Introduction: High-voltage Experiments

About: I love to tinker with electronics like transformers and arduino and I have built many things such as a cheap transformer driver, a mini blast furnace, a robotic segway and a arduino monitored soil moisture det…

In this instructable, I will show you some cool high voltage experiments you can do if you have the right equipment. Remember, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY HARM CAUSED WHATSOEVER!!!

DO NOT do this if you have limited knowledge about electronics, even if you do, exercise extreme caution,

DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

Step 1: Items You Will Need

  • The transformer driver

See how to make it HERE

  • Transformer from a 6 volt power supply
  • small LCD type display that you don't mind wrecking (I got mine from a dead multimeter)
  • flash tube from a disposable camera (mine was a Polaroid fun shooter)

Step 2: Setting Up the Transformer

With the transformer driver OFF, connect the 2 blue wires from the driver to the 2 primary coil terminals/wires of the transformer. If you haven't already, connect 1 wire each to the two terminals of the secondary coil from the transformer. Make sure the ends of the 2 wires are stripped about a centimeter.

Step 3: Making Arcs

You can now turn on the transformer driver. making sure that you don't touch the stripped areas of the wires, slowly bring them together until you get an arc of electricity! mine usually gets to about 4 mm long. If nothing happens though, then immediately turn off the driver and refer to the troubleshooting page near the end of this instructable.

Step 4: Making the LCD Go Crazy!

Turn off the transformer driver for safety. If your LCD does not have wires coming off it, don't worry, you can still use it for this experiment, all you have to do is turn it upside down and you should find a few transparent kind of shiny squares, these are your contacts. Now turn on you driver. Get one of the secondary side wires and brush it against some of the wires/electrodes from the LCD. It's crazy how it shows up characters with just one wire! Now is the part where the LCD usually gets destroyed. Brush both wires against the electrodes/wires. The LCD goes absolutely crazy!!!! The characters usually stay there for a minute or so. The LCD will probably get wrecked (like mine did)!! The first picture is during the "exiting" of the LCD and the second one is after the "exiting" and it shows the wreckage points.

Step 5: The "Lightning Tube"

Make sure the driver is turned off. Get one wire of the secondary coil of the transformer and twist it around one of the wires of the flash tube. Repeat on the other wire. Now turn on the driver. The flash tube should have little arcs of electricity moving around in it! It looks a lot like a mini bolts of lightning!

Step 6: Show Some Support!!

Please favorite this instructable!! Comment down below what other experiments you would like to see! Thank you for reading this! I hope you had fun doing these experiments!