Large high-voltage electric arcs 3kW 9kVA

[ARCSTREAMS]

nice unstable lightsaber and sound lol,,,, your title says 3kw 9kva ? but if you say you measured the output from the trans connected in series and found it to be 6kv and 1.5 A then your power is 9kw not 3 kw and 9kv? where did you hook the caps? cant you give schematic details? and I tought mots pull more amps than 1.5?

[quinnmiller1997]

Did you put the MOT's in series or parallel?

[jmartis2]

@quinnmiller1997 In series.

[io504]

Dual MOTs it says in the description. So where did you get these 4.5kVA transformers? At most, its around 1800 - 2000 VA.

[jmartis2]

@io504 I measured around 3 kV on the secondaries with the output shorted, probably the result of some resonant rise. The current is around 1.5 amps, with two transformers this is 6kV * 1.5A. The measurement of the voltage might have been a little off, in any case it is over 6 kVA.

[io504]

@jmartis2 Have you measured the amperage? And congrats on finding such beastly MOTs then, where'd you get them?

[jmartis2]

@io504 Yes I have measured the current. They are pretty standard MOTs. FYI a normal MOT draws around 20-25 amps from 230 volts shorted, that is around 5 kVA.

[io504]

@jmartis2 Really? Cos I had one, it drew around 10 amps when an arc was drawn, it never blew a fuse. Thats now had the secondary chopped and rewound for 12VDC. Getting around 50 amps + from it.

[miwgub]

Be careful!

[teslaozone]

are the 4 caps in series, parallal or series parallel?

[lokeycmos]

thats pretty rad

[MrOdanio]

wozu dienen die kondensatoren? verdoppeln die die spannung oder glätten die?

[anotherPCfreak]

KVA actually are kilowatts...?

3kV or what?

[umsiadbintoo]

@anotherPCfreak In resistors, P=V*I; [W=V*A], in AC and DC. But working with non-linear components, (capacitors and inductors), appear phase distance between Voltage and Current. So, instant dissipation is instant V*I, which isn't peak V*I. Hence, actual Watts aren't the same that peak V * peak A

[anotherPCfreak]

@umsiadbintoo

...but you just said peak, thats not "real" power, or at least not drawn all the time, not even for 1/100th of a second.

Transformers are measured with VA which equals W.

I know there is phase shifting and wattless current...

In fact, the video description says something like "3kW 9kW" which sounded a bit confusing to me,

and i guessed it could be like 3kV and 9kW or vice versa.

By the way: Peak current of Transformers can reach 20 Times the normal Wattage!

[umsiadbintoo]

@anotherPCfreak 1- No, VA are not "real power", it has some other utility, wich I ignore.

2- Looking at the nearest 2 transformers I have, Volts, Ampers, and Watts appear, not V*A :S

3- Are you comparing current with wattage? :S

I'm not trying to be rude, just remembering details on a passed Circuit Course :)

[alfareifaldy]

how big amps MCB of electricity in your home, i'm try make a tesla coil from single MOT's and blow up fuse.

[vstman]

Do you by chance have a higher quality video of this?

[ubuntupokemoninc]

isn't kw and kva the same thing???

[a380rockerfan]

do you know how much longer the arc gets if you use 6 caps?

[a380rockerfan]

how many capacitors did you use? 6?

[jmartis2]

@a380rockerfan here just 4caps.

[tsslaporte]

MOM FIRE!

[moreczbogdan]

u should change the frequency to several kHz that should have a nice effect :)

[Josephjoel3]

sounds like a lightsaber!

[FireBirdsGo]

No worries about deleting my earlier comment btw. Well yours is certainly the more technical argument. But what you said is kind of agreeing with me as I didn't say that amps don't kill you. I was trying to make the point that amps AND voltage go hand in hand in making electricity dangerous. I mean if I were to touch + and - terminals with a potential of 100A at 12V with my bare hands I would not feel anything. There just ain't enough voltage to overcome my bodys resistance. Nice vid btw.

[ubuntupokemoninc]

i need the diagram plz

[jmartis2]

FireBirdsGo said "People keep saying its the amps that kill you. Which is a totally unqualified thing to say and only 50% true at best. Voltage is equally important as amps when it comes to the lethality of electricity. As you won't even feel the amps unless there is enough voltage to break down the resistance of your skin. Thats a fact, its called ohms law. So I hope I educated a few of you"

(sorry, I accidentally removed your comment)

[jmartis2]

FireBirdsGo: it is indeed the amps that kill you, not the amps that flow in the circuit but the ones that flow through your body. Of course the current through a body is voltage-dependent, but this depends on contact and body resistance. This is why they state the maximum safe body current (usually 30mA) rather than voltage (you may say there are safety voltage limits, normally <50V, but this is again based on the minimum body resistance that may cause a current flow of ~30mA).

[smiley235]

@jmartis2 So as you can see, voltage cant be used as a definite value for safety. On the other hand, if you have say 1/2 an amp travel across your chest, then you are basically assured of death. Therefore, regardless what the value of voltage is, unless it has the power to push that dangerous amperage through your body, you will not die. In the end, its the value in amps that kills you, not necessarily the value of voltage.

[Driv3th3hiv3]

@jmartis2

Well ide say its the amps that kill you and the voltage has everything to do with how lethal

[smiley235]

@jmartis2 Volts are important in 'pushing amps' through a resistance. You can die from the current passing through your body at 240V, yet survive 20,000V if there isnt enough power to supply the amperage.

[jmartis2]

@smiley235 yes, but if the supply can't put out enough current, the voltage drops to a safe level as soon as you touch it :-)

[smiley235]

@jmartis2 lol, its almost like what was first, the chicken or the egg.

[noneofyourbusiness06]

@jmartis2

-A 12v car battery can have 1000 amperes. Since your skin and body resistance is about 1,000,000 ohms (guess) and the voltage is too low to bypass the thin skin's resistance, you probably wont even feel a thing. No current at all would pass through you. Even if you touched it without skin, the internal body resistance is about 1,000 ohms. You would get a few milli-amps, just enough to shock you (milliamp is 1/1000th of 1 amp), ohms law.

[umsiadbintoo]

@jmartis2 You are skipping the difference between AC and DC. Dry skin isn't conductive, but internal muscular tissue is. So, if we've got C+nC+C, we've got a capacitor. In DC, this capacitor will "stop" the current, charging our body until a certain amount of electrons. Nothing will happen at 12 Volts DC, for example. However, if it's AC, our capacitor won't be able to charge and discharge fast enough, so this effect of protection will fade, and less voltage will be enough to pass more current.

[MrMalecko]

schematic of the driver pls!

[forwardbias]

Yeah, was a joke from a below, about touching it. Unles you were an idiot, you would not touch that thing. Unles you wanted to die.

[forwardbias]

What happens when you touch it? Funny, why dont you touch it and find out. Amps is what kills you, and just afew mA can stop the heart. Where as a shock of 250,000 volts wont kill you if the amps are only afew uA, such as from a Van De Graff generator or small tesla coil. And at super high frequencies from HV AC, you dont even feel a shock, due to skin effect from a small tesla coil. Though you may get a nasty RF burn from the high frequency fields made.

[jmartis2]

Thats right, but the current here was 1.5 amps. No way I'm touching that :D

[kevykev38]

Why do you keep pulling it away rather than letting it sit for a few seconds?

[fischkutter13]

lol

[russotragik]

uhAuhUHAUHuhAUHuhAUHuhUHAuhAuh­HUahuA

[j822bosh]

Yeh 3000 V at 500mA is considered lethal. This would DEFINATELY be fatal. Incidently, they use 4000 volts in electric chairs for excution.

[Pyromadness]

actually its 15000 volts.

[Byza01]

Do you use capacitors?

[nwfklan]

@Byza01 Read the description before asking stupid questions.

[mastergx1]

NICE

[438426x1]

omfg! how much current? u can stretch it so far!

[hugestomper]

it´s 9Kva; 3000V@3A

[LuimmR15]

nice, but very unsafe.

[kartkid100]

thats most of the reason its fun...

[19365827]

what happens when you touch it ? and what is that ? fire or what ?

[jmartis2]

It is burning air around an electrical current passing through air. This is called an electric arc.

When you touch it, wou will get a bad shock/burns or it can even kill you.

[talibanrules]

if he touch it he die

[mk0frosty]

daaamn!!!

[funkyhz]

starwars kid

[kissmyhho]

what is the way you know the resonance is tuned .

is it because the arc is big and do you just keep adding cap until the voltage reading on a meter peaks.

[Console880]

Do you by any chance have a schematic on how to hook up your circuit? I have 2 MOTs and 3 MO capacitors, but I have no idea on how to hook the capacitors up with the transformers. (Just running the two MOTs in series) I have nowhere near as large as an arc you do with the capacitors!

[jmartis2]

If you have only 3 capacitors then yoou would be best with connecting them all in parallel and then in series with just ONE mot.

Or you can series two MOTs, connect just one capacitor in series with the arc, and risk popping/exploding it. In any case you need about 1-1.5uF of capacitance for two MOTs in series.

[Console880]

Thanks for the info! But how do you actually hook up a resonant circuit with the capacitors? I don't exactly understand how all of the inputs/outputs on the caps are connected.

[jmartis2]

For one MOT, connect three capacitors in parallel. This creates one "big capacitor", then you connect this big capacitor in SERIES with the MOT output. You draw the arcs between the free capacitors' terminal and ground.

[Console880]

Okay, Thank you!

[Console880]

Alright, that worked great, plan on getting more microwave capacitors. But the secondary winding on the MOT gets EXTREMELY hot in about 45 seconds, is this normal?

[nwfklan]

@Console880 yes some MOT secondary windings will get really hot because of the current and others not hot at all, that depends on the current limiting and thickness of the wires.

[TwistedMayhem]

that's the coolest fuckign think I've ever seen.

[r3a937569]

bout to make one of these when i can get a junk microwave or two=]

[543regiment]

sounds like lightsabers

[jmartis2]

I don't know about your MOTs but vast majority of them are around 2100V, so here it is 4200V. However the resonant capacitors boost it up to ~6000V. The capacitors are 4 microwave caps in "2x2" configuration on the HV outputs.

[Jugglesama]

Very nice, you should make a Bass Arc out of that. It sounds like it could support heavy bass sound.

[zezimashock]

for now i keep it with smal arc's (compared to this :)

one day i'll make that too :P

[legomaniac150]

if only i could figure out a way to cook burgers using that, then i would die happy

[jmartis2]

well you can, but carbonize more than cook :P

[legomaniac150]

thats fine if you like burgers over-done

[SmashCOBamberg]

you need a longer stick

[jmartis2]

maybe, but there was only 2kV on the stick and it was around 40cm long.

[xxxAXEMANxxx]

thats what she said.

[skuitarman]

damn!!!....

[Blackseed1978]

How wise is it to play with a electricity inside the house ? lol listen i'll be adding you because i just started a trade school to become an electrical technician so i'll have plenty of questions to ask hope you don't mind

[UTCrystal]

Заебывает как он играется этой фигней)

[icuicu2006]

I think you mean 3 kV @ 9kVA - correct? Nice video by the way! ~ referring to your video title - kVA and kW are both power measurements.

[jmartis2]

No I meant that right. There is 9kVA reactive in the resonant circuit and power from wall is 3kW.

The resonant voltage is 6kV and current 1.5A

[jmartis2]

kW is real power measurement, kVA is reactive (inductive/capacitive) power measurement :)

[belgvr]

WOW!!!!!!!

AMAZING!!! That's a great video, i'll mark as favorite

[alwinovich]

LICK IT!

[Xxero0]

how many amps was running through that? ive wanted to make something like that useing very high voltage and low ampere. that way i wouldnt die if i were to accedently touch it

[djspaceport]

1.5 amps

[Xxero0]

ya, that would kill me...

[BigFlipFlap]

Hey! One question.... what happens when you feed a wall transformer (ex. 120 AC volts to 4 volts DC) Stepdown 4 volts DC will the input be 120 volts AC output? In other words.... if you put 4 volts DC into the output will the input be 120 AC (it's like backfeeding)?

[jmartis2]

Yes it works like that. But you cannot put more than the 4V on the winding (maybe a little more) because the transformer was designed for this voltage and will get very hot or short circuit your power input if you feed it more volts.

[niwakun444]

u wont get and AC current if u put 4V DC on the output, u would have to use pulsing DC for it to work but u will still only get 120V DC, you would need an inverter to change it into AC

[f45ball]

when will darwins theory take over?

[lolinternets1]

so how many fuses have you blown?

[jmartis2]

I blew one 10A fuse then I went to garage where is 15A breaker which never popped :)

[lolinternets1]

oh cool.

[toomyg155]

Did you ever get ZAPPED doing this?

[jmartis2]

Doing this- no. I use a long wooden stick and stay back when drawing arcs. I got zapped several years ago with 230V but that was because I was stupid back then. :P

I guess when you got 4 kilovolts at 1.6 amps from this supply, you would be dead INSTANTLY. I know this so I take all needed safety precautions :)

[hvhaxor]

i have goten shocked with a 800w mot and can no longer feel the penky toe of my right foot (the exit point) the shock went in through my hip (i hit my hv shunt) so i will think that this woud of finished me off

[AerykR]

Wow, all i can say.

[RotogenRay]

You've really outdone yourself there, superb job of tuning this with capacitors- looks more like 8kva than 3!

[alonsopf]

Why the arc is blue?

[jmartis2]

This is because the arc emits lots of UV and the camera gets overloaded by it and interprets it as blue. It is yellow really.

[jmartis2]

sorry but I can't undestand you, are you asking how high voltage was used? If so, the voltage was 4200VAC and current up to 1A

[alonsopf]

You used ballast?

[jmartis2]

I used only capacitor that limits the current

[alonsopf]

The capacitor to limit current in parallel primary or serie primary? Capacitor of a washing machine?

[jmartis2]

No it is four Microwave capacitors on the high voltage side for current limiting. I have a washing machine capacitor in parallel with the primarys to lower inductive current.

[codemsan]

i thought it raises inductive current due to resonance but i could be backwards...

[jmartis2]

yes you are right but it decreases current draw from mains

[codemsan]

i was told it increases it by a lot of people

[jmartis2]

well it increases secondary current up to 1.6A but two MOTs draws only 10-15A (average) from 230V mains when arcing.

[codemsan]

oohhh okay,thanks! and my stack unballested will do up to 30A at 120V!!

[PL519Tube]

Nice!

But you should use a longer isolator (e.g. a wooden slat). High Voltage with mains frequency is very lethal!

[fiberkanin]

Install the metal rod in your fireplace = fireplace lighter! xD

[codemsan]

NICE arcs! this circuit IS in resonance!