Does such a device exists in real world ? If yes, how is it called ? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: tigrou
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2023, 07:48:15 pm
content: In "Mac Gyver - Easy Target" episode, at 32:15 there is a device referenced as a "high voltage regulator".EDIT : another pictureI'm wondering if it really exists (and how it's called), or if it's only something made for the show.It's supposed to be used to charge a superconducting magnetic energy storage, to power some electromagnetic pulse (EMP) device.

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2023, 08:06:40 pm
content: The high voltage laboratory at Caltech, Pasadena, CA had similar looking things. It gave a series of Friday public lectures to which I and my future sister-in-law usually went (I wasn't allowed to drive) while in high school. Of course, one of the lectures was about high voltage. Like all, it was great. The most memorial lecture, however, was about double- and triple-points to which local oil companies apparently sent their engineers (circa late 1950's). When one asked a very pointed question, the professor/presenter responded, "If you want a consult, call my office." CalTech was and is a great American technical school.

author: oPossum
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2023, 08:11:28 pm
content: May be a large Cockroft-Walton voltage multiplier

author: pdenisowski
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2023, 08:18:53 pm
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on October 04, 2023, 08:06:40 pmI've been in numerous high voltage testing chambers and that was my thought as well.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2023, 08:21:49 pm
content: Often, a Cockroft-Walton high-voltage DC accelerator (voltage multiplier, possibly excited at frequencies above line frequency) was constructed with parallel branches (besides the diodes and capacitors) to include a high-voltage resistor to measure the terminal voltage, and a guard string to avoid corona current in the measurement resistor string.See Brain CathcartThe Fly in the CathedralFarrar, Straus and Giroux/Viking 2004.Close, F. Split decision. Nature 429, 702 (2004).https://doi.org/10.1038/429702aIn one of the pictures about their competition, there is a good photo of the first cyclotron at UC Berkeley.The book properly mentions that the heavy armature, rescued from a scrapyard by a grad student, was originally from a Federal Arc (q.v.).

author: pdenisowski
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2023, 09:41:42 pm
content: Quote from: tigrou on October 04, 2023, 07:48:15 pmYeah, that's definitely a high voltage impulse test setupHere's a (public) picture of the Florida Power and Light "lightning lab" that I visited oncehttps://interfase.org/fpl-reliability-assurance-center

author: tigrou
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2023, 10:02:47 pm
content: Quote from: pdenisowski on October 04, 2023, 09:41:42 pmDo you think it's the exact same place, same shot, but modernized ?

author: pdenisowski
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2023, 10:19:45 pm
content: Quote from: tigrou on October 04, 2023, 10:02:47 pmNot sure. It's been a few years since I visited them, but my first thought when I saw the picture was "Man, that looks like FPL's lab!"

author: packetbob
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2023, 12:45:09 pm
content: This is equipment was most likely in Powertech's lab near Vancouver, BC (where MacGyver was filmed back in the day)https://powertechlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/High-Power-Brochure.pdf

author: pdenisowski
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2023, 01:27:01 pm
content: Quote from: packetbob on October 05, 2023, 12:45:09 pmI think you're right: here's a picture from their brochure that shows a tower with the same color scheme

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2023, 12:37:17 am
content: Did they ever show the thing working, with obvious corona discharge, or even with a faked 'flashy Bright' sparking ?

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2023, 12:43:18 am
content: I've worked, 40 years ago, on an accelerator. That line-up was to have a particle beam, of electrons, in a vacuum. The claim, which may have been to disguise the project, claim was to hit a target, which would originate radiation when struck.Supposedly to 'irradiate' food, for sterilization. Now, I suspect it was really for developing a particle beam...weapon...?It had hand-wound inductors and a 5 kv supply, along with spark gap switches.

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2023, 01:04:30 am
content: Quote from: RJSV on October 06, 2023, 12:43:18 amAs far as I know, this is exactly how X-ray machines work. They fire a beam of high energy electrons at a (tungsten?) target, and this causes the emission of X-rays. The higher the voltage (energy) of the electrons, the shorter the wavelength of the emitted radiation. With high enough voltages you can get very hard X-rays that approach gamma rays.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2023, 03:34:51 am
content: Quote from: IanB on October 06, 2023, 01:04:30 amHigh-energy x rays (usually above 450 keV) are normally generated in a linear accelerator, which accelerates electrons to energies in the range of 1 MeV to over 20 MeV, which then hit a tungsten target.The x-ray generation process is called by the German word Bremsstrahlung, which means "braking radiation", since the photons are emitted by the rapid deceleration of the electrons when they hit the target.X-ray energy between 1 and 10 MeV are often used for industrial radiography, while energies above 10 MeV are typically used for radiation therapy (in oncology).Bremsstrahlung makes a broad spectrum of photon energies, where the maximum energy corresponds to the energy of the electron beam.Gamma rays and x rays are the same thing (photons): the terms refer to the process that makes them.Gamma rays originate in nuclear reactions, while x rays originate in electron reactions.

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2023, 03:57:26 am
content: Quote from: TimFox on October 06, 2023, 03:34:51 amIn some fields, e.g. astronomy, there seems to be an arbitrary distinction where photon energies above 0.1 MeV are called gamma rays, and energies below 0.1 MeV are called X-rays. But this is just a matter of labeling for convenience.

author: jonpaul
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2023, 06:16:55 am
content: HF AC: Tesla coilPulse: Marx genDC HV Crockofft WaltonVan de GraffUsed in nuclear physics, X ray inspection, HV insulation testing, power transmission and distribution lightning simulations.See our old friend Greg LEYH siteLIGHTNING ON DEMANDhttps://lod.org/ZAP!Jon

author: warner112aa
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 06, 2023, 02:08:12 pm
content: however, was about double- and triple-points to which local oil companies apparently sent their engineers (circa late 1950's). When one asked a very pointed question, the professor/presenter responded, "If you want a consult, call my office." CalTech was and is a great American technical school.pikashow download