Re: Charging a capacitor to 6kV

birdburdy wrote:
On Apr 1, 2:04 pm, mike <spam...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
birdburdy wrote:
I would like to charge a very small (1nF - 500pF) capacitor to fairly
high voltage: 6kV (enough to get a reasonable spark). I believe the
easiest way to do this is using a Flyback Transformer, or a Blocking
Oscillator? I would like to use just two AA batteries for this.
I don't especially want to wind my own flyback transformers - is it
possible to use an ordinary audio transformer as a crude flyback, then
use a Villard cascade to get the voltage up?
how much voltage can you get out of a piezoelectric spark lighter?

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They are typically 15kV, judging from the spark-gap. I'm not sure
they produce enough charge to actually charge a (even small) capacitor
though.
That's why you measure it.

Sometimes you get better help if you disclose the end objective.
You can get a "spark" with a chunk of flint.

The solution may be critically dependent on whether you want to build
one that fits in a suitcase or a million that fit in a thimble and have
to cost less than 3-cents. Solutions for a "high school science project"
are less complicated than a science experiment you're sending to Mars.
Your use of the "plural" suggests more than
one, but that's not much help. The "cap" suggests you need DC, but you
can get plenty of "spark" with AC.

Vague questions get vague answers based on what the other guy GUESSES
you might be trying to accomplish.

More than once, I've seen people suggest alternate solutions to the original objective that far exceed the performance of the original concept.

My suggestion of the spark lighter was motivation to "think outside the box".

Depending on your input wave shape, you can get something akin to
rectification using a spark gap.

Concise, complete expression of the objective is the hardest and
most productive part of a project.

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