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Ramsey Electronics PG13 Instruction Manual

Manual is about: PG13 PLASMA GENERATOR KIT

Summary of PG13

  • Page 1

    Pg13 • 1 ramsey electronics model no. Pg13 have you ever wanted to play with a controlled substance? Now you can! It is called plasma, and it is easily generated by this nifty high voltage kit. This is the same though more powerful supply that is used in plasma balls and neon art, and can be used fo...

  • Page 2

    Pg13 • 2 ramsey transmitter kits • fm100b professional fm stereo transmitter • fm25b synthesized stereo transmitter • am1, am25 am transmitters • tv6 television transmitter ramsey receiver kits • fr1 fm broadcast receiver • ar1 aircraft band receiver • sr2 shortwave receiver • aa7 active antenna • s...

  • Page 3: Pg13 Plasma

    Pg13 • 3 pg13 plasma generator kit ramsey publication no. Mpg13 price $10.00 table of contents safety guidelines .................................4 history ...................................................9 circuit operation .................................12 learn as you build .....................

  • Page 4

    Pg13 • 4 safety guidelines for high voltage and/or line powered equipment author: samuel m. Goldwasser corrections/suggestions: sam@stdavids.Picker.Com copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 all rights reserved reproduction of this document in whole or in part is permitted if both of the followi...

  • Page 5

    Pg13 • 5 connected devices like tesla coils, jacobs ladders, plasma spheres, gigawatt lasers, fusion generators, and other popular hobby type projects. In addition read the relevant sections of the document for your particular equipment. Specific safety considerations have been included where approp...

  • Page 6

    Pg13 • 6 greater resistor of 100-500 ohms/v approximate value (e.G., for a 200 v capacitor, use a 20k-100k ohm resistor). Monitor while discharging and/ or verify that there is no residual charge with a suitable voltmeter. In a tv or monitor, if you are removing the high voltage connection to the cr...

  • Page 7

    Pg13 • 7 materials with a high resistance path between you and the chassis (greater than 100k ohms). Never use metallic conductors as you would then become an excellent path to ground for line current or risk amputating your hand at the wrist when you accidentally contacted that 1000 a welder supply...

  • Page 8

    Pg13 • 8 voltage. This is only true if you do not modify the kit in any way. Here is the reason why, which is very interesting: so here is the abridged answer to your question: sodium channels are responsible for the initiation and propagation of action potentials. Action potentials are those electr...

  • Page 9

    Pg13 • 9 how i arrived at the pg13. (a little history, if you please!) let me introduce myself. I am an engineer at ramsey electronics, and have been so for over 12 years now. Who said anything about company faithfulness being dead? Anyhow since i was in high school i have been messing around with h...

  • Page 10

    Pg13 • 10 to see an aurora closely, we can use plasma balls. Plasma balls operate by applying a high ac voltage to an electrode in the center of a glass sphere. This high voltage must be high frequency ac in order for any current to get through the glass of the globe and surrounding air by capacitiv...

  • Page 11

    Pg13 • 11 carbon dioxide - glows a whitish or blue-white color. It is probably good to have no direct contact with metal electrodes for long life with gases that are not completely inert. Carbon dioxide probably requires more voltage than the noble gases. Generally, gases and vapors with monoatomic ...

  • Page 12

    Pg13 • 12 circuit operation what is going on with this board may look simple at first, but it is actually quite a difficult design to get working properly and reliably. A lot has to be considered with magnetics when dealing with high voltage, high frequency transformers. Unlike power transformers li...

  • Page 13

    Pg13 • 13 we have included two 0.25mm spacers for you to do experiments with. Since the transformer is specific about its “sweet spot”, we couldn’t run the drive circuit directly from a pulse width modulator circuit (pwm). We may have been able to tune it up really close while there was no load appl...

  • Page 14

    Pg13 • 14 once saturation occurs, the flux stops increasing in the core, and the current that was induced in the feedback winding abruptly halts and reverses direction due to a “ringing” effect. This reversal in current direction then turns off q3 and begins to turn on q4, which quickly ramps up the...

  • Page 15

    Pg13 • 15 transformer, or under full load. In the case of the transformer we will be supplying, it is rated for 3 amps. We idle at 0.5 amps. This means the wall transformer will actually put out much more voltage under this low load. In fact after measuring this i found the rectified dc to be close ...

  • Page 16

    Pg13 • 16 ramsey “learn-as-you-build” assembly strategy be sure to read through all of the steps, and check the boxes as you go to be sure you didn't miss any important steps. Although you may be in a hurry to see results, before you switch on the power check all wiring and capacitors for proper ori...

  • Page 17

    Pg13 • 17 we sincerely hope you put this kit together in a professional manner. This project will not work as well as you wished if you don’t follow good assembly techniques, and follow all instructions. No matter how clear we may think our manual is, if you have any questions give us a call at the ...

  • Page 18

    Pg13 • 18 ramsey pg13 parts list semiconductors ˆ 4 1n5408 3 amp rectifier diodes (d2,3,4,5) ˆ 1 red led (d1) ˆ 2 tip31c 100v bipolar npn power transistors (q1,2) resistors ˆ 1 100 ohm resistor (brown-black-brown) (r5) ˆ 1 1k ohm resistor (brown-black-red) (r1) ˆ 1 1k ohm 1/2 watt resistor (brown-bl...

  • Page 19

    Pg13 • 19 assembly we will begin with the board oriented with the power switch mounting position towards you. This is just to keep our parts locating task simple. 1. Install s1, the power switch. Solder all six leads. 2. Install r2, the larger 1k ohm 1/2 watt resistor (brown-black-red). 3. Install r...

  • Page 20

    Pg13 • 20 17. Install d1, the red led. 18. Now here comes a really critical install. Install c3, one of the 3300 or 4700uf electrolytic capacitors. Pay close attention to orientation! Usually the negative side of the capacitor is indicated with a stripe and large negative (-) symbols. This is the si...

  • Page 21

    Pg13 • 21 the other half. 33. Install the other half of the u core. 34. Locate the plastic tubing for the u core clamp. Cut the tubing in half and slide a piece over each end of the clamp. Then use the u core clamp over the top center of the transformer. The clamp cannot be installed along the side ...

  • Page 22

    Pg13 • 22 41. Place the metal ball terminal in whatever holder you’ve chosen. Heat a spot on the ball with your soldering iron and hold solder on it until the ball is hot enough to melt the solder. Once you have a good size blob of melted solder on the ball, take the nail and place the head of the n...

  • Page 23

    Pg13 • 23 1. Check all of your electrolytic capacitors for orientation. I can’t stress this enough! 2. Then check your diodes. Install one the wrong way and your power transformer could be shorted through only two diodes. I guarantee your transformer and diodes would not like this. 3. Check your sol...

  • Page 24: Pg13 Schematic Diagram

    Pg13 • 24 pg13 schematic diagram.

  • Page 25

    Pg13 • 25 power supply if you have purchased the wall transformer for the pg13, note that it may have a center tap that we won’t use. The center tap is the black lead, and we will simply cut it off. Use the other two leads in the holes marked ac1 and ac2. Do not install the center tap into the hole ...

  • Page 26

    Pg13 • 26 using your own power supply ac sources: you will need to use an ac transformer capable of 3 amps in the range of 5vac to 16vac. 14vac will give you the best performance and balance between temperature and voltage output. You do not need to use a center tap. Connect either side of your ac t...

  • Page 27: Cool Pictures

    Pg13 • 27 many power supplies have this, so just tie a wire between the terminal and earth ground on your power supply. Otherwise use the center screw on a wall plug face plate. Cool pictures these two pictures were taken with the camera on a tripod so that the shut- ter could be left open for 20 se...

  • Page 28

    Pg13 • 28 testing the pg13 this, unfortunately, will be a process of turning on the power, and hoping all goes well! If you have a multimeter with a current reading scale of 3 amps or greater (usually 10 amps), you can connect it in series with your power source to monitor supply current while turni...

  • Page 29

    Pg13 • 29 bring the tip of the screwdriver close to the high voltage terminal, you should see a decent sized spark form at about 1/4” or more away from the terminal, and then be able to stretch it to an inch or more! It is pretty amazing to see that we can draw this significant arc to a piece of met...

  • Page 30

    Pg13 • 30 pg13 neon bulb curre nt f lo w in the case of the neon bulb, it is a little more complicated. Sometimes it may light due to the high electrical and magnetic field around the transformer, and sometimes it may light due to the capacitor formed by the air as the dielectric and the bulb gas an...

  • Page 31

    Pg13 • 31 troubleshooting problem: the led doesn’t light up. Solution: not much can go wrong in the circuit that prevents this other than you forgot to turn the circuit breaker back on after fiddling with the wall socket, or you forgot to turn on the ac power. Check all of your connections again. It...

  • Page 32

    Pg13 • 32 experiments: now here comes the fun part, playing with your new toy. You may be surprised at how many cool things you can do with this, especially if you search on the internet for high voltage. These experiments are only for you to get started on. If you have some great ideas, share them ...

  • Page 33

    Pg13 • 33 corona leakage can be a big problem in high voltage circuitry since any sharp point will lose quite a bit of power to the air. To cure this a manufacturer will coat all possible leakage points with silicone rtv, since it is a good insulator when dry. Corona motor now we can put this leakag...

  • Page 34

    Pg13 • 34 finger. You may need to devise a better method to reduce friction than what you have, but it shouldn’t be too hard. The lower the friction and better the balance, the faster this will go! 9. Power up the pg13. You should see the rotor begin to rotate. If you really did a good job of making...

  • Page 35

    Pg13 • 35 a jacob’s ladder the classic experiment to make an impressive display! We have some current limitations with this high voltage power supply, and we need a lot of current to make a decent jacob’s ladder. Because of this we will need to pull some tricks to make the spark move for us. For one...

  • Page 36

    Pg13 • 36 i will admit that this experiment is difficult to reproduce due to the low power involved on the output terminal. If i had added more parts to the kit, then you could draw a hotter spark. The problem is that we also run into other problems too, like power dissipation—the heatsinks would no...

  • Page 37

    Pg13 • 37 home brew plasma ball i spent quite a while trying to find the “perfect” light bulb just for this purpose and have yet to find one. The best one i have found so far has been a 100 watt philips clear globe light bulb. It is fairly large, and it ionizes easily. I was able to find this in our...

  • Page 38

    Pg13 • 38 advanced plasma ball i have not tried this yet, so i leave it up to the experimenter to figure this one out, but these are some ideas to play with. It involves using special gas, possibly a vacuum pump, and some materials that may be difficult to get a hold of. Anyway, here are my plans, a...

  • Page 39

    Pg13 • 39 6. Drill two small holes somewhere within the dome circle on the vinyl. This will be where you insert and remove special gases through your tube fixtures. These must be sealed well. You will need to choose your hole sizes according to the fixtures used. 7. Install the hose fixtures in the ...

  • Page 40

    Pg13 • 40 conductive glass if you’ve always thought glass was a good insulator, guess again! When glass gets good and hot, it becomes more and more conductive. There are several ways to test this, but here is the best one i have seen. What you will need: • glass rod (1/4 inch diameter). • some wire....

  • Page 41

    Pg13 • 41 more experiments: go to the ramsey electronics web site, and go to the bulletin board under hobby kits. We will have a forum on the plasma generator kits where people will share design ideas and experiments. Pinwheel template.

  • Page 42: Component Placement

    Pg13 • 42 component placement.

  • Page 43: The Ramsey Kit Warranty

    Pg13 • 43 the ramsey kit warranty please read carefully before calling or writing in about your kit. Most problems can be solved without contacting the factory. Notice that this is not a "fine print" warranty. We want you to understand your rights and ours too! All ramsey kits will work if assembled...

  • Page 44: Ramsey Model No. Pg13

    Pg13 • 44 pg13 plasma generator kit quick reference page guide safety guidelines ................................. 4 history ................................................... 9 circuit operation ................................. 12 learn as you build ............................. 16 parts list ......