2:55 "I tried to avoid arcs by cutting the corners to point shapes"... that's doing the wrong thing. Yes, you increased the clearance to the opposite-voltage electrodes. But charge bunches up at sharp corners, and this the voltage at those locations rises drastically, so if you want to reduce arcing, give the electrodes gently curved edges. This, by the way, is why the charge accumulator on the Van der Graaf generator is gently rounded -- so that it doesn't have points of high concentration of charge which would be arcing "weak spots" and also leak charge into the air before the overall dome had reached an optimally high voltage.

@7tonsofsalt865

3 жыл бұрын

i mean true, but he cut the tips into trapezoids, so the angles are less sharp

Low key rail-gun vibes is what im getting from this

@brandonmack111

3 жыл бұрын

I thought of coil guns, but similar idea ;)

How long before someone takes your idea and makes a fake "free energy" video? 🤦‍♂️

@user-yz8do8vu1s

3 жыл бұрын

You don't need to specify them as fake.

@brandonmack111

3 жыл бұрын

They probably already did ;)

@headbanger1428

3 жыл бұрын

Haha! Nice one! :) Yeah I wouldn't want to be him receiving numerous subs of freaks that will post nonsensical future comments.

@Ma_X64

3 жыл бұрын

Definitely it's done already and much earlier than this video appears.)

@funtechu

3 жыл бұрын

Step 1: Buy a reaaaaaly long extension cord. Step 2: Run it over to your neighbor's house. Step 3: ??? Step 4: Free energy

So with the Nickel coated balls... When you use the lift to return them to their previous position. Do you bring the Nickelback?

@jim2386

3 жыл бұрын

Nickel ball gets to end of accelerator, hits a switch to play an arduino wav shield..... "Look at this photograph..." and it resets :)

@Blayzeing

3 жыл бұрын

@@jim2386 "Look at this Van De Graaff..."

@raphanunu6912

3 жыл бұрын

They don't get it ! Nickelback and Van Der Graaff Generator, two top groups indeed.

With a room full of devices that are sensitive to static electricity, the last thing you want in there is a Van de Graaff generator. :-)

@nagualdesign

3 жыл бұрын

(12:00) Bender already looks pissed off. I sense a robot uprising.

Separate the electrical wire leads! Where they touch cross they they will arc since the insulation of the wires is not100k. The current is so low you will not see damage. Think of of it as a parasitic drain

Graphite ( pencil lead) may be effective on the ping pong balls. Maybe also Bare Conductive carbon-based conductive paint.

@simonmoore4277

3 жыл бұрын

Yes Mike! Carbon bristles. Defo need some more tear down & reverse engineering vids from you.

@headbanger1428

3 жыл бұрын

I used to work for a jewelry-plating company. The earrings were bakelite, I think. We sprayed them with a copper lacquer and sent the bath to what appeared to be a copper sulfate solution where it was electroplated in a thick copper. If the batch was to be gold, then it would proceed to gold cyanide. Oddly enough, I seem to remember that also the silver was silver cyanide, but that doesn't make sense to me since silver is much more reactive than gold and cyanide isn't needed. Ehh it was a long time ago.

@FasutonemuMyoji

3 жыл бұрын

@@headbanger1428 Some precious metals mining is done through mounds of crushed rock and leach fields using cyanide, if I had to guess maybe purchasing unrefined pregnant solution of cyanide and silver was cheaper? Since you already had all the same equipment to handle the chemicals. Wikipedia 'Heap leaching' to see what I am talking about.

@theburningtoastmonsterofur7028

3 жыл бұрын

Everyone keeps saying that graphite is good for lowering friction (sometimes with proof) but in almost every case that I've seen in video or in person, it never seems to work and in most cases makes it worse. So from experience I wouldn't recommend

@redactedbananas

3 жыл бұрын

@@theburningtoastmonsterofur7028 it's not about friction, it's about covering the plastic ping pong balls in a (cheaper?) conductive material, like graphite.

So in official Lego GBCs there are set requirements for the modules, the input must be a 8x8 area 10 blocks up from the ground and it has to reliably output to the same height and area. Also one other requirement is that it has to carry 1 balls/second. This is why they can have any module anywhere. I think you should create a standard for your modules as well so you can change positions of them later

@jamesbruton

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks, yep we'll see how it works out, some will need revisiting in any case.

Ive got a sub to wintergarten for my marble machine itch. My giant 3d printed walking robot dog itch GOES UNSCRATCHED James. Hope youre happy now.

an ion lifter/flyer might be something you should try, they're really cool things although you might need a different high voltage source like a flyback to work because it needs higher current

@TradieTrev

3 жыл бұрын

Be careful with the higher currents as it could kill a human.

Super original! That bit on Mr Bean with the Van De Graaff was one of the funniest moments in TV history.

You should have found a way to spray the coating onto the ball, then remove it at the end. After that, you reuse the spray by putting it back in the can.

@tomelberfeld5849

3 жыл бұрын

How high are you

@marks47

3 жыл бұрын

@@tomelberfeld5849 probably been huffing the nickel spray. At 36 pounds per can, it better be good!

@nagualdesign

3 жыл бұрын

Money saving idea: Before repainting your house, take off the old paint and sell it on eBay!

@tomelberfeld5849

3 жыл бұрын

@@marks47 no it's actually quite cheap because he will just put it back in the can after huffing it

@EmergencyTemporalShift

3 жыл бұрын

@Deborah Ajao yea it is, you just need to apply some sandpaper to the ball, add some water to the dust, then put it back in the can.

When you first made your screw lift, i guessed that it was part of a weird Rube Goldberg machine. After seeing the first video, I figured I was wrong... but now I think I was onto something! Love it

@rmdavidov

3 жыл бұрын

Did you watch the second

I was ec-static to watch this and it did not disappoint. Keep up the good work.

A good Roboticist? Yes! A good wallet model? Not so much.

@brendandor

3 жыл бұрын

I thought he looked rather high fashion. He has the frame of a model haha.

@brenno3735

3 жыл бұрын

@@brendandor Maybe he just needs a haircut and a good agent.

@GtsAntoni1

3 жыл бұрын

How *dare* you

@brendandor

3 жыл бұрын

@@brenno3735 not many high fashion models have what normal people consider good haircuts so not sure.

@nagualdesign

3 жыл бұрын

To be fair, the 'wallets' aren't very good either. What kind of wallet designer adds a bit of elastic for holding money _on the outside_ as an afterthought? 😕

I loved the Van de Graaph in high school. I have really long and fine hair so the effect was intense. I essentially looked like a giant goats beard seed.

I like how the painted balls look like an object in blender.

I'm excited to see this thing completed👍🙏

James, if you add a proximity sensor into the end of the van de graph ball lane to detect when the ball arrives and a proximity sensor at the end of the normal ball lane, you could use software to determine the exact timing offsets required. Simply calibrate with something like 5 ball runs and it should have enough of a dataset to run the two balls at the same speed for the best illusion

@traniel123456789

3 жыл бұрын

Sounds like something that could be easily tuned by incrementing by 100ms by hand, no sensor required.

@RafiLerman

3 жыл бұрын

@@traniel123456789 perhaps, but why do something by hand when you can do it automatically with a computer

I'm really digging your work. Thanks

Fantastic video! So educational. Thank you for making it.

Magicians never reveal their secrets and nobody knows how we do it. James: Hold my beer

Can’t wait to see what the machine will look like finished

If you’re including mechanisms which trigger on ball entry and release the ball on completion then it really opens up quite a lot of possibilities.

@jamesbruton

3 жыл бұрын

Yep the next one does too.

You should do more experiments with the electrostatic generator. I really liked seeing the ball spinning around that glass bowl. It looked like an invisible force was propelling the ball.

Insane, Awesome Video!

You could make a nice little sorter with that. Drop balls in the middle (with a little nudge to the right) and silver balls magically go right, and white balls run to the left (following the slight gradient) "Behold the ramp of divination!"

James: 1:53 As you noted, you were unable to apply the static charge to the ping-pong balls by conductivity. However, you may well be able to apply it by brushing it on with a conductive brush with fine conductive bristles, recalling that charge greatly increases at sharp points and thus transfers more easily to neighboring or touching objects (that's the principle at work in those metal combs on the Van der Graaf generator). You might even blowing charge onto the balls via ionized air -- so maybe blow some air over the charged dome, or over a conductive comb attached to the dome, and onto the balls. Having charged a ball, it would not be compatible with your linear alternating-polarity trough, because obviously the ball would only have the one charge polarity. The trough might work if behind the scenes there was a large rotary "switch", which progressively connected each trough electrode to the same polarity as the ball as it moved along the trough (and the other trough electrodes are unconnected). But all that would require getting a handle on how much charge you can brush or blow onto a ball, and how much force you can generate on the ball as a consequence, either from electrodes, or from neighboring balls. The task would be easier if you could use styrofoam balls instead :-).

Would this essentially be a "linear electrostatic motor"? It's neither LIM nor LSM... Cool new outro!

Awesome it blowed my mind 💥

Finelly in 8 minute love you broo

Be wary that the vandegraff will not generate as much voltage when it's older or the conditions are humid. If ever using it for a public demo make sure you have a hairdryer (to dry the belt) and maybe even a spare belt. #TricksWeUseInSchools

At 6:55 I thought of a skateboarder pumping up a ramp. If that fed into a vertical ramp at the bottom, it'd get pumped on the down stroke, lobbed up, and reenter the tube with enough energy to clear the end.

Really Cool!!!

Very cool!

This is almost like a Railgun

@jacklewis1

3 жыл бұрын

also very similar to a particle accelerator

MI4: Hmm, doesn't seem like a railgun development video. Carry on. XDXD

Name another person who makes infinite balls from 3!! When I saw that I forgot what the vid was about! So Cool!

Could have had the grey conductive ball push the white one along the track

Sweet linear accelerator. I wonder if a vertical loop would work. The ball would rock back and forth slowly accelerating?

Can you use the grey balls to push along one or two white balls?

Did you try the linear machine with an unpainted ball? As demonstrated by the hair stunt and the very function of the VdG itself, things don't need to be conductive to carry a charge.

If you use India ink to paint the balls they also become conductive, not as much as with that paint but enough to charge them with electricity and repel it. and the ink is much cheaper. 💡

would the top bulb of the generator not be negatively charged and the smaller bulb be positive since the top is being charged with electrons from the rubber band which are negatively charged? I could easily be wrong but I thought thats how charges worked.

I wonder if you can intentionally trigger a few arcs without loosing much efficiency? Mostly just to make it more obvious that's something electrical is happening, but also for theatrics. On a similar note, can you paint over the zinc again with normal paint, preferably something that glows a bit? And then light up the normal ball entrance with some leds and/or sparks, so it looks like it's being 'charged' to sell the effect more, or will that take away from the real science part?

it would be cool to see this going slightly uphill in the final contraption! that will make it 100% clear its not gravity and it will look amazing

I think you should put a thin layer of insulation leaving only one edge of the conductive tape exposed, this way the ball will receive the full attraction from the covered metal before it makes contact and start being repelled by it. It may also make it a one way system, although i can not be sure about that. Electric field also suffer insulation so it may not work, it will definitely require proper testing.

Getting closer to understanding how my raygun works...I think. Thanks, that was interesting. 👍👍

@signalworks

3 жыл бұрын

I don’t think this has much to do with railgun. Railguns use Lorentz force and gauss rifles use magnetic fields. Neither use electric charge repulsion/attraction

@johnrap7203

3 жыл бұрын

@@signalworks Sorry, was just being a smart arse. I did mean "ray"gun. It's an ongoing thing when I'm in chats arguing and debunking Flerfs and science deniers, or conspiracies. But, thanks, I do agree with your reply. 👍👍

@signalworks

3 жыл бұрын

@@johnrap7203 Shoot I misread your original comment pretty badly. No idea how I missed that, sorry!

Have you considered some design accents to help sell the illusions? Vertical stripes on the screw could better show it wasn't turning, and horizontal stripes on the ramp might help show the incline.

More breadcrumbs! More butterbeans! Keep it going!

I heard about a Plastic Film Producing company finding out that their product lines positively repelling. Like Somewhere Along their mass plastic Film Farm (high speed rolling manufacturing) made a Force Field. A Force Field. Somehow Spinning Plastic rolls in some configuration made the same kinda force here DIRECTLY. Am I totally crazy to think that happened? can we figure out is that if its some sort of semi-reproducible electrostatic charge?

Where do you order servos from?

Does anyone know if the force on the balls being accelerated is a function of the voltage or the current or both produced by the hv generator. Say if you had a fly back connected instead could it drive the balls faster? Or do you need the relatively high voltages from the van de gaff

@Seurabimn

3 жыл бұрын

The force in this device is dependent upon the voltage, there is hardly any current flowing.

@SWRDMaster

3 жыл бұрын

The voltage is what pushes/pulls the ball but the ball acts like a capacitor. As such, each time the ball moves from one electrode to the other, the charge on the ball is moved/consumed. The generator would have to produce enough current for the speed of the ball across the contacts to keep the charge moving. Otherwise, the ball will stall out after a distance.

Your stuff is great and inspiring. Could you possibly do anything with a MeArm? it would be good to see your version of a tutorial

Kind of reminds me of an AC motor!

I worked a job where they brought it the big concrete polishing machines and the power cables for them were 2 inches thick and would jump a foot in the air when the machines turned on

You might also build the converse machine: using moving metal balls to make high voltages ( basically a pelletron )

Instead of the nickel spray you can use zinc spray, since it's much cheaper and is widely used for rust repair and corrosion prevention.

Slightly less steep slope on the white ball ramp ending in a little drop will sell the illusion better I think

Can there be a video of a 3d printed particle accelerator

Why we have 3 blades in turbines and two blades in Quadcopter and 30+ blades in laptop cpu cooling fan,which gives the best lift please test coz I dont have a 3d printer like your mighty lulzbot taz🙁. I love your teaching 😍

@7tonsofsalt865

3 жыл бұрын

Real engineering has a video why turbines use three (you can get the most energy out of the wind with three) and computer fans want to get as much airflow while keeping the RPM as low as possible to be quiet. Don't know about the drones though, maybe they are just cheaper with not that much performance loss over ones with more.

@tanjiro3285

3 жыл бұрын

@@7tonsofsalt865 Thanks

You probably can move them without coating them, but creating ion wind with the high voltage. Kind of like a lifter, but then in a tube with multiple stages behind each other.

Anyone else noticed James is sounding more like Tom Stanton in every video? It's all I can hear now! 😁

What would happen if you made your strips into chevrons? Would that help with the uphill part? Alternately if you did the strips only half their current(get it?) length the ball would wobble along, could be more entertaining.

Hi James! Noticed you are doing high voltage . You could have a lot of fun with a Lifter.

Be sure to check if the paint is wearing off onto the track. You wouldn't want the deposit to create a bridge between the electrodes and cause a short.

Nice video, can we move rocks or make a conductive rocks compound? also if the rock have the center conductive it will affect the movement? and last can we make dirt or asphalt conductive to accelerate the rock movement to avoid drag?

@Seurabimn

3 жыл бұрын

The force will be the same, whether rocks or ping-pong balls. Even if you fill in the center with conductive material, you won't get any more electric force, because all the charge gathers on the outside of a conductive object. Filling it in would just be adding dead weight. The drag force will also be the same no matter what the ball is filled with.

So cool

¿Can you add your ultron new updates? Like , legs or lights in the hands

did the high voltage messed with your left mic?

It would be cool to push the normal balls along with the nickel balls (in alternation), so the nickel balls roll back to be reused and the normal ones continue on.

Linear particle accelerators are similar construction. That's what i thought when i saw the device. In a linear accelerator alternating polar conductive rings get progressivley longer to accelerate the ion. Might try the same thing with the aluminum tape.

Kind of reinventing lots of kinds of motors here.

5:33 So thats how a minecraft powered rail works

The efficiency of this could be greatly improved by controlling the charge of aluminium strips. Have the charge of strips "behind" the ball same as the strip that touches the ball and in the same time, all strips that are "infront" of the ball have opposite charge. And as the ball moves along, dynamically change the charge of the strips. This would require much more complex system that must monitor where the ball currently is and separate control of each strip. Which could be quite difficult since the voltage is so high and no cheap semiconductor or relay can survive it. With something like this, two improvements over the original design: complete control over direction of the ball at the start, instead having the ball take random direction or "cheating" it by giving the ball push by hand. Second improvement is greater force on the ball. If the path of the ball is not straight, but gradually curves upwards, perhaps the ball could eventually move vertcally?

You've probably already checked this off-camera, but would the nickel coating still have worked if you'd sprayed the balls white afterwards? If so, you might not have needed the ball exchanger thingy.

Don't get me wrong, I love this, but the electrostatic bit, is only impressive when you watch the vid and know whats going on, otherwise the nickel ball could be just rolling along, it dosent scream wow electrostatics to the casual observer..great work as always ...cheers.

I feel like an escholon staircase or ramp could be a good use here

I've been waiting for a ridge wallet knockoff

0:54 "opposite charges attract eachother" but at 1:05 you say they instead repel each other until a spark brings them to the same potential, in the experiment they appear to actually attract together until the spark at which point it relaxes under gravity. 1:11 "until the top of the generator accumulates positive charge again and the bottom negative charge, at which point they repel each-other" but you said opposites attract? this is very cool tho the world needs more high voltage ball contraptions.

11:00 #balllights #clearprint good place for some lights and to see rolling balls

Is the reason the ball at the beginning could roll up the higher incline because the force of gravity is/was greater than the momentum and electric current combined?

If you paint the nickel coated balls white it will help create and maintain the illusion that it is the same ball rather than a temporary substitute one.

James, tell me, will aluminum foil balls in carbon dioxide when shaken give a spark effect? Sorry for my English, i am from Russia

I dunno... kinda just looks like the linear accelerator is slanted and that obscures the phenomenon you're trying to demonstrate. The rotational movement in the pie dish is really neat, but the straight half-pipe doesn't do it justice. What if the high voltage section was S-shaped or zig-zag? That might show better that the Van de Graaf is doing the work here instead of gravity.

At 1:05 you say the negatively charged ball repels the positively charged one until there's a spark. Shouldn't that be "attracts" until there's a spark?

Could you paint the nickel coated ball white and have it still work? The you wouldn’t even know the balls have been swapped.

Could you get more incline, when the metal stripes are closer together? Same voltage per steps but less distance per step so more force

@Seurabimn

3 жыл бұрын

Yes, however arcing is a limiting factor.

@Schwuuuuup

3 жыл бұрын

@@Seurabimn I guess you are right

@SWRDMaster

3 жыл бұрын

Arching and that the generator would have to produce more current to sustain speed. Each electrode crossed moves the charge that resides on the ball's surface.

Can you make a collaboration video with electroboom?

10:00 #PerpetualLifter? How many regual balls to lift themetal coated balls back to the reset position. can have the white ones drop down after, queue the next metal ball, then repeat ... maybe some kinda light weight progressive cranking system? imagine if elevators were powered by their cargo

can one or more conductive balls push a normal ball?

Van de Graaff generators can produce a lot off current, just not a lot of power. When you see the visible arc the air has a very high current flowing through it, but only for a small fraction of a second.

@Seurabimn

3 жыл бұрын

Assuming he was getting 1 Newton of force (at 1:11) holding the end of the rod, and they were separated by 5 cm, that would only amount to about 500 nano-coulombs of charge on each head. Discharged over 1 microsecond, that's only about 500 mA, which is comparable to a AAA battery.

The ball might go faster if you put positive strips across a channel above the ball and negative strips below. Clear plastic/acrylic with LED's so you can see when it's live! Gold foil in craft shops is not too expensive and would look good. You might try fine aluminium dust to coat the balls...

@jamesbruton

3 жыл бұрын

They need to contact the ball so that might get tricky

@SWRDMaster

3 жыл бұрын

There would also be no voltage differential between the forwards and reverse directions. This would drop any acceleration unless you made the beginning height smaller than the final.

@RupertBruce

3 жыл бұрын

The strips would not be aligned with each other - they would be offset to alternate between positive and negative but all positives would be on one side, all negatives on the other. Easier to connect and could be closer together to provide continuous attraction up the channel.

@RupertBruce

3 жыл бұрын

@@jamesbruton good point - the charge needs to be transferred to the ball by each strip. If they were either side of the ball instead of above and below, it would be better.

could you use the coated balls to push the non-coated balls?

@jamesbruton

3 жыл бұрын

Possibly, but there's not much force so it may jam

@Snapum

3 жыл бұрын

@@jamesbruton That would be cool though, somehow looping the metal coated ones while pushing the normal ones.... Reliability would be a nightmare i bet.... Very cool still!! Love this series!

I like this guys voice

This needs caps to build up the charges from each position.

All I can think is a huge rail gun made this way like in Tesla’s death ray proposal

Are you 100% sure that the balls absolutely *need* to be coated in nickel for that slight incline?

Could you please add "great ball contraption 4" to the title of the next video?

Can you use the belt of generator to work with ping pong balls?