Magnetic Resonance Devices based on Don Smith Concepts

[Yucca]

Hi flathunter,

Sorry to hear about the exploding tranny, tell the wife it's all in the name of science, a master plan to save the world as we know it, lol, that's what I say anyway.

bring it up on 6v first if possible, use a wallwart or something like that, you shouldn't need more than 500mA even at 12V. If your tranny popped on 12V then something must be wrong. If you want to keep working with your 12V batt then you could always put a 12V auto bulb in the +ve supply line, this should still give you enough juice to get oscillation but it should stop tranny blowing in any bad configuration.

Are you building the circuit diagram I posted?

I just salvaged another as new flyback trafo (and a heap of other parts) thanks to a dumped 22inch tube TV. with this I intend to build a module to explore low power operation, not the smith device, just a standalone system built for max efficiency, and then I´ll do calorimetry on the OP. I´ll keep my existing module as a general HV PSU.

I've received the first of my ebay HV components, $20 worth of 40kV resistors from the USA. 500k and 1M, 1M should be good for making 1000X voltage divider for using normal DMM on DC HV nodes, and if I can see good behaviour for long enough I may even use it with my scope? I'm awating my diodes and caps.

[flathunter]

Hi Yucca!

Yes, I am trying to replicate your power supply - but some things are a little different because i'm doing my best with whats at hand.  Things have been going pretty badly today.  Perhaps i've got her wired up all wrong, perhaps it just depends on the transistor.  At the moment my 12 V battery just keeps burning through various connections.  I havent had any output spark since the first transistor i tried, which only gave 1 cm.  That was from my old battery - i've measured its voltage at 5.7V, and it provides under an amp, but not for long!   And I got this spark with no resistors, choke, or capacitor.  Now i'm trying with your circuit added on, but i dont have the ceramic cap - i'll pick one up this weekend, as well as a load of transistors.  Like I say, it keeps burning through the connections....does this mean that the transistor has already been fried?  I realise some go much quieter, whilst others prefer to die in a blaze of glory!

Heres a photo of my setup - amongst the transistors sitting in the graveyard by the flyback you may spot the one which exploded 

Looks like you getting tooled up my friend!  They look like hardcore resistors!  Congratulations on your salvaging....always the best way....the A Team way    Keep us all informed on your progress......

PS - I'll try your suggestion about a 12V lamp tomorrow....perhaps that will solve my burning wires problem.

PPS...The last transistor, a BU 2527 AF (i think Peter recommended a similar one on the previous page - its bigger than the other trannys i found in the monitor.  is it ''the line output'' transistor?) has officially died in a puff of smoke filling the whole of the room with that familiar smell.....Its back to the radio market for me tomorrow morning.  They dont have any imports in the market I go to - only russian transistors.  What are the most important parametres, in your opinion?  I'll try using a printout of the datasheet again - after all, it worked last time!  the guy found me a winner!  I'll also buy a couple of other batteries which arent so juicy.  And i'll finally get my hands on the ceramic cap. 

[Yucca]

Hi flathunter, the 1cm arc you got on about 6V sounds about right, it was working ok but the transistor must´ve fried and now its probably gone short? Some transistors seem sensitive even though the specs are similar.

The BU2527, Yes it was probably the LOPT and would probably have done a good job. When you wired it up did you look online for pinouts in a datasheet? Maybe not because I cant find a free datasheet online for it. Maybe it had reverse bias protection diode and you over currented that and the heat caused the case to burst? Ive done that with FETs. Best to always use current limiting on your supply, stick a 10 to 50ohm 5W resistor in the -v rail and then if you wire up wrong the tranny will just get very warm but shouldnt blow.

If you can stand the wait then these 13005 are quite a good deal, nice fast trannys with reasonable voltage, no internal diode, quite a good price for the specs, the seller also has lots of other good cheap stuff worth a look:

http://cgi.ebay.com/13005-MJE13005-TO-220-Transistor-NPN-4A-700V-10-pcs_W0QQitemZ320268088348QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4a9177341c&_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

If you have a scrap switch mode computer PSU kicking around you can also get good trannys out of them, trouble is its often hard to find datasheets, but much more A-Team like lol.

When you buy your cap, try and get a HV cap if you can like 1kV or more. Theyre often blue or orange, shiny and oblong. It´ll suck up all the noise alot better. TV´s always have a few good ones in.

Ive just got some enameled copper wire in heavy gauge to make some coils with, just need to find some nice rigid tube to cut slits in and form it on. This is my job in hand to wind a 8 turn 12AWG coil and a 40 turn 18AWG coil, make them as true and even spaced as possible and then set them together perfectly coaxial.

My HV diodes and caps should arrive very soon i hope.

I´ve decided to go with filament lamps for load testing, got quite a collection up, 1V 3V 6V 12V and of course the good ol 240V.

Good luck at the markets!

edit:
I think in this case the most important tran spec is max reverse voltage so it can handle primary flyback, try and get one without protection diode in it. Tell the market sellers you want to pulse the primary of a TV flyback coil with it, they should sort you out with something suitable.

[Yucca]

I just collected my other HV components from the postoffice, the doorknobs a real fast cap with almost zero inductance, well pleased I've got one.

in the photo:

20 * ceramic caps 15kV 2200pF
100g * 12AWG
100g * 18AWG
4 * 30kV 100mA (100ns recovery) diodes
1 * HF doorknob cap: 20kV 4000pF
2 * HV resistors, 500k, 1M.

Slowly I will be building up a Smith like device. if it was low voltage stuff i'd get out the croc leads and start hacking, but because its HV I will take it slow and easy and have it all secure on a board.

edit:
I may run single shot mode first, discharge all caps and then feed the spark cap via resistor, as soon as spark fires I will power off and then I can measure op collected in the doorknob, this will be an easy way to test COP, provided I can measure the caps using my DMM and a HV divider.

[flathunter]

Cheers for the list and photo!  The details have been taken....

Its decided.  I'm gonna have to go the whole 9 yards in this project, and get an order in on ebay.  It'll take a while for the components to arrive - but i'm sure it'll be worth it.  In the mean time i'll keep playing with transistors and flyback until i get the kind of output i saw on your video.  Failing that, i do actually have a HV 30KV supply i could use anyway..... 

The Don Smith/Kapandze riddle needs solving - use the force Yucca.