voltage amplification by flux exited self oscillating reed switch

[nul-points]

hi professor

thanks for the update - as a matter of interest, do you have an approximate value for the make/break frequency of your reed contact / neo arrangement?

all the best
sandy
Doc Ringwood's Free Energy site  http://ringcomps.co.uk/doc

[TinselKoala]

The voltage amplification is coming from the ignition coil, not the reed switch or the magnet. The coil is functioning as an ordinary autotransformer. The voltage output of the secondary is proportional to the time rate of change of the input current to the primary. This effect is called "induction."

The reed switch provides the necessary pulsation or change in the input current, for induction to work. But reed switches arc and have lots of "jitter" which means their timing isn't constant and the rise time of the current surge through them isn't as abrupt as it could be. Induction works better if the rise time is faster, right? Now, the magnet functions to change the switching characteristics of the reed switch (or the arc from the magnet itself) so that the current is "quenched" more crisply, as it were. This provides that high value of dI/dt that drives the induction of the coil to produce higher and higher voltages.

Tesla knew this and experimented with many magnetically-quenched spark gap designs for his coils. You could try a rotary magnetic gap in place of your reed switch, and get really high voltages. I don't know if your ig-coil could take them though.

Another factor that is very important with transformers and coils is frequency and resonance. The construction of the ig-coil is optimized for a certain frequency. And it will have a natural resonance, that probably isn't the same as the optimized frequency. An ig-coil that is operated at resonance usually won't last very long because its internal insulation isn't good enough.

The rotary magnetic gap can be made with variable speed, so you can experiment with the frequency response of your coil setup.

There are also several good solid-state ig-coil drivers out there, some based on MOSFETS and some on other power transistors like the 2n3055.. All of them seek to pulse the primary with as sharp a rise time as possible, for maximum voltage amplification in the secondary.

I have a little Jacob's ladder driven by an ig-coil and a 3055-based pulser, battery operated, that will generate nearly 3 inches of arc at the top of the ladder. It's also very cool to use audio modulation of the oscillator's frequency--then the arc becomes a "singing arc" with amazing fidelity...

[professor]

Hi Tinsel Koala
Thanks for the reply. If you look back through these Posts you will find that  I just wanted to demonstrate  High Voltage production  without using any electronics.
I was able to get a tremendous greater output than using a 555 driving a TIP41 for instance at 3 to 6 Vdc.
Been there done that.
The use of a solid state circuit for being repetitive with greater reliability, of course you are right, its the only way.
I found the greater the spark which was accentuated by the magnetic flux, the higher the output.
If you remember the old mechanical Point System on Cars, it had a NP Cap. across the Points to reduce the arcing and to suppress RF interference. It often failed but it did not  hinder the operation of the Engine.
Of course you can find the resonance of the Coil by driving the base of a low voltage transistor  with a  function generator  until you achieve resonance watching your current  drop while the HV increases.
Once known (without Calculus)you can design your Osc. accordingly. I did just that with an Audio Line transformer which provided me that way with 500 Vdc to drive my Strobe. I cant remember , its resonance was somewhere around 7 Khz.   
But I doubt that you get much output from a 3055 at 3Vdc,looking at the Specs for a 3055, which was one of my objectives.
At 3Vdc I tried relay switching without the use of the Magnetic flux field and it produced little of any output.Using the reed I tried to suppress contact arcing, it also suppressed the Voltage output on the secondary. I found  the greater the spark the greater the HV at the cost of the contacts.
(60Vcdc) I am aware that it is a function of the collapsing field or back EMF of the Coil and D2 that I am seeing 60Volt Dc being generated.
This Posting  was just  an  addition to something that was left out earlier in my posts.
But I appreciate your feedback, as there may be others that were not aware of your observation that I had left out.
Interesting though about Tesla quenching the Spark Gap. What was his main purpose for that?
professor

The voltage amplification is coming from the ignition coil, not the reed switch or the magnet. The coil is functioning as an ordinary autotransformer. The voltage output of the secondary is proportional to the time rate of change of the input current to the primary. This effect is called "induction."

The reed switch provides the necessary pulsation or change in the input current, for induction to work. But reed switches arc and have lots of "jitter" which means their timing isn't constant and the rise time of the current surge through them isn't as abrupt as it could be. Induction works better if the rise time is faster, right? Now, the magnet functions to change the switching characteristics of the reed switch (or the arc from the magnet itself) so that the current is "quenched" more crisply, as it were. This provides that high value of dI/dt that drives the induction of the coil to produce higher and higher voltages.

Tesla knew this and experimented with many magnetically-quenched spark gap designs for his coils. You could try a rotary magnetic gap in place of your reed switch, and get really high voltages. I don't know if your ig-coil could take them though.

Another factor that is very important with transformers and coils is frequency and resonance. The construction of the ig-coil is optimized for a certain frequency. And it will have a natural resonance, that probably isn't the same as the optimized frequency. An ig-coil that is operated at resonance usually won't last very long because its internal insulation isn't good enough.

The rotary magnetic gap can be made with variable speed, so you can experiment with the frequency response of your coil setup.

There are also several good solid-state ig-coil drivers out there, some based on MOSFETS and some on other power transistors like the 2n3055.. All of them seek to pulse the primary with as sharp a rise time as possible, for maximum voltage amplification in the secondary.

I have a little Jacob's ladder driven by an ig-coil and a 3055-based pulser, battery operated, that will generate nearly 3 inches of arc at the top of the ladder. It's also very cool to use audio modulation of the oscillator's frequency--then the arc becomes a "singing arc" with amazing fidelity...

[professor]

Hi nul-points
Sorry I do not have that. I don't dare to subject my frequency Counter to those spikes.
I do have a Phillips Scope but its still packed away from our last move.
Also have a Velleman HPS 10 Handheld Scope if I find it I will try to give you that Information.
Being a Mechanical Switch it cant be to high.
I doubt if it is greater than 100 hz. 
Thanks for the inquiry Sandy
professor

hi professor

thanks for the update - as a matter of interest, do you have an approximate value for the make/break frequency of your reed contact / neo arrangement?

all the best
sandy
Doc Ringwood's Free Energy site  http://ringcomps.co.uk/doc

[TinselKoala]

Hi prof
It sounds like you know what you're doing so I'll mostly shut up. Sorry to have been so pedantic, but sometimes the basics seem to get forgotten around here.
Tesla used the magnets for rapid quenching of the spark in his gaps. He was using so much current thru the gap in his primary circuits that a power arc would tend to form across the gap, even in rotary gaps. So the magnets were used both as electrodes in the gap itself as well as field pieces near the gap. His objective was to achieve rapid quenching, which equates to a sharp hard mallet striking a bell (the resonating coil) rather than a soft padded bit striking the bell. The sharp strike makes the coil ring more purely and strong.