Kirlian Photography Device
DESCRIPTION
Hello everybody, how do you do? This is project How-ToDo, my name is Konstantin and today I'll make device for Kirlian photography. First I have to say this effect has nothing to do with photographing the aura, karma and anything like that, and the effect is exhaustively explained by physics. Second - we need high voltage for this device, and it's could be dangerous if you don't know what you doing, be careful! Actually this effect is basically just a nice visualization of corona discharge. You connect high voltage to the object and to the transparent electrode, usually it looks like two glass sheets and salt water between them, but because it's kind of difficult to build, especially neat and without bubbles, I will use a slightly simplified design.
For assembly we will need - a high-voltage AC power supply, with variable frequency, for example generator on 555 timer, but I made special one on Arduino with OLED display, I have a video how to make it and high voltage transformer.
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Also we need a piece of glass, you can find the perfect one in a photo frame, size of glass is doesn't matter but if you interested my from 4" by 6" frame and thickness about 1,5mm. On the glass around the perimeter, we need to make a rim of 5 millimeters height, I print it on a 3d printer, but of course you can do it from anything. Carefully put some sealant and after it dry remove the remains.
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Then we need a copper wire without an insulation, I cleaned out a piece of twisted pair, leave a couple of centimeters for connection and glue the wire around the perimeter. Next, I glue small legs to the bottom.
I cut another electrode from copper foil, screw it to the board and bend it so that would touch the glass, connect the terminals of the high-voltage transformer one to the electrode on the board, the other to wire on the glass.
Now we make a conductive solution, add a spoon of salt to the glass of water and fill it in our improvised aquarium. I put the object between the glass and the bottom electrode and turn on the generator.
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A few important points, the bottom contact should have a minimum of sharp angles, in general the entire high-voltage part should have a minimum of them, they will generate a corona discharge - and we will waste the power. Next, this effect depends very much on the frequency of the generator, actually more than on voltage, so it is more practical to adjust a frequency than to increase the power of generator, I have the best results on frequency about 7 kHz. Many of you have seen people making a photo of their fingers on similar devices, for this the circuit changes a little, the contact that we have connected to the object needs to be removed and grounded and nothing is connected to the person, plus I'm not sure, but for me the 7kHz frequency seems too small for enough skin effect and may cause an electric shock, I would raise it to at least 30kHz, better just wait, I want to make a large screen and show everything soon. Another point to remember is that a high voltage high frequency creates a strong magnetic field interacting with electronic devices, so do not bring your brand new cameras close.
That's all I got for today, if like this instructable please share it in your social media it's really helps. See you soon!
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