]

Did you forget to take your happy pills this morning? It was a joke..

[ucosty]

In case of a bust, the person near the power supply or the tesla coil itself is fried. Or at least heavily injured.

Not that kind of 'bust'.

[inflater]

Not that kind of 'bust'.

Oh... I got it. Again, a patent for Tesla coil? In Europe?

@Brynet-Inc: A pretty lame joke.

[piranha]

@Brynet-Inc: A pretty lame joke. Smile

I don't know, I found it funny.

-JL

[Brendan]

Hi,

Hmm - Inflater has decided to put an entry in the Darwin awards???


Cheers,

Brendan

[inflater]

Well, as the tesla coil failed even at it's preliminary stage, I've decided to build a "generator", for e.g. when your mobile phone battery is dead, you could crank it up, literally.
But, the electric "generator" I'm using for the gizmo is a 4W microwave synchronous motor, gives from 90-400 volts depending on how fast you spin, 4-5 mA, which is too little current. So you'll not be able to power up a TV and I think 5 mA is just too few for a standard 230V lightbulb But it's one hell of fun with it. You could wire the output to someone's bare legs, for example when he's sleeping, and give him a nice rise'n'shine.

[inflater]

Well, I had in my signature "building a power supply from a PC one" and I've builded it, but... read on .

So, like I said, I created this thing from a old 200W computer PSU. I've read many tutorials how to do this, and the whole process was fairly simple, but... eh, I'm not ready to tell you what happened at end, for now on.
Some tutorials said that running a "modified PC PSU" (a.k.a. my "power supply") without a load could result in PSU damage. I've seen some people to attach a 10K 10W resistor to the 5V wire, I've used a cheapo 5V lightbulb. And that worked very stable, the PSU survived 5 minutes without load (except the bulb itself) and without any damages. The voltage levels were OK.

I've noticed that when I accidentaly shorted a wire, the PSU did create a buzzing noise, the fan wasn't spinning and the 5V bulb was 1/2 on and it was blinking a bit. The cure for this was tape insulation of every "myself-soldered" wire. Then, it did work OK, the lightbulb was working and the PSU fan did spin. So I've de-insulated the wires again, saying "I would not use the PSU until I'm done with the external part". (I did this because I couldn't solder insulated wires in future of course, but this was my big and stupid mistake.) By "external part", I've meant drilling holes into the PSU's casing to add power output. Something like banana jacks, but I've used a combination of screw thread with female screws. That was OK.

Before I started drilling, I double-checked if the PSU works and that was my another mistake, because I totally forgot that I de-insulated the soldered wires. After switching the PSU on, it worked, but then, the bulb went completely off and - a buzzing noise again. Like in "good old days", but the bulb wasn't on this time. First serious short circuit, but I didn't knew that and I said "I'll fix that later" and drilled the "terminals" to the PSU's casing.

Then I insulated all wires, but it didn't work. I've switched on and off the PSU ~6 times, double checking that there aren't any un-insulated wires. But it still didn't work, so I disassembled the PSU and put it into mains - disassembled. (I think the PSU was half dead by that time.)
I switched it on again, the bulb wasn't on too, didn't work. Gah. Before I gave up work with that, I've switched it on (again), and there was a loud bang, sparks and the circuit breaker went off.

...After 30 minutes of "debugging", I've found that the lightbulb's anode was uninsolated (on purpose, because I've thought that it wouldn't touch anything, since it stood in it's "casing" before) and it did - it accidentaly met with the PSU's primary heatsink, which was "live" with 230 volts, which resulted in a second short circuit, which resulted in a total PSU's K.O.

Anyways, if I'll find another spare PSU, it'll be a easier repair - all I need to do is change the "new" PSU's casing and replace the wires.

Note to myself: ALWAYS INSULATE ANY SOLDERED WIRES.

Anyways, this is how the modified (and damaged) PSU looks... my mistake it isn't working.

[AndrewAPrice]

A Tesla coil attached to a pin shooter which fires a magnetic pin to attract it.

[inflater]

WTF you said? What tesla coil? That's a 12V power supply... What the hell are you talking about? What magnetic pin? You're drunk?