Almost Scientific » Experiments

15 kV @ 100 mm

Alan — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 06:23:58 +0000

Ever since I started to make high voltage arcs for shits and giggles I’ve wanted to get really, really, really, really close up to one, watch it spark and wiggle. This is as dangerous as you think it is, so I’ve never done it (these guys do). I know you can get some really cool photos of arcs but I really wanted some macro video.

Well with the help of Sean Donnelly I’ve been able to get exactly that.

The video below is if a 15 000 V electric arc shot with a 100 macro lens. The arc is, at most, about 1.75″. This was our first attempt at shooting this so we played around with the exposure and wiggling the electrodes. I think there is allot of potential in these video. I think my next step is going to be to mechanically couple the electrodes to speakers hooked up to a signal generator.

Sean also shot some great video of me running the controls, and it looked so stunning with the 100 mm lens that I had to include it. (I wont blame you if you think it’s the best part of the movie.)

Uira Engine Plasma Tube Test

Alan — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 05:22:18 +0000

I know I’ve posted a video of some of the experiments we did involving evacuating the plasma tubes of the Uira Engine but I’m not sure I ever posted any video of this later tube design.

Video of experiments with conductive glass

Alan — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:21:35 +0000

Experiments with conductive glass from Almost Scientific on Vimeo.

Here we’ve created a dielectric barrier discharge with transparent, conductive glass.

Experiments with Vacuum and Plasma — Advancing The Uira Engine

Alan — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:40:22 +0000

On Friday the Almost Scientific team documented a series of experiments conducted on the Plasma Tubes of the Uira Engine.

These experiments were largely in preparation for November 5th, 2009, when we will be doing a controlled testing firing of The Uira Engine at The Exploratorium in San Francisco.

The goal of these experiments was to qualitatively (for the moment) determine the effect of a vacuum on plasma output.In the following experiments we apply a 630 torr vacuum (~83%) to one of The Uira Engines plasma tubes. The result is dramatic.

In these photos and videos you can watch as we start at a very low input voltage, generating minimal plasma output, and by simply evacuating the tube we dramatically increase the plasma output.

As a minor caveat we’d like to point out this experiment was conducted on a used Plasma Tube, thus the initial plasma output at low voltages underrepresented the systems capability. We anticipate a vacuum on a newly prepared tube would produce even an greater enhancement of plasma output.

Here you can see the experimental tube at the start of the experiment. All these experiments were preformed with a 15 kV transformer.

Here on the top is the same tube (different angle) shot with a 1 second exposure, at a low input voltage (~60 V) to the transformers primary. The image below that one is the same tube, same exposure, same input voltage, but under a 630 torr vacuum.

Here is the same view of the same tube, however the input voltage to the primary is 120 V and the exposure is 1/3 second.

Here is an overall view of experimental rig. The tube is on the left, the vacuum pump in the middle and the vacuum gauge is on the right. This is a 30 second exposure in the same lighting conditions as the photos above.

Here is a great little video where you can see the vacuum enhanced plasma effect for yourself:

Lightning Rings

Alan — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:49:28 +0000

Almost Scientific collaborator Dr. Wade Enright has been in town for the past few days and we’ve been working on some new high-voltage effects with him.

These are continuations of out past experiments with dielectric barrier discharge

Hear are some photos from last nights experiments. Thanks to Nick for shooting these photos while we made sure nothing exploded!

Photo by Nick Winterhalter

Making lightning in the bathroom

Alan — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:11:05 +0000

Over the past few weeks we have started some experiments with dielectric barrier discharge as a way of generating high voltage corona and plasma discharge across a surface. This is a technique used by Kerry Tunstall and Wade Enright to produce their high voltage work and they passed the method on to us while we were at Lightwave showing The Neuron Chamber.

The basic idea is to separate two high voltage terminals with a very thin, very dielectric (electrical restive), very heat and UV resistant material. The electric charge forms briefly on the surface of the dielectric material as it tries to reach ground. This discharge dissipates and reforms rapidly creating a beautiful effect.

Bellow are some photos of our first round of experiments.

The dielectric we are using is a two part, elastomer that needs to be carefully stirred, then combined, then mixed. It’s key to have equal volumes and to prevent air form getting trapped in material as it’s mixed. Air is far less dielectric than the material and if trapped it will create weak points. Once it was prepared we did a fast and dirty casting on a baking sheet.

Here is the rig we used to test the process out. Yes, it’s in the bathroom — it was the only room in the shop that got dark enough to see all the discharges at low voltage. On the left you can see the high voltage transformer (the black box beside the bleach). We tried a 9kV and 15kV transformer with much better effects with the latter. Between the wall socket an the transformer is a sweet Variac, which is basically a heavy duty dimmer switch allowing us to slowly ramp up the voltage. One of the two leds of the transformer go up to the foil below the dielectric (the grey circle atop the toilet) while the other goes to the copper mesh on top of the dielectric.

Here is a shot of the Variac … because it’s cool looking.

Okay here is the pay-dirt. Here are a series of 30 second exposure shots at various light levels. Remember these arcs are really dancing all over the surface. I’ll try to get some video soon.

Cool, huh?

Well, it’s just going to get cooler. Stay tuned.