Hi anyone know where to find a power supply or a voltage converter capable of delivering 8000 V?
(very low current, not a lot of power just lots of volts)
Science interested in building Hasel-Peano actuator “artificial muscle”. See video.
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i guess I should have specified dc volts.
Well, you could use a neon sign transformer
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Cheapest and fastest way to do this is:
- 9 - 12 Kv neon transformer.
- Put a variac on the primary side so you can vary the ac input.
- High voltage bridge rectifier followed by high voltage capacitor.
- You will need some way to monitor the output as you adjust the variac.
Not tightly regulated, but will probably get the job done.
WARNING - If you haven’t built/worked with some thing like this, please find someone who has.
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WOW! Thanks, just the answer we were looking for.
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Semiconductor companies usually perform electrostatic discharge testing in the 2kV range, but also, occasionally at those levels. If you do a search on HBM (human body model) ESD testing you may find more than what I found at this link:
http://www.aeroelectric.com/Reference_Docs/ESD/Human%20body%20model%20and%20ESD.pdf
And as Art says, “If you haven’t built/worked with some thing like this, please find someone who has.”
I may have most of the parts to build this.
Have the following: vaiac and neon transformer.
May have hv rectifier diodes. I recall having a bag of hv diodes from Fred’s. Need to find and check.
I have some Varo hv rectifier sticks, but they are gross overkill for this.
Need hv cap. Recommend 25 - 30 Kv rating. Not sure what value to spec.
Someone will need to build a plexiglass box for the diode bridge, cap, and binding posts.
Recommend .5" bottom and ~.25" sides and top.
I’m a firm believer in overkill for something like this.
ELab used to have Fluke hv probe It went missing, as in stolen.
Guessing someone thought it was a cool looking toy and had to have it.
I may have a replacement.
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For the money and hassle factor and your specific voltage and current needs, I would go with something like this
You need almost no current with high voltage DC. This has it all in one package.
I have used the NST power supply config before many times over the years. It will be more expensive, more exposed HV connections and multiple parts to source and big and heavy. It is arguably more dangerous with the higher (30mA typical) current and the HV cap on board as well. One advantage of the NST config might be the variability of the voltage. Keep in mind that you would have to put a bleeder resistor across the cap since it will charge but not discharge back thru the HV diode and the load is more or less zero.
I’m not sure of the controllability of the ebay part in terms of voltage or modulate-ability.
Looks good. Note input supply on the low end is 180V, not 120V.
Oops, good you noticed! I guess its for 240V. But look around for something to power an electrostatic air handler.
Or find a small, isolated 1:1 transformer for 120V to put in series with the line to give 240V vs a small 1:2 step up transformer vs going line to line from the wall and just using 240V as the input.
3 cheers for Art. “Art!” “Art!” “Art!”
I’ll have a prototype ready to go once I procure some Envirotemp FR3 - a high breakdown strength vegetable-based transformer oil. I’ve switched out the electrodes for a favorite material of mine, but should said material not work, I’ll pursue the polyacrylamide hydrogel they use in the research publication. Here’s a link to research paper for those interested… not sure if they’ll keep the pdf available for long.
Here’s what i’ve made so far:
Amazing! Incredible! Just look at that change! Hahahaha… if you don’t understand what you’re seeing you’re not alone. The power of these things lie in how much mass they can move in that tiny distance and then daisy chaining them together and/or attaching then to the short end of a lever. You can see the same effect with a ketchup packet. If you want to make these at home you need food packaging plastic from any old oven dinner box, a plastics sealer, and syringe.
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I’ll build the acrylic housing box too.
I would just try any sort of oil. Worst case is that it will arc but I doubt it will happen.
Oh ok sweet. I made some with vegetable oil but wasn’t sure if that’d be good enough
Pretty sure original hasel-peano used plain canola oil
Very interested in the software side of this (controlling these as actuators). Has anyone here succeeded with making a prototype? Also would the same thing be possible at lower voltages if they were smaller?
Edit: @NightRanger that looks great, did you make any progress since then?
No, no success nor much attempt at demonstrating what I’ve made will work. I’m afraid I got a bit of the MakerBug when I saw this and didn’t plan for my time. If somebody does hook up an 8kV supply then I’d love to test these out.
No, you would just use less current.
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Oops… scratch what I said about using less current… that doesn’t make sense. Smaller plates will still require same potential as larger plates because as you reduce the area of each plate, you also reduce the total charge held on each plate.
Etotal = Q/Aε0
Etotal - total electric field between plates
Q - charge on each plate
A - Area of plates
ε0 - dielectric of material
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That’s very informative. Thanks for the explanation.
Let us know if you ever attempt it again!
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