Extreme High Voltage: AnAtmoSphere Flyback Power Supply Voltage Measurements

Plasma is highly conductive. I pity the fool … who has to design high voltage apparatus for spacecraft.

So I dug out the Singer – Sensitive Research 15kV HV moving-coil voltmeter to make some measurements. I haven’t had the need for this bit of my antique “garage sale” kit for some years, so I’m happy to have the chance to dust it off and make some good measurements. The results might surprise you if you don’t have experience with plasmas.

Not shown in this video, but to confirm the fact that the glow discharge plasma itself only needs 5 or 6 hundred volts to strike and sustain, I removed the flyback and hooked the chamber up to my Kepco regulated and filtered 1kV DC power supply.

Yep. The glow plasma starts at about 575 volts and looks pretty much the same as with the flyback powering it, except for the flashes. The “capacitive discharge flashes” that produce the green flashes and maybe x-rays are much stronger and less frequent, as the Kepco has a lot more filter capacitance in its output.

The Kepco can produce 20 mA max and that, combined with its filter caps…. I can believe its flashes are making some x-rays.

One thing i really need to look at with the Kepco supply is the issue of the “striations” or concentric shells that I have observed in the anodic discharges. Could these be somehow due to the flyback power supply’s inherent 38 kHz ripple? If so, the Kepco’s filtered DC output should prevent them from occurring.

Stay tuned, Testing Kontinues….

You may also like...