3-Dimensional Transformer

[MileHigh]

I hate to be a party pooper but this is not an "experiment," it's just a series of observations.  If it was a true experiment you would analyze your data and explain the scope waveforms and explain why the LED lights up both ways.  Perhaps there will be some measurements in a future clip, I don't know.  However, one more time, measurements without analysis and explaining what's going on is just making more observations.

I am disappointed with the funky "three-dimensional transformer."  It's meaningless and if you want to be harsh it's just more electronics quackery.  What it also means is that you have an excessive over-usage of materials to accomplish the simple task of lighting an LED.  You have a transformer design with a nonsensical arrangement of coils, and you could probably light the LED more efficiently with a conventional transformer design that uses 1/100th the amount of material.

I don't see anything redeeming in this "experiment" at all.  You are just playing with a weird home-made transformer when you could wind a normal home-made transformer that will easily outperform what you are seeing in this clip.

This clip is ultimately counter-productive if it encourages beginners to start winding "3D transformers" and playing with them and thinking that they are exploring something new and special.  What you really want to do is understand how a regular vanilla transformer actually works.  Once you have the complete mastery of how an ordinary transformer works then you will look at this "3D transformer" as an exercise in quackery and futility.

On the other hand, I also understand that people want to keep their hands busy and just want to build things and play with them and have fun.

[ALVARO_CS]

I see the attention on this subject has declined, only a few comments in the OUR forum.
As I never was invited, I cannot post there , so will do it here.

as far I have seen, the way of winding in Tinman and Slayer way is quite different of what I did.

in my cubicoil, there is only a pair of wires, winded  in parallel in the three directions. Interlaced like a sailor knot.
I speculated with what kind of magnetic reaction would it have with a fluid ferromagnetic core.

[MarkE]

It looks like a difficult to wind transformer that will have lots of leakage inductance.

[poynt99]

When we see an inductive kickback spike, it is often followed by a damped oscillation (this is normal). In your video, what you are calling a positive spike, is actually the first half wave of the ensuing damped oscillation. The difference here however is the slightly distorted first half wave. Why it is being distorted is unknown, as I don't know how the circuit is configured.

[Vortex1]

When we see an inductive kickback spike, it is often followed by a damped oscillation (this is normal). In your video, what you are calling a positive spike, is actually the first half wave of the ensuing damped oscillation. The difference here however is the slightly distorted first half wave. Why it is being distorted is unknown, as I don't know how the circuit is configured.

A couple of offhand guesses for the distortion would be Miller effect soft clamping by the drive transistor, (dV/dt) or a soft clamping by Vce being exceeded. As you say Poynt, without knowing the full circuit and drive setup it's hard to say. The transistor type would be a good starting point to look at. Then maybe try to drive an equivalent coupled inductor (with equivalent leakage inductance) and see if you still get the same distortion on the first positive ring. That would throw the distortion back onto the drive circuit. The rest is quite normal for a coupled  inductor with high leakage inductance that  unloads at some point in the switching cycle.

Regards, Vortex1