I made this power supply by converting a Viewsonic 4 computer monitor
into a 24kV DC power supply. It was extremely simple to do.
Close up of the top of the power supply with
my fancy connecting and discharging arrangement.
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The hinged door for easy access to the inside.
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There are two things to make sure of if you do this. The first is
to make sure that the monitor is not plugged in at any time. The second
is to make sure the monitor is not one of the newer ones that has
the green power saving feature that requires that it be plugged into
a computer in order to function. If you turn on the monitor, without
it being plugged into a computer and you do not get a signal then
you may as well not use that monitor.
Once I was sure of these things I opened up the case.
There was a thick wire going into the vacuum tube through a rubber
suction cup. This was the high voltage wire. The cathode ray tube that
this suction cup is attached to is a high voltage capacitor. If the monitor
has been turned on recently then there may still be high voltage in
the capacitor. Make sure the monitor has been off for at least a day
before removing the wire. Basically all I did
was drill a hole in the case of the monitor and put this wire
through it. The chasis was ground so I screwed another wire to
the chasis, drilled another hole in the case and put this ground
wire through it. Done.
Then, as the pictures above show, I got fancy, probably needlessly.
I made a fancy arrangement on the side of the monitor (which is now
the top of my power supply since it will always sit on its side)
for connecting to but also for making it easy to discharge after
each use. That's what the balls are for. I also cut up the top
of the monitor and added a hinge to make a door for easy access to
the interior of the monitor without having to remove the case.
Like I said, probably needless.
I measured the voltage using
this probe.
It turns out that it puts out about 24kV. I tested with the probe tip and
ground clip right at the wires coming out of the case as well as with the
tip and clip closer to the device under test at the time. Both times
the results were around 24kV with no noticable difference.
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