Tea lasers and basic voltage multiplyers

[jnrpop]

Does anyone now how to make basic voltage multiplyers for stepping up low dc voltage to high ( 2500v) voltage?
I was looking at using a camera flash circuit which already steps 4v up to 250-350 volt and thought if i ran the 350v from that through a voltage multipler like a crockfold voltage multipler i could achieve the high voltage i need.

Im looking at building a tea laser but knowing how to build high voltage circuits would be handy in general

Thanks in advance-jnrpop

 

[digital_blue]

It might just be easier to have someone in the USA(or anywhere else they are legal) purchase a "stun gun" and have the circuit board shipped to you...

 

[Razako]

If you need around 2000 volts then just get a cheap HeNe power supply. They usually put out 1.6kv-2+kv.

 

[jnrpop]

[highlight]It might just be easier to have someone in the USA(or anywhere else they are legal) purchase a "stun gun" and have the circuit board shipped to you... [/highlight]

Ok yer i didnt think of that. If i could get/find someone i propably
would but that might deem very hard. I sought of want to build my own though and im interested in how the voltage multiplers work to, so if anyone's used or built them before and can share that would be great ;D

[highlight]If you need around 2000 volts then just get a cheap HeNe power supply. They usually put out 1.6kv-2+kv[/highlight].

Thanks Coherent i might just do that. Not sure if would run a Tea laser though but if it doesnt work i would hav an excuse to purchase a He/Ne head for it. ;D ;D ;D

 

[jamilm9]

use a neon power supply

 

[MarioMaster]

use a neon power supply

neon sign transformers (NST) will work for running TEA lasers - they also output AC

a HeNe laser psu is gonna be outputting DC however

 

[jnrpop]

A neon power supply, will be trying to find one as of now ;D
Dont tea lasers need sudden pulses of high voltage to create a spark gap though, a neon sign just has high voltage running through it, dont it?
Thanks all for ya help

 

[Things]

Like Mario said, a NST is AC, so it would be 50hz (Or 60hz for the US people), so it would pulse 50-60 times a second. I believe you need to use a capacitor for a tea laser, however, to get a nice amount of juice into the arc. In which case, you would need a DC power supply.

You can rectify NST's, but think strings of 50 or so diodes in series, for EACH leg, so dont attempt that without patience.

 

[jnrpop]

Like Mario said, a NST is AC, so it would be 50hz (Or 60hz for the US people), so it would pulse 50-60 times a second. I believe you need to use a capacitor for a tea laser, however, to get a nice amount of juice into the arc. In which case, you would need a DC power supply.

You can rectify NST's, but think strings of 50 or so diodes in series, for EACH leg, so dont attempt that without patience.

Yer so the power would have to be charged up in say a 350v capacitor, then dumped through a voltage multiplyer
and shot across the spark gap on the tea laser.
But does anyone know how to charge caps.? You cant just hook a 350v cap up to 350v of dc because it just equalizes out, is this right, do you need one way doides in the circuit?

 

[andythemechanic]

Googling "tea nitrogen laser" gives a lot of useful results.
e.g. first one: http://technology.niagarac.on.ca/people/mcsele/lasers/LasersTEA.htm
another cool source: www.pulslaser.de (in German)

TEA lasers are really fun (my first homebuilt was one). However I want to remind that you cannot be cautios enough with this beasts! One hit from a capacitor charged to 10kV or more is in MOST CASES DEADLY !!!!
So please be careful!

 

[MarioMaster]

[quote author=Things link=1231748620/0#7 date=1231838433]Like Mario said, a NST is AC, so it would be 50hz (Or 60hz for the US people), so it would pulse 50-60 times a second. I believe you need to use a capacitor for a tea laser, however, to get a nice amount of juice into the arc. In which case, you would need a DC power supply.

You can rectify NST's, but think strings of 50 or so diodes in series, for EACH leg, so dont attempt that without patience.

Yer so the power would have to be charged up in say a 350v capacitor, then dumped through a voltage multiplyer
and shot across the spark gap on the tea laser.
But does anyone know how to charge caps.? You cant just hook a 350v cap up to 350v of dc because it just equalizes out, is this right, do you need one way doides in the circuit?

[/quote]

usually in most plans for TEA lasers i've seen you make a capacitor yourself with some plastic and aluminum foil, then you rectify the output of the NST (there are high voltage diodes available to do this) and as the NST charges up the capacitor - it eventually hits the voltage required to jump the spark gap and you get a huge discharge from the capacitor

 

[Razako]

You can make your own HV cap out of a glass beer bottle. Fill the bottle with salt water and put a metal rod into the middle of it. Then cover the outside of the bottle with tin foil and you're done.