high voltage pulse generator good parts? High Voltage Power supply!

[CarbedNotch]

I was wondering if these tubes are anything special. This unit is fairly old...

[Davetech]

Are they tubes?  I thought they (the white things) looked like high voltage capacitors, perhaps of ceramic construction. Just a guess. 

Does the unit work?

[CarbedNotch]

it does power up and after 5 min of being on the green "Output Ready" light comes on. It is a unit which requires warming up before operation.  As far as output, I do not believe anything is coming out but I'm no expert on this thing. How should I test it?

[CarbedNotch]

Where could I use those high voltage capacitors?

[Davetech]

Well, do be very careful with that rig. The meter measures in kilovolts and the transformer looks hefty enough to kill. Not to be condescending, but if you are not familiar with working with electronics and high voltages, you should probably leave it alone. The H.V. caps may hold a charge even when the power is off.

>> Where could I use those high voltage capacitors?

Well, they just do what a capacitor does. They can smooth out a ripple in a dc voltage. They can pass an ac signal while blocking dc. They can be used with a coil to form a resonate circuit. It all depends on what circuit they are used in and where in the circuit they are located. By themselves, they won't do squat.

What makes them high voltage caps is they have a very high break-down voltage. That is, they can withstand a very high voltage without arcing across. Otherwise, they are just capacitors.