I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I scored some monster magnetrons recently. In fact, I was searching for this specific type of magnetron for years, and then recently a fellow high voltage nerd tipped me off to some that were for sale on ebay. These guys are rated for 10kW output power of microwave radiation. That's more than ten times higher than what's found in a standard microwave oven! I have a lot of things I want to try with these, but highest on the list is making an audio modulated microwave plasma. I'll probably also try jamming one in a microwave oven in order to make a turbo microwave. A macrowave, if you will.
So, the bad news. I've had a couple embarrassing failures with my 400W laser project. After a few initial tests with the laser, the control electronics randomly burned up on me. In fact, it actually latched the laser on even after letting go of the trigger! Thank goodness I stuck a mechanical switch on the thing, because that could have ended badly. The laser arrays were fine, but I had to rebuild all of the electronics, which took me weeks. I never identified the cause of failure, so I changed out the driver type thinking that might be the issue. Everything tested out great, but once everything was put together, it happened again! All the electronics are toasted. The problem must be a hidden short somewhere because I can't find any other issues.
Now I have to decide whether I want to try building it again or put this project off for the time being. The circuitry isn't even complicated, but since everything is free soldered or on perfboard, and jammed into a small space, it is soooo tedious rebuilding all of it. I hate electronics sometimes lol.
Eduardo Borquez
2024-12-23 05:23:18 +0000 UTCRic Beme
2024-08-06 02:40:03 +0000 UTCChristopher Hovord
2024-08-05 18:31:50 +0000 UTCTyler Hargrove
2024-08-05 01:46:08 +0000 UTCstyropyro
2024-08-05 00:12:56 +0000 UTCGems of Science
2024-08-04 23:11:31 +0000 UTCMrSpookE3
2024-08-04 22:22:05 +0000 UTCAdrian Neacsu
2024-08-04 22:21:07 +0000 UTCTyler Hargrove
2024-08-04 22:21:04 +0000 UTCSteven De Bock
2024-08-04 22:14:45 +0000 UTC