500,000 Volt Lightning Tower 

Thanks, i now have an explanation for the thunder that happened 3 minutes after you posted this video.

Oh the memories. As a teenager in the 1960s, I took the 12K volt neon sign transformer from my Tesla coil and constructed a six stage voltage multiplier. I used TV diode tubes with attached battery for isolated cathode heater. I used TV high voltage capacitors. The meter-high frame was wood and my attempt at eight stages failed when the arc crawled down the frame to ground. I too now recall the electrostatic effects, the buzzing, hissing and the smell of ozone. My spark-gap Tesla coil pulled 20 inch (50 cm) AC arcs when tuned, and the voltage multiplier pulled 8 inch (20 cm) DC arcs by comparison. Magnificent.

Thanks so much for making this great video tutorial! I have actually been looking for relatively easy ways to create DC voltages in the MV range, but I could not find any good tutorials. Up to now.

Truly some of the best EE content RU-vid has to offer! Great job!

Seeing all the plastic parts you fabricated to build this project makes me realize how much I want a 3D printer. Great job and safety sense.

I just finished building a full wave multiplier stack. I used 10 nF, 20kV caps with the 2CL2FM diodes. The old tap water resistor works great on extremely high voltages. I put 5 kV input @ 50 khz / 50 mA and I'm getting 120 kV on a 12-stage CW multiplier. On 10 kV input, I'm running 240 kV + output on the multiplier. Having larger capacitors on the multiplier and doubling up diodes (2 x 2CL2FM diodes in series) helps with voltage stand-off protection. Mineral oil is the best dielectric for the multiplier. Your diode multiplier uses a huge number of stages. So in reality you are likely dropping voltage. Raising the capacitance might help reduce voltage losses.

As you noticed, corona discharge was a huge problem with your multiplier stack. In scientific and commercial multipliers, this is greatly mitigated by smoothing the electric field to reduce the gradient, in much the same way that the topload allows you to collect charge. I've built multipliers in the 30-50kV range, so take my advice with a grain of salt, though I have had plenty of flash-over fun. First, all of your solder joints are sharp points. It really doesn't matter what your dielectric is (including vacuum!) when those points generate extreme voltage gradients. Everything will very quickly break down in that environment. When going for extreme voltages, the easiest way to ease these gradients is to bury your solder joints in some flavor of small sphere. Conductivity isn't important so iron, steel, brass, and other inexpensive metals work fine. Beads, ball bearings, whatever you can find that is inexpensive should work. The more extreme way of dealing with this is called a corona-ring. This is where you attach each stage of your multiplier to a high aspect ratio toroid that wraps all the way around your multiplier. This makes the electric field gradient from ground to top-load voltage very smooth, and since your diodes and capacitors are sitting inside this field, there is a much lower potential (haha) for any sharp solder joints to emit corona. If you go this direction, take a cue from those isolators you see on high voltage power lines and make rings on a stick to increase creepage distance when you build supports for the corona rings. Second, increase your drive voltage and reduce your stage count. CW Multipliers have a complex capacitive reactance that gets higher as the number of stages go up, so your output droop can get bad as stages are added. In my case I went from a 6 stage monopolar design to a 3+3 stage bi-polar design and saw a significant reduction in output voltage droop with the same output load, so my real power throughput also went up. Additionally, the style of multiplier you used was a half-wave rectifier and converting to a full wave rectifier multiplier can help with voltage droop as well. I was using some parallel capacitors in my multiplier and switching them to a full-wave rectifier also significantly reduced droop at the output. This does require a center-tapped transformer, so you may find the complexity not worth the trouble. Finally, in a ZVS driver, the transformer drive voltage is about 3.2 times the input voltage, which is why your transformer output significantly more voltage than you expected. In fact, you said you drove it at 8V, about exactly right to get the output voltage you wanted. Probe the tank capacitor voltage and you will see the problem!

Just a quick one, (basically) all epoxies shrink when they cure so a really long casting like that will bend as it cures regardless of heat. If you can balance the support in the middle rather than on one side it'll shrink square at least. The more filler you have in the epoxy the less it'll shrink if that helps. Also yeah large lumps of epoxy will exotherm pretty hot. I've seen them catch fire in the past lol. So yes a slow cure is a good idea too. For version two perhaps look into a borosilicate glass tube for the tower, they are relativley cheap in 80-100mm diameter sizes and have pretty decent dieletric properties. Though I'm not sure how well pretty decent stands up to a million volts.

I am perfectly satisfied to watch you take all the risks my brother!

You deserve to turn on ad's, weather you "need" them or not! Love this content and hope you continue to keep it up! Thank you so much Mr Hyperspace Pirate!

That tripping hazard joke was underrated 😂

Electricity is so beautiful isn't it? On one hand, corona discharge can be your worst nightmare and ruin your project. On the other, you can take advantage of it and make a motor spin. Fascinating

I find this video very interesting. Instead of searching for a flyback, next time search for a horizontal output transformer. In the days of tubes the rectification was by a tube like a 1BG3T. Thanks for your content!

Wow, very impressive construction Mr. HP!

You might consider making your multiplier into several modules. This way, in case one diode or capacitor fails, you dont lose the entire chain.

Nice video as always! Always interested in electrostatic/ion wind effects that are new, especially if you can get enough wind flow to make a truly bladeless fan instead of by using an impeller. 😁

very good, I made one like it two years ago but instead of epoxy I used paraffin wax and put it in a PVC pipe and there is no leaks. I recorded the process in case you want to take a look

I love your content! Thank you for sharing your amazing projects. I wish I knew even half of what you do.

A welders tip: if you've been "flashed" too much or watching too much electric sparks, well, that's ultra violet radiation and it burns the retinas. Cut a small potato in half and put the cut side against you eyes/eyelids for at least 10 minutes. Your headache will go away and your eyes will feel better🙂

Nice CW voltage multiplier. I have a few suggestions based on personal experience. Use mineral oil instead of epoxy. Even though its messy you can repair things when they break or make modifications. Its also less likely to trap air. Use a separate resistive load. This allows much more flexibility in the selection of load resistance and also makes the height of the multiplier lower. Don't implement more than about 15 stages. Efficiency drops off rapidly above that number. Use a higher drive voltage instead even though this makes the design of the HV power supply more complex. You can look at the 14-stage CW voltage multiplier on my channel for ideas if you wish. I used 2 COTS AC flyback transformers connected in parallel for additional drive current. A COTS ZVS driver was used to drive the flybacks with a drive frequency of 28 Khz. This combination yields 15 KV peak AC to drive my multiplier stack. I could post a link with even more detail but YT will delete my comment.

I made a lightning tower similar to what Jay on Plasma Channel made, with an 8 stage CW circuit. I drive it with a small build it yourself plasma lighter circuit available from Amazon. I have run those up to about 12VDC in and they survive, probably giving me around 8-10 kV AC out to feed into the 8 stage CW tower. I can get sparks about 2 to 2.5 inches long from it. Now, it occurred to me that the diode chain in the CW circuit can be either way up the ladder. Anodes pointing up, you get a positively charged top load. Other way, you get a negatively charged top load. Sooooo, I built another one with the diodes in the other direction. I added jacks at the bottom of the CW ladder on each so I can connect those points on both towers commoning the "grounds". That allows me to generate some pretty good snappy arcs between the two top loads of around 5 inches in length. So that puts me in the 100 kV to 125 kV range. No series resistors so the arcs are pretty snappy but I've had no issues with those 100 mA diodes and I've had these towers now for several years.

If you plan on making more devices like this, I suggest that you use an air switch which is operted using a pressurized tube. This creates nearly no path to the controller.

Very impressive! I marvel at what Tesla did with his coil and the parts that he used were not solid state as we have here. He certainly had leakage issues to overcome. I was just thinking about his tower at Wardencliff (sp) and if you might be able to get power from the earth right about the time you said you may add an earth ground rod. I think Florida has right elements to make that possible

I'm working on something similar except I use a 10 stage multiplier with 100mA diodes and 2nF caps in paraffin wax. With 25V/8A going into my flyback (15-20kV out), and an 11 ohm resistor, I get ~10 inch arcs (150-200kV) that are extremely loud and bright. I've been using it for a year and the diodes and caps are still fine. And yes, that's 11 ohms, not mega ohms. If I want to limit the power even more, I use a 1 kOhm resistor. I think 7.5 MOhms is extreme overkil unless you plan on running it for a long timel. But then again you might be using 5mA diodes. I will post a video when I'm done assembling everything. Currently just 3D printing all the housings and chassis parts to make everything look nice.

Have you tried conductive PLA for a top load? Built a VDG with this, bottom toroidal and the top half a hemisphere. Had to print in 4 segments for a 13" top collector but worked beautifully. Going to do a toroidal top load for a VTTC I'm finishing this month. Great project! Maybe equipotential rings on the outside at 6" intervals may help, printed these also with conductive PLA for my VDG with 13" dia collector. I was surprised at how well this machine works, the toroidal bottom half and spherical top half works better than spheres I've printed as there's a soft curve wrapping into itself at the top of the tube. Will post a vid. at some point titled "Having fun with conductive PLA" or something like that. As an aside, these conductive plastics aren't so great for low voltage apps but doesn't seem to matter at electrostatic voltages. Keep the great stuff coming, never would have occurred to me to build this!

the slogan of here should be: _"Everything is a conductor if you try hard enough"_

With the sharp points, this looks closer to 200kV-ish. Still a good result, but you have to account for the inefficiencies and losses within the stack.

Oh this will be a fun build

Love your dry humor.

As usual my friend, your videos are very well done & awesome. Keep it up.

Hey nice video! 😃👍 But What type of filament were you using for your 3D printer? And what is the coloring of the Gray filament made off?! Because This could also effect your insolation right?!

I tried that one time. Sadly I used some crappy diodes and didn't put enough space between all elements and it was arcing like hell... Still lots of fun and I learned few things.

Thank you for this interesting video.

Nice job. Looks really good.

Awhile back I saw Jay on plasma channel use tubing filled with distilled water and stuck a nail in each end for a high voltage resistor. Might be applicable with your project so you can limit the current and keep the diodes from failing.

12:12 lolz i cant believe this...Mr Pirate is like 'dam i diddnt win all the prizes - came close' yep this is a good vid

The electrostatic attraction is scarier in nature. Twice I have had my fishing line rise up off the water as a rain shower approached before a lightning strike. So far I have always been able to get off the water before the lightning struck.

_"It's also a pretty decent dog collar."_ 🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭

I can smell the ozone from just watching this.

Высоковольтный Рембрант👍!

Another great vid (just found you today, so I’ve been binging :-) I’ve been thinking about making one of these myself, not for any rational use case, but just because I think it would be cool to have a 1 MV voltage source 😁 Great idea to make a 3D printed form for the toroid! I’ve been interested in making a big Van deGraf or Tesla coil, but making a top load from metal seemed daunting. Technically not too hard to do with metal spinning (I have a wood lathe that I might be able to do that with), but a very high hassle-factor.

Top kek on mr fedora recombination illustration

Nice work. Adding a ton of stages to a multiplier should work in theory. For 500kv, u should expect to see 50 centimeter arcs / 0.5 meters at the very least considering the dielectric breakdown of air. Adding a lot of stages doesn't help to increase the voltage like you might think because of a few reasons: As more stages are added, the voltage across each individual stage is decreased. The reactances of all your capacitors are going to add up which is going to weaken the arcs a lot And a big reason is because real world capacitors all have some leakage current within them that drains itself slightly. This results in voltage being lower on top of the fact that the voltage across each stage is less with more added within the multiplier.

Great video. Subscribed. Thank You.

The multipliers don't perform well if there are more that ~15 stages because diodes' internal capacitance begin to interfere with higher stages caps. Its more like 70-100 kv in the video

Tbh, the output isn’t great and there are probably two contributing factors for that. The first one should be quite obvious and it is the massive amount of corona leakage and maybe also the non ideal grounding. But I think one of the other very important things is that building a multiplier with over 50 stages is not a great idea, because the more stages you add to the multiplier, the more will those stages load down the output and also with that many stages the charge time is also very long. Because of that at some point you will get significantly less output with more stages. It would be a much better Idea to have fewer stages, but to drive those at a higher voltage. like 20 stages with 20-30Kvac input. It will be more challenging to design the circuit for higher voltages but it should be worth it. Also what diodes did you use and where can I find them? Besides that great video and good luck with version 2.

Thanks man it's an interesting project

8:31 I know KSP music when I hear it lol

Current limiting shouldn't be necessary to protect the diodes. Once the caps have discharged the arc extinguishes until they recharge.

I bet the PLA or ABS you printed the parts from has a much lower dielectric strength than the epoxy you potted everything with. Also willing to bet the 3d printed structure had plenty of internal air gaps and whatnot. Might be worth taking into account next time.

If I can make a suggestion, instead of a wire for turning on, use a pneumatic switch. Then no potential arc back.

was wondering why when you had the resistors the lighting was more purple but when you cut them off it was blue?

Please provide the 3D printed parts details in the description so that build the same parts as you...

I've always wondered what the practical limit of a Cockroft-Walton multiplier was with diodes. I was hoping to get about 4MeV out of one for, you know, reasons that have to do with why I chose "MeV" as a unit, but it looks like past a couple hundred keV it gets really, really hard not to just lose everything to corona discharge. Explains why commercial ones seem to only go up to about 200keV.

woohoo upload day!

Exelente job..👍🇲🇽😀🇺🇲👍

That's really cool. I like it, but I got a question. It's neat looking at spark gaps but what can that be used for, other than eye destruction?🙂 thanks

Great vid....like the transformer core design, any chance you can share it?

Wow amazing 👍

Отличный источник питания! Питать ускорители электронов , Х- лучи , протоны, гамма..

Diode link is wrong… great video

You were very close to permanenteye eye damage. The problem is UV. Light violet lacy sparks are no problem. As current (not voltage) goes up the discharges turn bright blue. Still okay but still more current and the discharges turn white. White discharges are not eye-safe. They sure are loud and fun however.

Can you make a high voltage adjustable power supply that can reach around or even more than 60 Kv

I was able to make a 13 inch spark rubbing a paper towel over a PVC tube. This title -- Thirty Three Centimeter Spark from a Simple Experiment

That’s pretty awesome, question is it necessary to use those resistors? Can just used voltage multiplier?

How do design your transformer? Any formulas or methods you can tell me would be very helpful and appreciated. Thanks!

Question, the air is ionized and that what gives the electron a way to jump out. What will happen if it will be in vacuum?

Bro got the ksp music

I have a question. Why are there tons of resistors in the end of the multiplier? The multiplier gives a good amount of high voltage right?

A sphere on top is actually better than aToroid And for the best insulation I put the whole thing inside a PVC drain tube

Can you also make a video on how you make the ac high voltage transformer and its driver 😅?

how resistive is epoxy resin? i would have thought you'd need to experiment to find ideal insulators for such immense voltages! **(research also works, but i'd want to be sure lol)**

Can you make the arc move in a straight line ????

There is something profoundly - yet beautifully - wrong with you.

I could almost smell the ozone from the corona.

Next time bro use spacial insulators in series with different stages of multiplications 1 insulator 2 multiplier 3 insulator 4 multiplier 5 insulator 6 multiplier etc

What is the program used to simulate a circuit called? Awesome video!

that fault happen bcz your wound winding is not clasified for high voltage laquer insulation thats why it has corona discharging around the wire and voltage jumpers

The ionized air is very unnerving...

I have no idea what any of this means. Does this thing have any function or is it just sparkly-look-good? _(I have absolutely 0 understanding of this stuff)_

Hi, nice video and I would like to ask what is the software that is used for the circuit simulation (01:45). I would like to try it too :) . Thanks.

Make the top load a sphere and suck all the air out of the of the sphere. Which will create a negative capacity.

Epoxy is not a good insulator, use HV silicon rubber instead. ( not the aquarium type that smells vinegar )

Which transistor you use here for zvs

couldn't you just put the multiplier in a mineral oil or silicon oil not epoxy? Trouble shooting and re-working would have been easier? or the dielectric breakdown of epoxy is much higher?

best protection is ceramic

try the brushless dc emf circular loop train(magnet train running along a track), not coil train, duel-quad coils next to a sideways magnet train

5:26 so basically you made a Tesla coil

Possible circuit diagram?

Use an oil bath instead of epoxy.

i can only find 5ma diodes... there shouldnt be that much current anyways right?... so i think a few megaohm is enough even for that.

please make a mini maglev train

la boule métallique tenu au bout d'une perche en plastique doit être relié à la terre par le fil électrique qui y est attaché !!!

What software was that circuit simulation?

Not enough voltage

You maybe should have spread out components even more.

try filling with cement xD

Time to build a fusor! All that ozone will give you a runny nose via destroying your nostril hairs.

this is not even close to 500kv it looks like it can jump about 10cm so its about 100kv and you dont need top load with multiplyer it just disipates the charge. its not a tesla coil. btw ive built a tesla coil capable of about 2 meters smarks playing music.... and there is no radiation, this is misleading. the bigger hazard is breathing ozone, but you would need a lot of run time to make it an actual danger.

Use rubber resin.