reply to post by therainmaker
I purchased one of these at a ham/electronic flea market today, specifically the model GRA80. For $15 I could not pass it up. The seller said
it had belonged to his son and there was no literature or information with the device.
First... it's not anti-gravity. It's used to produce ionizing voltage. It requires air (or some form of gas medium) to produce thrust (presuming
that is how you have it rigged).
What I believe to be the output section is a clear plastic cylinder filled with an assembly of components and transformer oil. It appears to be
a "ladder" made of disc capacitors and T-75 diodes.
That's a Cockroft-Walton 'generator' -
en.wikipedia.org...
It's your voltage multiplier circuit which utilizes pulsed DC inputs to charge and discharge capacitors in such a fashion as to multiply the voltage
at each stage. That is what is producing you ionizing voltages (kilovolts of electricity).
The transformer oil is used to help prevent corona losses as well as open-air discharges across the voltage multiplier.
On top of that is a short section of white PVC pipe, 1" diameter, very homebrew-looking, with the threaded end of a screw sticking out of the
top.
The threaded end of the screw is likely your cathode. Electrons will more easily pass into the air along the sharp edges of the screw's threading -
improving its ionizing performance. The PVC serves as an insulator and duct for the ionized gasses. Or - that's my analysis of it.
Hard to describe, but I do not want to post photos, I like to remain anonymous and don't think that is easily possible with an online photo
storage service.
To sound deliberately creepy - if I felt motivated to do so, I could use 'open' resources to get a pretty good fix on your ID and a thousand bucks
or so to contract a PI to give me the name of your first pet.
If "they" want to find you - "they" can. And "they" can be anyone with a grudge and a valid credit card.
Before I go attaching it to a power supply and potentially causing a disaster, does anyone know of any resource for information on these kinds
of experimental devices? Any online forums, Yahoo Groups, etc?
If it is what you link to, then it looks fairly well contained. Basically, don't touch the cathode (screw) while it's on (and for several minutes
after it's powered down - just to be sure those capacitors aren't holding any nasty surprises or static buildup isn't going to do the same), and
you should be good.
The only other thing to watch out for is static buildup on nearby surfaces. I wouldn't use this thing near a computer. It would also be a fairly
good idea to do this well away from your home's ground sources (basically - go outside and into a work shed, or something a little disjointed from
your home), as there is the potential for the high voltages to build up and cause some nasty problems with grounding.
Probably not with a device as low powered as those... but it's better to play it safe than to end up spiking your entire home grid.