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Project #2 - Never a Spark, Never an Arc |
I had hopes for this project from the
beginning of the semester after I replaced
a monitor with a newer multisync that
would operate at higher resolutions. A
label on the chassis warned that the
power supply had a minimum output of
27,000 volts.
The plan was to modulate the arc with music using an old 100-watt tube amplifier. The main problem was that I had no schematic diagram to know how to circumvent the protective circuitry to enable the high-voltage circuit to make an arc from this beast. I searched the Internet for a service manual and found nothing except empty promises. A couple of sites had partial schematics of smaller NEC monitors, but, after removing the flyback (high voltage) transformer from the printed circuit board to compare the pinouts, I concluded that not all NEC flybacks had the same construction nor similar driving circuitry. Other websites had information about making arcs from flybacks, but the most promising one had what I considered shakey circuitry and had pictures of flybacks that had exploded. |
My project began with a working 21-inch multisync video monitor. |
I traced the printed circuit board around the
area of the flyback transformer and found an
integrated circuit that I knew had an internal
oscillator and had a pin going to the gate of
the transformer's switching transistor. I
declined the opportunity to bypass the switch
to see if I could make a spark at the risk of
damaging the transformer. So I declared this
project dead and decided to show pictures of
what I had done. Not all scientific projects are
successful.
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