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Re: Can I touch?& Fluke 27
Hi all,
I would like to offer a word of warning as a result of two stupid things I
have done in the not too distant past.
I used to have a very nice DMM. I am very much aware of what high R.F fields
can do so I always remembered to disconnect the leads from it when I was
finished using it. That is until the last time I used it. I left it sitting
there on my desk with the leads dangling and forgot about it for some
reason. A day later I fired up my small 810 watt coil, which is about 8 feet
away from the desk. When I went to use my meter a few days later I found it
dead. (yes I tried replacing the battery).
Those 3 foot leads make darned good antennas for attracting destruction even
if they are not a resonant length.
The other stupid thing I did will make everyone laugh. I was showing off a
real tiny coil to a friend. The secondary is 4'' high and 1" in diameter
wound with 39 AWG wire. This is powered by half an OBIT(5KV -at- 23 mA). At its
maximum gap it puts out 4" streamers into the open air (a very, very tiny
tesla coil). For this demo I shorted a gap, cutting back the output to
2"(Breakout only occurring when a grounded object is brought nearby.) I
found that this setup was best for showing off my light bulbs and crackle
tubes. I got a little too overzealous and forgetful. I grabbed a vacuum tube
with a nice big plate electrode on top, and a Geiger counter to show that
X-rays can be produced. For some reason, at that moment I forgot that tubes
act as rectifiers (My theory is that the RF caused my brain cells to lock
up-Is that a great excuse or what!). Even though I was standing on a 1/4"
piece of lexan to isolate myself from DC ground, those sneaky little
electrons somehow found a current path through me and that tube went flying
across the room! Miraculously, it didn't break!
The Moral of the story is, if you're gonna TOUCH, at least make sure that
your brain is fully engaged, and think about what you are doing first. If
anyone has devised any RF bypass schemes for neurons please let me know :-).
S.G.