Electromagnetic Coil Devices

Coils

Electromagnetic Coil Devices

My research into magnetic coils has progressed from using a Monitor degaussing coil to adding capacitors and using four degaussing coils removed from old monitors in parallel. Now I use some homemade coils as they can be made to handle even more power. This is currently my favorite device. It is helpful with my aching joints, migraines, and IBS, among other things. Some say you need a specific 2000 watt amplifier, I think that amount of power is unnecessary. It is even possible to build your own amplifier / driver! This may be the "SILVER BULLET" that can help many diseases! This may someday make "Star Treck" like help with diseases a reality. Imagine NO SURGERY, NO TOXIC MEDICINES, that day is almost here!

Coils Types of Magnetic Field Generators

- Fixed Magnets (mattress pads)
- Fixed Frequency Electromagnets
- Selectable Frequency Electromagnets (My favorite!)

DC Pulsed Electromagnets (Modified Camera Strobe)

Electromagnetic fields can be made that are many times stronger than fixed magnets. They can also be made to oscillate at a frequency that makes them even more effective. What strength and frequency is most effective for what condition is yet to be determined. Some electromagnetic devices have been used for years to help heal broken bones. Studies are underway to determine their effectiveness against a number of other conditions.

Amplifier Driven Coils

These pictures are of my newer electromagnetic coils, and my new capacitor switch box. The smaller new coils are 500 feet of #18 magnet wire (3.2 ohms). This is my favorite type of coil. The bigger coils are 500 feet of #14 wire (1.3 ohm) they will fry almost every amplifier. They were wound on trash cans or soda bottles. There are also 2 spools of leftover #18 wire in the picture. It turns out that the coils made from 400 to 500 feet of wire are far more effective than those using 1000 feet. The longer lengths of wire increase the inductance and reduce the output.

In the new switch box all of the capacitors are arranged in parallel and or series to handle 500 volts minimum. Some of the capacitors are 2000 volt microwave oven parts. One of the capacitors smoked in the old switchbox that was rated at only 250 volts. Although the amplifier is only putting out about 100 volts the coil will kick back many times that voltage, typically 300 to 350 volts. Now the amplifier is my weakest link, it overheats, blows fuses, and shuts down after just a few minutes while driving the larger coils.

Basic Wire Size and Length to Resistance;

Gauge Resistance Resistance LBS Per

AWG per 500' per 1000' 1000'

--- -------- -------- ------

14 1.3 2.5 12

16 2.0 4.0 8

18 3.2 6.4 5

20 5.0 10.0 3

The above chart shows that 500 feet of 18 Gauge wire is 3.2 ohms, and that 500 feet of 20 Gauge wire is 5 ohms. A Coil of around 4 ohms is ideal for most audio amplifiers. So 18 or 20 Gague wire is the best choice for lots of power without overloading your coil driver or amplifier. If your amplifier can drive a 2 ohm load, then you could consider using 500 feet of 16 Gauge, or 14 Gauge wire. If you are fealing risky you could even consider 500 feet of 12 Gauge wire, but that would overload and destroy almost any amplifier. The coil can be made with enemaled magnet wire, or with the larger gauge wires, thin insulation will also work. My favorite coil is 500 feet of 18 gague wire. Using 12, 14, or 16 gague wire has a tendency to fry the coil driver.

The left picture shows my "new to me" Heathkit Sine-Square Audio Generator Model IG-5218. I picked it up used at a flea market for $25. It has knobs to select the frequency by dialing it in. However it is not really digital and just uses precision resistors. Hence it can be off by up to 5 cycles. So I use my homemade frequency counter to keep the frequency accurate. The Audio Generator replaced a program that I used to run on a Computer. You might also notice that the capacitor selector box is marked with the exact capacitance for each switch. A bottle of tonic water snuck into the picture as well.

The right picture is of my electromagnetic device in operation. My frequency generator square wave output goes to the input of the audio power amplifier. I am using a Hafler PRO-5000, it is a 400 watt per channel audio amplifier. The amplifier runs to the capacitor switchbox and then on to the coil. This can affect a TV or monitor from 5 feet away. The picture shows what happens when the coil touches the monitor. This way you can easily tell if it is working, it will also get quite warm. A neat trick is to drop an aluminum washer into the center of one of the smaller diameter coils. It will stand on end!

One way to wind a coil is on a trashcan. The taper of a trashcan makes it easy to slide off the completed coil. Once it is carefully removed it then is wrapped in four evenly spaced places with electrical tape. Then the whole coil is wrapped in electrical tape. For a smaller coil a 1 Gallon Ice Cream container works well. For even a smaller coil you can use a 2 liter soda bottle. Trash cans must have a taper to make it easy to slide the wound coil off the form.

Basic Coil Setup;

Frequency High Power Optional

Generator-------Amplifier-------Capacitors-------Coil

When you are using an Audio Amplifier it is important that the coil and the capacitors are tuned for the maximum output at any frequency. To do that you can use your computer monitor or a TV set and try capacitor values until you determine the right settings to get the maximum output field strength. Switches can be marked 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16, for the uF of the capacitors. Using "Binary" you can select from 1 uF to 31 uF by changing the switch settings. Never switch while the amplifier is running at full power, always turn the power down first. So far I have discovered that at 612 cycles per second 8 uF is ideal for my quad-degaussing coil. At 484 cycles the best setting is 8 and 4 or 12 uF. Selecting the right value of capacitance will increase the magnetic field strength by as much as 6 times!

Minimum Power Requirements

How much power is needed to drive a 4 ohm coil? How about as little as 120 watts! These pictures show a Sansui B-3000 audio amplifier driving a 4 ohm coil through the capacitor switch box sitting on top of it. Note the the VU meter on the amplifier is pegged. The protection circuit shuts off the amplifier if the input is too high or if you try to drive it with a square wave. The right picture is the o'scope showing the 90 volt peak to peak sine wave out of the amplifier and the 22 volt peak to peak magnetic field picked up by the coil.

This is a schematic diagram of my setup. Now I am using 1/2/4/8/16 uf capacitors in a switchbox. By winding my own coil, there is now only one coil connected instead of the 4 coils in parallel that I used to use. If you have some experience in building electronic circuits you can save some money on the cost of the high power amplifier by building your own coil driver.

Homemade Coil Drivers

Years ago I rebuilt a Dunlap Clarke Dreadnaught 1000 audio amplifier. After some fried circuits I eventually succeded. The resulting amplifier can deliver at least 250 wats per channel. It can perhaps reach 500 watts per channel because that was the specification of the origional amplifier. The schematic shows two output transistors in parallel, but actually there are four 2N5631 and four 2N6031 transistors in parallel. Each heatsink holds 4 output transistors and the TIP41C or TIP42C driver. The more the transistors the lower their "on" resistance, the higher the current, and hence there is more power delivered.

I received this amplifier back recently because it was thought to be "dead". However all that was wrong with it was that the 8 amp output fuses were all blown. They are not in the schematic but it is a good idea to add 8 amp fuses to the outputs of the amplifier. I gave this amlifier a try at driving my 4 ohm coils and the results were amazing! It does a wonderful job and the coil overheats in less than a minute. The appears to be a great deal of diathermy, that is, heat generated under the skin, as a result of the magnetic field that is generated. I have been using a sine wave to drive the amplifier so there are no artifacts in the coil's magnetic field from using a square wave. This may improve the effectiveness of this driver.

The power supply is huge! It is basically the same as the one in the schematic above, except for a few upgrades to more powerfull parts. The input fuse is 8 amps and the power transformer secondary is 80 or 90 volts center tapped. The Bridge rectifier is 25 amps and the capacitors are 21,000 uF at 100 Volts. There is a pen sitting on top of the transformer in the picture to give you a idea of the size of the transformer. The output voltage of the power supply is about positive and negative 60 volts, for a total of 120 volts that can be delivered to the coil.

FET Based Coil Drivers

A while back I developed a simple one FET coil driver. The output was not all that strong. However the recent emphasis on simpler drivers has caused me to dig it back up. The problem is that necessary protection diodes dampen the coil oscillations and reduce the output. I have tried several ways to modify the damper diode circuit to allow more output without destroying the power FET. One of the best arrangements has been to use a 25 ohm 100 watt resistor. Another thing I have tried is to use several 130 volt surge supressors in parallel. They have a tendency to overheat and burn out. In the picture below I was using an IRFP460 FET.

I had been working on rebuilding an old satellite motor controller as a coil driver. It had 2SC3277 transistors rated at 500 volts and 10 amps. The 2SC3277's quickly burned up when I tried to use them to drive the coil. The picture below is of the driver using a power FET instead. It only takes one FET to drive a 4 ohm coil. The solution as to why I have been burning up transistors is the lack of a reverse polarity protection diode. If you add the diode the magnetic field is reduced by 2/3. If you do not add the diode the transistor will be quickly toasted by spikes often exceeding 300 volts. The solution is a compromise, add the diode but also limit it's current with a power resistor. The FET will not need a cooling fan, due to the low "on" resistance it will barely warm up.

This design can drive a 4 ohm or even down to a 2 ohm coil. The input can be a frequency generator, or it can come from a computers sound card. When using a computer sound card turn the computers volume all the way up. There is a little high frequency oscillation on the rise and fall of the resulting square wave when used with a computer. It actually prefers a square wave to drive it properly.

Strobe and SCR Based Coil Drivers

I have used some old strobes to make a "Thumper". Basically a thumper is a small coil connected in series with a camera or other type of strobe. When the strobe flashes it shorts out about 250 to 300 volts. By adding the coil in series you get a pulsed electromagnetic field that is quite powerful. It is even capable of bouncing an aluminum washer an inch or two into the air.

The thumper's electromagnetic coil is made from about 100 feet of #14 gague enameled wire wound on a reel removed from a VHS video tape. The reel has to be reinforced or it will bust apart when trying to hold the coil. Since the flash runs from an AC adapter or batteries a lot of insulation is unnecessary. The Super thumper runs directly off the 120 volt outlet and needs lots of insulation, so it's coil is wound on and kept on an insulated form.

The Super thumper (in the picture on the right) is a thumper that uses a huge SCR instead of the flash tube. This big SCR has to handle about 100 amps at 350 volts. The super thumper uses ten or more 220 uf, 400 volt capacitors in parallel for about 2200 uf total capacitance. When it fires it releases about 120 jules of energy into the coil. This can launch an aluminum washer about 3 to 4 feet vertically. The power supply used is a voltage doubler consisting of a 100 uf 400 volt capacitor and 1/2 of a 400 volt 6 amp bridge rectifier. The SCR is a 1538A73H05. I have no idea what its specifications are. However, if the connections to the SCR come loose, it will throw lots of sparks that fly for several feet!!

For even more power reduce the coil size from 100 feet to 50 feet of 14 gage enameled wire. Then the aluminum washer will fly over 8 feet in the air! However this smaller coil seems to be less effective at reducing pain. It could be that the smaller coil produces a stronger magnetic field but with a shorter duration. I also tried using one of the larger coils, but after about three pulses the SCR blew. There was likely too much counter EMF from the coil.

To prevent fireing while power is applied use a 2 pole double throw relay. The first set of contacts are normally closed and applies power to the circuit. The second set of contacts is normally open and fires the SCR. This way the power is always removed before the SCR fires. Another improvement is to add 4 Neon bulbs in series with a 470 Kohm reisitor. When the neon's light up the capacitors are fully charged. The schematic omitted a .5 ohm 10 watt resistor and a 10 amp fuse in series with the power input from the power plug.

I have recently made a simplified thumper. This model may fry if you hold down the fire button, and does not discharge the capacitors if you forget to. Always push the fire button before opening it up and then short the capacitors before touching anything inside. Both of these modifications make it unsafe, but still usable. Also I am using another SCR. It is an IR 80RIA120, that is 800 volts at 120 amps! So far it has worked great. The coil has shrunk to 30 feet if 14 gage enameled wire. The washer has also grown. These days I am launching a platter from a 3 1/2 inch hard drive. Launch height is about 3 to 4 feet.

The next model will use two 7500 uF capacitors, and hopefully a voltage Tripler for 500 volts. These capacitors are bigger than the box that houses the current thumpers. A new flatter coil has also been wound to hopefully work better with the hard disk platters. Ever wonder how to make sure a hard drive is erased?

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