I bought this “DC 3.6v-6v to 400kV Boost Step-up Pulse Power Module High-voltage Generator” thingy from on ebay thinking it’s total crap since the description is nonsense. Stating it can deliver 200kV and also stating it can deliver 400-600kV but no even mentioning the polarity of the input. It was only $3.95 (including shipping) so I bought it anyway.
Of course it can’t generate Voltages nowhere near to 600kV or even 200kV but HELLO! It puts out enough voltage for some nice sparks. I’m still looking for a volunteer to test the how these sparks feel :D
Frying a film capacitor
Of course I wondered whats inside so I took an X-ray. Unfortunately I’m still not sure how this ting works. The mangled wires on the left are the input wires then there seems to me some kind of transformer after that some cylinders and some wiring. On the right are the output wires
If you have any idea how this thing works, drop me a note or leave a comment.
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Firstly supply voltage goes into a one transistor flyback driver. Than output of that flyback transformer goes into a marx generator stage. It is possible to get 400kv from this concept but this cheaply made thing need to have a longer marx stage to give 400kv output. However we don’t know voltage ratio of that transformer so it is possible to give 400kv at output.. Thank you for that xray images. They are helpful.
Apparently, there’s a fly-back transformer on the left, feeding into what seems to be a cockroft-walton multiplier.
Thanks for the x-ray, spared me the hassle of wet-work with smelly photo chemicals! Bought one too and wanted to see whats inside.