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RE: [TCML] Rectifying A Tesla Coil: Point-Plane Collector Experiments -works!
Peter -
More photos to come. But here were some quick tests done tonight:
Two more spheres made, placed insulated from the original two. Again, one with a point, and one a plane. This time the spheres were again opposite the originals - the sphere with the plane electrode now had a pointed sphere in its vicinity, the pointed sphere had a plane in its vicinity. (2 - 3" away, again on PVC pipe as standoffs)...(just to clarify, bipolar pancake coils, point and plane discharge electrodes respectively, insulated point and plane "collectors" or "rectifiers" suspended above the coils on PVC pipe insulators, and two additional point and plane sphere "collectors" insulated from those.
1. Twine, rope, and threads stood on end on either of the latest spheres. A cat feather toy also vibrated a lot on top of the spheres, but were too rigid to distort upwards.
2. A small 3/8" brass ball suspended from a thread would attract and repel between the spheres. What was curious about this, is that the ball hit one sphere (lets say, the left sphere), repelled about an inch, and then attracted again to the same sphere; next it repelled further (3 inches away) and touched the right sphere. Repelled an inch or so, and again was attracted to the right sphere. Next time, it repelled all the way, to the left sphere, and repeated the process. It could be that my ball wasn't mounted very neatly to the thread (it wasn't!), or the current was erratic but at similar intervals. Probably both.
3. Strong static effects could be felt near the "positive" sphere. Little was felt near the negative sphere, unless the positive sphere was grasped or approached, then static effects were felt from both spheres.
4. The most static like sparks were from the recent set of insulated spheres, when the points and planes did not spark directly to them but rather have a brush discharge not quite within sparking distance. The sparks between the latest spheres were 1 - 2", rather painful when taken to a piece of metal in the hand. They were very distinct in colour, bright, white, straight, and fat near the negative sphere, thin, reddish-purple and more thread-like near the positive sphere. These sparks could be increased in size when the two recent spheres were placed within sparking distance of the originals, but the sparks began to look gradually more erratic (dashed lines, or uneven portions of violet and white sparks) as the spark length was increased to 3 - 4" or so.
5. Doorknob caps (40kV) routinely held charges when placed on top of the recent spheres. Unfortuantely, I screwed up two of them in the process too. I need to make a pair of Leyden jars and do it properly! But a 3/16" spark or so could be discharged from either one, showing the caps were charged, and retained the charge after powering down.
6. I disagree with your wording of "Failure" with that test on your site. If you can charge a cap, or show an electrometer of sorts working, it wasn't a failure. Maybe it wasn't efficient, but still a lesson learned, right?
I think with some more experimenting, it might turn somewhat efficient. Even if not, it will be an interesting approach to a static machine for 99.9999% humidity... I'm not saying there isn't a more efficient way, either, but for the moment I like the idea to start from the beginning and seeing what happens from there...
7. The sparks when things are erratic are really interesting in appearance. For me, this makes the test worth while. They are unlike any other I've seen from any machine.
http://www.electrotherapymuseum.com/2008/PointPlaneCollectors1/StrangeSparks3.jpg
This in person was really bizarre!
Jeff
>
> I am not sure how you are showing rectification here. You have no method to
> indicate DC like an electrometer or charging a capacitor or object. And once
> a spark forms, the rectifier is short circuited.
> Here is my TC rectifier with electrometer for what it's worth.
> http://tesladownunder.com/Failures.htm#RectifyTC
> Peter
>
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