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Author Topic: How a Testatika motor works?  (Read 25079 times)

sm0ky2

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Re: How a Testatika motor works?
« Reply #15 on: July 14, 2009, 07:46:29 AM »
Hi Smokey.

yes, it is called a Kelvin Generator by Principle although the Kelvin Generator on a general level works with water it still holds true for gases as well.

you can do a youtube search and study the Kelvin Generator's principle function.

MIT is a very good source of information also.

Jerry ;)

thanks jerry,   my understanding of the kelvin generator, it needs good airflow to work properly, which is why they are built so 'spread out', and the charge-receptors are much larger than the stream of dropping water.

The cans used in the testatika device appear to be closed off to the air in the room. Which makes for an interesting question of how/why it feeds back to the device.  i have seen ion-generating filiments that work pretty much like a lightbulb to release an ionized plasma,  im wondering of HV-charged aluminum can have a similar effect.

i could be completely wrong there,  that 3rd capacitor may just feed some of the charge off the other 2, back into the machine.
but if thats the case, why both polarities?


BTW, i have modified my mini-wimshurst machine, by covering the aluminum sectors with screen. my hope is that this will increase the charge-generating power of the machine.




onthecuttingedge2005

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Re: How a Testatika motor works?
« Reply #16 on: July 14, 2009, 09:31:45 PM »
Hi Smoky.

The Marx Generator and the Kelvin Generator work on similar principles and manners, the Marx Gen uses Electricity as the Kelvin Gen uses Water.

The Marx Gen is the more advanced version of the principle.

adding a Marx Gen to your Wimshurst machine might give rise to some really good arcs.

Jerry ;)

sm0ky2

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Re: How a Testatika motor works?
« Reply #17 on: July 15, 2009, 05:58:09 PM »
Hi Smoky.

The Marx Generator and the Kelvin Generator work on similar principles and manners, the Marx Gen uses Electricity as the Kelvin Gen uses Water.

The Marx Gen is the more advanced version of the principle.

adding a Marx Gen to your Wimshurst machine might give rise to some really good arcs.

Jerry ;)

im not sure what you are envisioning here, or how to even go about doing that....  link their leyden-jars in series?
seems easier to just get a second wimhurst...

update on the screen-modification:::  the results were opposite of what i expected - adding screens on top of the foil sectors diminished the charge collection significantly. i have removed the screens and replaced the foil sectors with new (slightly larger)foil.
seemed to me like the screen would have 'more surface area' for charge collection, however it did not function as expected.

i havent given up on the screens yet, just not sure at this point if the wimshurst/pidgeon style of electrostatic induction is truly how this device operates.  There is another machine, similar in construct (late 1800's i believe) that operates using a different principal of induction. [wishing right now i could remember its' name]  The Main difference in this particular device was that the 'brushes' did NOT touch the spinning disk. Charge was transfered via coronal-discharge, and required a solid earth-ground to function. - a machine like this may indeed be functional with screens...  just a thought...


onthecuttingedge2005

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Re: How a Testatika motor works?
« Reply #18 on: July 15, 2009, 08:48:17 PM »
Hi Smoky.

Maybe the Marx Gen is a bit to complex.

you could simply replace your Leyden Jars with large High Density Capacitors.

it would take a little more charge time to charge them up to the voltage break down to get some good discharges but the arcs should be spectacular.

Jerry ;)

sm0ky2

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Re: How a Testatika motor works?
« Reply #19 on: July 16, 2009, 06:42:04 AM »
Capacity isnt my issue,i have a pair of 1 MV leyden jars, they are immaculate, and perfectly insulated.
im scared to charge thme up though,  as i have a nasty habit f accidently shocking myself with the tiny ones on the machine.

ive heared that something THAT big can actally stop your heart.

if/when i DO collect 2 megavolts of charge, i will be VERY VERY careful about it...... 

my main concern right now is the rate of collecting the charge.
i have doubled the size of the original foil sectors on the disks, so this should in effect double the charge-rate.
at least thats the assumption i made based on surface-area, hopefully this wont be a complete failure like the metal-screens were.....

i would like to get this thing popping in the kilohertz range if thats possible,  before the modificatoin i was sitting around 60-120 Hz ( estimated)
that is the rate of discharge with a very small spark-gap
(1/4" or so)

sm0ky2

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Re: How a Testatika motor works?
« Reply #20 on: July 16, 2009, 10:21:51 AM »
another update on my modified wimshurst::::

learned sometihng new tonight about charge vs radius...
making the sectors 2x the size also made the gap between them too small for the charge they collected = "spark over" between the sectors across the face of each disk...

so, the largest i was able to go was about 1.5 the size, there is a noticible increase in charge-rate, not the 2x i was hoping for, but i'll call it +50% (estimated by surface area of the sectors, and verified by spark frequency @ 1/4".

after piddling around with this most of the night i have decided that if i want more spark than i currently have, i need larger disks.

Conclusion::  if you intent on modifying your wimshurst to increase the charge-rate, only increase the size of the sectors by +50% of the factory specs, more than that causes inherent problems in the design.

i'll build a large one eventually, but for now::: back to the conversion process.

 i dont think the source of your static electricity matters, as long as you have an ML-converter to turn the HV/low current into LV/high current.
i watched a video years ago, where Paul explicitly stated the machine was run by a motor - some of the electricity produced was piped back in to drive the motor.
HOWEVER::: in Stephans translation of a 30-engineer study done on the machine, Paul reportedly told them that the laws of attraction and repulsion between the charged plates was what kept the disks moving...  This may have been said intentionally to throw them off.
either way the alleged output of the testatika is far more than the draw off a small motor, so such details are seemingly irrelevant.

The 'heart' of the machine ( in my opinion) lies in the external circuitry (cross-linked converters/capacitors) - and possibly the feedback of charge to the surface of the disk (3rd capacitor in the center).   i'll start first with the 2 capacitors.

Charge is fed into the center of these layered-cans. Paul claims there is a coil there. (im not sure wether that fact is true or not, doesnt make much sense to me...)
From my earlier testing, i believe that charge is then induced in the perforated layers throughout the can. from the last layer inside the can, charge is picked up and fed through an inductor in a magnetic field* this is important, as it polarizes the electricity.
"tames" it if you will...  it will still spark through the impedance of the air but, the sparks are straight and narrow, not 'static' and everywhere like we're used to seeing.
theres a noticable difference with and without the magnetic inductor.   
it is then sent BACK INTO the machine through the 3rd cap(huh?)
secondary leads from the layered-caps ( might be the other end of the input coils? but that doesnt make sense either...) goes around the opposite 'pole' of the magnetic inductor and these are the DC outputs of the machine. The very outer surface of the layered-caps are linked to each other, depending on which Testitaka you are observing they may be linked to each other (common ground)
or linked to their opposite charge (opposing ground).

in addition to this inductance/capacitance circuit, there is also several + to + , - to - circuits around the machine, these are supposedly to 'balance' the charges around the disk, further than the cross-arms are capable of.

That's where i stand so far.
any thoughts, experimental results, suggestions??






Overmind

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Re: How a Testatika motor works?
« Reply #21 on: July 27, 2009, 12:10:12 PM »
Did someone say that when 2 plates of a capacitor  with a charge on them are brought closer together
the voltage drops, but the charge stays the same?
The energy of an electron or spherical capacitor (as it's equivalent) is constant no matter the range of the electron/capacitor.