Yeah - obviously this will only be used under the safest of conditions. And, after I get the FBT that I ordered and get it up and running, I will further analyze exactly how safe it is for me to be doing this.

That is, I will draw an arc for an extended period of time and place some of the materials I will be wearing very near it to see what happens - I will probably even put some sort of small fuse inside a sample of the material I will be wearing to see if any power gets through the protective outer coating.

EDIT: I just had an idea though... what if I attached a grounding wire rather close to where the arc will be that will lead to the virtual ground found in the backpack power unit? That way, if any electricity *does* manage to get through the protective outer layer, it will just take the path of least resistance - an actual wire leading to the inside of my backpack (with a fuse at the end of it).

^^^^ That my good sir is an oximoron (I think) since HIgh voltage is not safe and playing with it isn't either, yet wearing something that will emit HV is definetly not safe.

As for the ground wire, not really donna do too much good, since both the negative and positive of the HV will be coming out of the FBT.

Not an oxymoron! An oxymoron would be like saying, "I am going to play with my low-voltage FBT" or something. I'm just stating that I am going to use it safely - the same way someone with a Tesla coil uses it safely.

Regarding the ground wire... I don't understand - isn't the problem that the HV may arc to my skin instead of the ground elctrode, which would hurt me? Thus, if I had ground wire UNDER the glove, wouldn't it just arc to that instead of my skin? It would hurt a lot (the heat and stuff) but it wouldn't kill me.

Something like coating the interior of the gloves with a conductive layer and connecting that to ground could certainly help. It would have to cover the entire inside of the glove though - if it arcs in, it will jump to closest possible point which could be unprotected.

If you just ran a wire, it could arc into your finger, and out the other side into that wire, resulting in 2 contact burns. Somehow i think doing this in reality will cost you a finger or two, but i suppose thats still 'safer' than being electrocuted from fingertip to backpack

Yeah - I am used to getting burns (I have tons of 'em from this hobby XD), but I am just looking for a way to prevent myself from getting electrocuted ^_^

That figures... i guess most people would only touch voltages like that with a 2 foot plastic pole

Hahaha, yeah. I'm covered in burns from my soldering iron and my lasers, so burns don't really bug me. They hurt for a while, then they scar, then they are better.

What I mean is, imagine the + and - of the FBT as the + and - of a battery (a very high voltage battery of course) if you touch the + of said battery and grab onto say a metal rod shoved into the ground do you receive a shock (excluding any static electricity), the same goes for the - do you receive a shock, instead of a ground wire maybe something more like a faradays cage/glove so that in the event that a stray arc goes for your hand or arm it hits the cage/glove and is redirect to the output.

Either way I still don't think HV in a glove is a very good idea....

Final thought on safety (sarcasm of course) you say being safe like the tesla guys, most of them (the smart ones) stand at least 3ft+ back depending on the size and power of the coil, and for the ones that want the arcs to come to them and not kill them, they use a faradays cage or suit, so that their entire body is sheilded.

The potential is only between the two terminals. Between a terminal and anything else, the voltage potential will be zero.

@Kmor: Hmm... I see what you're saying. And I was just using the Telsa guys as an example :P Now, a "Faraday glove"... that's an interesting concept. What if I had a HV glove with a "Faraday glove"?

The initial idea for a ground wire was sort of similar - the Faraday glove is simply a lot more likely to protect me. So with a Faraday glove, I would essentially wear a chainmail glove. Which would look bada$$ ANYWAY.

I think you just
a) helped keep me from electrocuting and
b) gave me a great idea to make it look cooler.

Everybody I'm sorry, but I think I may end up getting wolf shocked, he'll most likely live to tell about it, but in the event he uses one that causes the FBT to produce higher currents...I am sorry.

Oh yea and I realize you were using "us" as an example...

I will probably get at least one jolt here, but I don't plan on dying any time soon. Point of the matter being, I am going to take this extraordinarily, take all the safety precautions I can, and build in multiple safety nets in case things go wrong.

I love this picture... makes it look like you have some kind of electric tree in your house. +1

Well, there the more important thing, is to always remember to never become one of the terminals yourself .....

Just to add to this, if you use a simple driver, such as a single 2n3055/ feedback circuit the output of a small flyback (a dc one) would be relativity harmless. You will be getting no more than 2-3ma as long as the flyback doesn't have an inbuilt tripler and you sue a low power source (like a small laptop supply). It will however burn you if you get struck by and arc, plasma is hot even at low currents.

Looking at your use though, dc is pretty useless, ac would work kinda, but it would shock you easily as it will use you as the ground pin!

All up you still want to be careful with these supplies, getting shocked is not pleasant especially if your not expecting it. Having any form of high voltages actually bound to your had seems like a bad idea at any power level. I haven't been continuously shocked from a flyback and even the short period I did it still put me off a little bit. My advice stick it on a table not on your body.

Yeah - I am going to use that simple driver with the 2n3055. And I am actually going to try to drop the current to the uA if I can using resistors.

Make sure to use a big heat sink with the 2n3005. It will get VERY hot. My heat sinc is a 10*15*5 cm flat one surface finned on the other and still only has a small suty cycle. If yours is in a back pack it will have no air to cool it. You will need a monster heat sink. Is your flyback dc or ac?

It's not going to be your normal backpack - I am going to essentially make one. Probably will have air access, and if necessary, circulating water coolant.

I think my flyback is DC, I haven't gotten it yet though.

is it a tall one like this? http://webspace.webring.com/people/g...ge/flyxfmr.gif

or one like this
http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j0...ransformer.jpg

the first is dc the second ac. the first may also contain a tripler witch will will be bad as a shock from it will be painful and dangerous. when you run it if it ha a nice smooth purple arc it is god if not (loud this sparks) it is bad and contains a tripler.

It's one like the second one. So that's good news, yes?

It's good in that it will arc to anything without it having to be connected to the ground pin of the flyback. That is also it's flaw, it will go through over 2mm of rubber with ease strait into your hand or back or anything else it can to get to ground. I recommend using at least 50kv dc wire. That may not even prevent alot of corona discharge. Try the 50kv wire in a clear plastic tube (loose) that's your best bet. To test all points along the wire touch the ground wire to all parts of tenoutput wire am check for arcs or corona. Please be very careful. Your not messing with matches here your messing with a furnace. It's easy to hurt yourself. High frequency ac arcs can permenantly damage nerves. Put simply I think this is a bad idea. Just stick it on a bench and play with it there, make a plasma globe or a small Jacobs ladder, safer and easier.

Hmm. Carulli, you make a strong argument. I will consider this and do a lot of testing to make sure it's safe before I do anything stupid, I promise. I still have that dream of an electric glove, but if it's too dangerous, I won't be rash.

I'll second this. It is an interesting plan.... I like the idea, however the original plan using 100Kv is simply unrealistic. In open air the rule of thumb is 1.1Kvdc/mm in room temperature air. 100Kv would jump ~11cm.
In order to obtain this kind of potential (compactly) you would essentially have to run
a) either a bipolar marx impulse generator/walter crofton generator or
b) a dual ignition coil set up under oil.

None of these setups would work in a glove. far too big.

If you were somehow able to make a tesla coil glove.. "wishful thinking"
High Freq High voltage also has the tendency to cause "skin effect"... so, your entire glove and body would conduct a decent charge.


Here is a little Tesla Coil video to show a BIG coil in action.
Note, this is taken from Chriss Angles's Mind F^ck... woops.. where Chriss successfully jolts himself with KVA effects giant 25KW show coil. 3MV at full power. The suit he is wearing isn't completely covered or done up properly and an arc strikes him in the exposed spot causing a lasting RF burn.
Criss Angel Mindfreak: Tesla Coil - Part 3/3 - YouTube

Hmm. Yeah, the 100kV mark probably wouldn't happen. Probably gonna stick 35kV, which is what my flyback will be outputting.

use a mazzilli driver - it uses a pair of mosfets whose heatsinks are a drop in the ocean compared to the atlantic ocean of a 2n3055 driver heatsink. They dont even get hot

you can also tune it by changing the output cap for the biggest spark.