Website Host Transfer Complete + Sparks

I’ve completed the server move and the DNS changes, so hopefully everything will now work. There was a problem with the email program (cgiemail) during the transfer, but it seems as though I resolved the problem by using a different script (FormMail). Please feel free to send me an email or leave a comment in this post if there are any problems.

High Voltage Sparks Over and Through Red LED 2/3

As an added bonus, I’ve attached some pictures of sparks generated with my high voltage power supply, which I was able to fix. It appears as though the old MOSFET had blown, so I was able to recreate the circuit with no issues. Continue to the post for a few more pictures. Read More

Some More High Voltage Videos

Last night a number of events conspired against me and my geeky endeavors:

  1. My flyback transformer driver was working intermittently for a period of time then suddenly stopped working. It seems as though there is a problem with either the 7805 or the PIC12F683, but I can’t pinpoint the problem because of events 2 and 3 below. I’ll have to double check to make sure that I didn’t accidentally fry any components with, ironically, static discharge.
  2. My multimeter was accidentally left on the last time I used it, so the batteries were dead and I couldn’t check the voltages at different points in the circuit (to determine whether the PIC was switching the driver MOSFET). Why does this always happen at the most inopportune times?
  3. My PIC programmer is no longer recognizing any of my PICs. I’m hoping that there’s just a problem with the firmware and that I can fix it by borrowing a friend’s programmer to reflash it, but nothing I could do last night would make the programmer recognize PIC12F675s, PIC12F683s, or PIC16F628s. Maybe this is a sign that I should get an ICD2…

So, in short, it was an overall crappy night. So, here are some of the latest videos with the high voltage flyback transformer zapping some more beer, rum, and just plain arcing just for the heck of it. I’m heading back home tomorrow for Thanksgiving tomorrow, so I won’t be able to debug the problems until I get back. Read More

PIC12F683 High Voltage Flyback Transformer Driver

PIC12F683 High Voltage Flyback Transformer DriverA friend at Purdue University (Sumanth Peddamatham) helped motivate and inspire me to create a high voltage flyback transformer driver for a computer CRT flyback transformer. While the schematic and code for driving the transformer are extremely straightforward and simple, finding and obtaining a high quality solid state flyback transformer can be difficult. Please note that the voltages generated by the flyback transformer are potentially very dangerous, so extreme care must be exercised when building and/or using the schematic presented in this project. Diode split flyback transformers (like the one used in this project) can output 25kV or more. Read More