Donald Smith Devices too good to be true

[janost]

11.29v in the battery this morning.

I have left it running while at work to see what happens after 24h.

[aaron5120]

11.29v in the battery this morning.

I have left it running while at work to see what happens after 24h.

Hi Janost,
The scope shot you post did not show much detail of the waveform of the output. It would be nice if someone with a good oscilloscope can replicate your circuit and check for the output signal.
One suggestion, you may check the run battery to see if the charge is solid, by taking it out from the circuit, and connecting it to a real resistance load after running the circuit for a few days.
If it can stand a resistive discharge as a normal charged battery, then you have a winner; anyways Janost, the circuit seems to be very promising. Good work, Buddy!

aaron5120

[janost]

When I returned home and checked it, the new capacitor had also broken.
Looks like electrolyte caps don't work well here.

The neonbulb had turned black on the inside but was still flashing.
To much current for it?

It was still running and the battery was down to 11.25v

[janost]

I have tried it with a 150ohm series resistor on 6v.

The frequency jumps up to 2.3KHz and the current is 5.8mA.
The secondary still lights an NE-2 neon with 60Vac Rms.

But now there is no feedback, the current only goes out of the battery.

Like this, the only way to feedback is from the secondary.

[janost]

On a fresh 12v batt and the pot adjusted for optimal performance it draws 100mA avg and runs at 200Hz.

That is 660mA in every pulse into and out of of the battery.

And there is a massive 410v on the secondary.
I will not touch that, for sure
That is a ****load of power in every pulse on the secondary.

With a fullwave rectifier on the secondary and a cap, I have a solidstate toy that I can fire into a stepdown coil.

This one is built with the components soldered directly on the transformer but I have bought perfboard, 10 IRFP-460 and 10 pots and will build a more stable construction.

I have to dupilicate this before it gets wrecked.

[Gedfire]

Protecting Capacitors

When I returned home and checked it, the new capacitor had also broken.
Looks like electrolyte caps don't work well here.

The neonbulb had turned black on the inside but was still flashing.
To much current for it?

It was still running and the battery was down to 11.25v

Hello Guys.

I need a little help here.What are the main reasons for having a resistor across a cap terminals?

I have read about time constant and safe discharge of same.Are there any other reasons for having a resistor in parallel with a capacitor?What about its effects on amperage? How do you convert time constant to frequency? If I pulse my capacitor at its RC time constant, what benefits are there to that?

Am I wrong in saying that if I put a TVS diode or GDT or varistor across my cap and these devices are rated at say 200 volts, and my capacitor is rated at 500 volts.Then pulsed 2000 volts DC to it, does that mean the cap will never see 2000 volts ever? Just the 200 clamping voltage by the devices?

Regards,
Ged

[penno64]

Hi Janost,

May we know if there is anything special about the diode ?

Thanks

[janost]

Hello Guys.

I need a little help here.What are the main reasons for having a resistor across a cap terminals?

I have read about time constant and safe discharge of same.Are there any other reasons for having a resistor in parallel with a capacitor?What about its effects on amperage? How do you convert time constant to frequency? If I pulse my capacitor at its RC time constant, what benefits are there to that?

Am I wrong in saying that if I put a TVS diode or GDT or varistor across my cap and these devices are rated at say 200 volts, and my capacitor is rated at 500 volts.Then pulsed 2000 volts DC to it, does that mean the cap will never see 2000 volts ever? Just the 200 clamping voltage by the devices?

Regards,
Ged

The main reason for having a resistor across the cap are for safetyreasons.

If you have above 50v in a cap, and that is the voltage when your body starts to feel the current, and you discharge it through your body, can be very harmful.

If you charge a cap to 1kv wont mean it's much energy over time but the danger is when you short the cap, for example through your body.

It will deliver all of its charge in parts of a second.
And that is the danger.

The resistor is called a bleed resistor and it is there to slowly remove the charge from the cap.

To make a point, you don't need bleed resistors aslong as none will ever touch anything in your circuit.

They are ther for your safety.

[janost]

Hi Janost,

May we know if there is anything special about the diode ?

Thanks

Don't know what you mean?

The diode is a standard 1N4007

[janost]

If you dont have bleedresistors, remember to short capacitors in your circuits before fiddeling with them.

[Peculian]

Hi all. Hi Ged.

Hello Guys.

I need a little help here.What are the main reasons for having a resistor across a cap terminals?

I have read about time constant and safe discharge of same.

Yes this is the main general reason.

Are there any other reasons for having a resistor in parallel with a capacitor?

Yes there are also other reasons. I guess you have arrived at a good point
understanding Don`s Devices.
Don used resistors especially for lowering the frequency in his devices.
Also, he used resistors for voltage limiting, somehow.

What about its effects on amperage?

Don states in his famous book/e-book/pdf that amperage is "absent" from his
circuit (though I don`t know if it holds true for each of his circuits)
until the output of the isolation-transformer.
It is there then where amperage becomes powerful and notable and you guys know
Don calls this 'energy wasting' .
If we recall Tesla`s "Converter" from static to dynamic electricity, writen in the book

<<Inventions, Research and Writings of Nikola Tesla>>
the experiment with the short thick copper bar the lights were lit in almost every point of the short, thick copper bar.
So one can assume, the role of the so called Cold Electricity or Radiant Energy.

Am I wrong in saying that if I put a TVS diode or GDT or varistor across my cap and these devices are rated at say 200 volts, and my capacitor is rated at 500 volts.Then pulsed 2000 volts DC to it, does that mean the cap will never see 2000 volts ever? Just the 200 clamping voltage by the devices?

Regards,
Ged

No, you are not wrong. Your calculation is correct.
Since there is a "limit" to no more than 200v set up by the GDT or Varistor
2000v cannot make it`s "way" to the cap.
Maybe I am wrong to say, but if you pulse 2000v to whatever cap/cap-bank
you have and at the same time you have these voltage limiters into your ciruit, in parallel, I guess
it most probably be in a state of short circuit (maybe? ).

What do you guys think ? Has anyone tried this yet ?
Ciao..

[wayne.ct]

Nothing I ever built before made the terminal voltage of a battery to climb.
No matter what the starting voltage was, it has always kept sinking.
There is noway it should climb, how can it?
This is actually very amazing.

I found a circuit on the Internet that produced this climbing voltage effect. You have now seen the same thing? Like you, I noticed that when I disconnected the JT, i.e. disconnected the battery (cell) from the circuit, the measured voltage on the cell was higher than the high voltage that I observed when the voltage was "rising". You can draw you own conclusion, but mine is as follows. The JT was gradually drawing less current as the stored energy in the tank became greater and greater. The battery chemistry was slowly producing enough excess electrons that the cell was able to "get ahead" quite rapidly once the circuit was opened. The JT circuit was definitely in JT mode, because the cell was in the 0.5 to 0.8 volt range. In my case, the JT was operating at a frequency of 10+ MHz. I have had JTs operating at up to 29 MHz. BTW, this implies that the capacitance part of the tank is in the coil itself. I did not have a separate cap. I would like to hear other theories, but the one thing I remember clearly was the unloaded voltage on the battery was HIGHER than the loaded voltage, even though it was climbing.

[janost]

I found a circuit on the Internet that produced this climbing voltage effect. You have now seen the same thing? Like you, I noticed that when I disconnected the JT, i.e. disconnected the battery (cell) from the circuit, the measured voltage on the cell was higher than the high voltage that I observed when the voltage was "rising". You can draw you own conclusion, but mine is as follows. The JT was gradually drawing less current as the stored energy in the tank became greater and greater. The battery chemistry was slowly producing enough excess electrons that the cell was able to "get ahead" quite rapidly once the circuit was opened. The JT circuit was definitely in JT mode, because the cell was in the 0.5 to 0.8 volt range. In my case, the JT was operating at a frequency of 10+ MHz. I have had JTs operating at up to 29 MHz. BTW, this implies that the capacitance part of the tank is in the coil itself. I did not have a separate cap. I would like to hear other theories, but the one thing I remember clearly was the unloaded voltage on the battery was HIGHER than the loaded voltage, even though it was climbing.

I noticed the same
The voltage makes a rollercoaster.
When the voltage drops, the current is less and the battery catches up.

[wayne.ct]

Resistor and Caps in RC circuits

When dealing with slowly changing voltages and currents you may apply these two general rules:

1. A resistor in SERIES with a cap will limit or control the RISING energy in the cap.

2. A resistor in PARALLEL with a cap will limit or control the DECLINING energy stored in the cap.

If I may suggest something, think about this. All individual components in the real world MUST be thought of as composed of all three components to fully analyze a circuit. A capacitor consists of a capacitance, a resistance and a very tiny inductance, etc.

Ignore this and you can basically throw out all mathematical analysis. This is one reason I like this forum. Real people doing REAL experiments and (hopefully) reporting REAL results that are not filtered through feeble-minded seemingly mathematics hobbled science.

[janost]

When dealing with slowly changing voltages and currents you may apply these two general rules:

1. A resistor in SERIES with a cap will limit or control the RISING energy in the cap.

2. A resistor in PARALLEL with a cap will limit or control the DECLINING energy stored in the cap.

If I may suggest something, think about this. All individual components in the real world MUST be thought of as composed of all three components to fully analyze a circuit. A capacitor consists of a capacitance, a resistance and a very tiny inductance, etc.

Ignore this and you can basically throw out all mathematical analysis. This is one reason I like this forum. Real people doing REAL experiments and (hopefully) reporting REAL results that are not filtered through feeble-minded seemingly mathematics hobbled science.

I told you about the bleed resistor but I dont use them my self.

I usually short all the caps in the circuit with a screwdriver before touching anything.