DIY 20 MEGA WATT SWITCH

in #diy7 years ago (edited)

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What happens when you put 4,000 Volts in a copper coil that is sitting on an aluminium plate???

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I bought a couple of capacitors a while back and needed a way to safely short the capacitors and release the 10,000 Joules stored inside these beasts. I used a chicken stick before with a clamp at the end to hold onto the wire as I bring the 2 together but this method is extremely dangerous. By accedentally touching the wire, your heart would probably explode, these capacitors are charged up to 4,000 Volts for the Blue one and 7,200 Volts for the Black one. I wanted a safer way of doing things. There is no switch on the market, that is cheap anyway, that can handle this about of POWER, so I reverted to creating my own "switch".

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I used a solenoid that can handle 4 lbs and designed a holder from my 3-D printer to have it sit on the aluminium rod. I connected a thick copper wire to act and the switch to complete the circuit. The wire is guided up to the aluminum rod with two rings to ensure good contact every time. To power the solenoid I used a IFRZ44n MOSFET and a couple of Li-Ion batteries to get the necessary voltage for a quick switch. AND HOT GLUED EVERYTHING TOGETHER. This is connected to a push button to trigger the MOSFET, with a wire length of 5 feet. Good enough distance for what I want to do. I went with this set up so it can be interchangeable between the two capacitors banks.

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This is so cool now it looks more official, and Im not standing next to deadly amounts of voltage trying to blow stuff up with these capacitors.

What would you like to see 7200 volts run through???

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Very nicely made. You could maybe improve on it by making the contact point more like a knife switch which has a big contact surface. That's a very popular high voltage switching method. Mostly somehow spring loaded to limit the electric arc.

What to blow up next? A @steemmakers logo?

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