My Last HVPS for a While

[Richard Hester]

A seller on E-pay was offering a 50kV/20mA Hipotronics power pack (generally paired with a big rack-mount control unit (got). The unit was offered for months and months (and months) at a high price but was recently reduced. I leaped at the opportunity, and the module arrived today, strapped to a pallet. The guts of the supply is in a tub of oil similar in size to a 5-gallon pail, though about 2/3 the height. The supply is oil-insulated, making freight shipping advisable, as UPS will tumble the thing in any orientation they can think of, guaranteeing massive oil leaks (I have an ailing 40kV/25ma unit as testimonial). Anyway this supply, if workable, will probably be my utility supply for initial fusor efforts, once i get it working with the control unit. I may yet get a fusor lashed together, after 10+ years on the list.

[Richard Hull]

You, like me, are a slow worker. After all, what's th' rush when you just want to do fusion, have fun, get some neuts and do not feel you have to help save the world.

All the best now that you are "power ready". Come on in the fusion is just fine.

Oh, and thanks for all the open handed and generous electronic support over these many years to our group.

Richard Hull

[Carl Willis]

Hi Richard,

The Hipotronics "trash can" supplies are really well-built and I think it will work nicely for you. We used to use the 50-kV/20mA model at work as an ion source extraction supply. It was then transferred to Taylor Wilson, and I think has been trouble-free for him in fusor service. Switching polarity is very easy...you just swap the coaxial connections on top of the can.

-Carl

[Richard Hester]

Well, I've had a bad case of hacker's greed, so I've been latching on to all sorts of HV gear, including X-ray transformers, a complete Spellman 60 kV X-ray tube supply, (including the filament supply box), one of those Kaiser HV modules, and so on. That just has to stop...
The Hipotronics is a nice keeper, as it has overcurrent protection in the control box. It's a linear supply, so it will just work (!), assuming it hasn't been abused. From the looks of it though, it's been well cared-for.
I worked with a monster Universal Voltronics supply in school that was rather like the smaller Hipotronics tub-type units, but with a gland condition. The transformer and multiplier were in a 55-gallon drum, and the control unit was massive. Drawing an arc from the output would just shut it down.

[lutzhoffman]

Hey here is a new idea to produce fusion: Ship a mixture of T and D (Licensed of course) via UPS in a box labled "fragile". They may "jumble and shock" the mixture enough to bring the nuclei into close enough proximity to get some fusion going

Sorry, I just could not resist....After UPS recently destroyed a vacuum pump that I had shipped, the cast Al case was broken into about 3 small, and one large fragment! The oil soaked box with a corner missing was my first clue that something was not quite right.

In the future I will insist on USPS, who has a much better track record in this area, at least they do in this corner of the world. I have no idea on how UPS did this, unless they dropped it from a raised platform onto concrete far below, something like from a big cargo plane door, down to the runway below.

Good luck on the PS, it sounds like a nice piece of sturdy equipment...