Notices by Extreme Electronics (extelec@mstdn.social)

The Gaussfest is homeless !

We have been running the Nottingham Gaussfest for 24 years. Our current hosts are unfortunately no longer able to host us for this year. So we are looking for a new host.

Details of our requirements are here https://www.extremeelectronics.co.uk/teslathon-tesla-workshoptalk-venues-needed/

Ideally we would like to support a museum, public or charity space.

Ideally we would like a large area, but smaller venues can be accommodated, as can science demonstrations as part of an other event.

Please retoot for visibility.

24 rods cut, 2 charge collectors complete, 2 brushes for nutrillisers done.

3d printed boss made in Blender.

Works first time :)

Of course, the steel ones I've been waiting for will now turn up :)

(duplicate post as I didn’t add it to this thread)

The Rods each need each end to be chamfered and have a rubber boot glued on to prevent corona.

24 rods, 48 chambers and 48 boots...

The Cad Drawing that started this thread has got disconnected somehow, but this is what I'm building.

Blood has now officially been spilt on the project, so it now has a chance of working.

Maybe paying more attention to what I'm filing may help not feed it any more.

(no, no pictures, not a lot of blood, but one drop is enough, isnt it?)

24 rods, 2 boots for each rod, on two disks about a single axle.

All held together with glue (and a drop of blood) drying held in my vice.

Frame laser cut, and the pieces "wedged" together as screws are annoyingly conductive.

Motor mounted to the frame and central shaft

Inductors connected to the charge collectors by a 3d printed piece (covered in foil) the idea is that the minimum radius is 12mm "everywhere" again to prevent corona leakage.

So i now have a mostly complete Dirod electrostatic machine. Or a faulty Dirod machine ...

This is the scary part, when the glue is dry, I can try to power it up.

I suspect I have about a 1:4 chance of it working.

Just cranked it by hand, and nothing... :(

Then I cranked it the right way round, and got some small sparks. It only revolved about 1/2 a turn :)...

Time for some power...

OK on 6v (4xAA) I get 3cm flash over to the neutraliser bar.

This is good, I'd designed it for 90Kv and one side only is flashing over at 90Kv (effectively to earth)

Easy to redesign the bar with much less conductive area, so very pleased for a first try. :)

Quick bodge on the nutrillisers and another try. Much higher V, but now it's arcing around the spark shields to the rods, this is way over the design voltage, much more than I could have thought possible. Very happy indeed. :)

Spark shields are now longer and don't arc over. And in a common theme for this machine. I've 3d printed some discharge balls whilst I'm waiting for proper threaded balls to arrive.

Seeing a lot of leakage from the Rods to the discharge balls. I need to get some pvc pipe to counter this.

Another problem, with use the brass brushes are work hardening and become brittle.

This is due to the gaps in between the Rods (doesn't happen on a Wimshurst as there is a disk between sectors)

Alot of thinking later, I decided to try woven EMI shielding material backed with "repair tape" to give it strength, and some spring.

Before and after photo of a still working brush. Brass on a long standoff, and cloth on a long brass standoff (can't add alt for some reason)

I've added some pvc pipe to the discharge ball connections.

Much less leakage.

Hi, I'm Chip the fedverse NIC

@SuperDicq I admit it should be upcycling