High Voltage 'Lifter' experiment

[commonground]

Hi all,

i'm playing with the ion-wind 'lifters' as seen here :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzZy1Aqleno

I read somewhere that the same lift is accomplished with less power by connecting ground to the lower foil and either negative or positive to the emitter wire.

Any ideas what i would use for a ground reference in this case ?

Thanks for any help

[gilshultz]

Depends on the power supply, is - or + connected to earth that would be your ground.

[commonground]

Thanks.

For the power supply i plan to use a car ignition coil with a dimmer switch and capacitor as in this diagram :

[gilshultz]

Neutral would be your ground reference. Note you will be exposed to mains voltage and what is the primary voltage of the Ig Coil, maybe 12V so you will possibly get enough to fry the coil if the cap fails. The type of dimmer you pick is important and will it withstand the flyback voltage from the coil?

[commonground]

Thank you for saving me an accident! I'll check the specs of possible components.

[jremington]

The lifter in the video uses a low power HV DC power supply.

Your extremely unsafe lashup generates HV AC.

[commonground]

Thanks. I read that AC (or chopped DC) produces more lift for the same power.
I could also power it via a PWM module i have which will be a safer option :

https://www.rmcybernetics.com/shop/cyber-circuits/pulse-generators/pulse-modulator-ocx