1. 9 VOLTS OF PAIN!
(MARX GENERATOR)
AlvinTung
Ceasar Hurtado

2. What is a Marx Generator?
 Voltage Multiplier
 Cockroft-Walton generator
-ConstantVDC
 Stage Multiplier
 High PulseVoltage
Relevant Equations:
V(out) = n(Vin)
Where n is the number of
stages

3. Applications
 Ignitions
 HighVoltage Insulation
Test
 Large Scale Generators
are used in the
Aerospace Industry to
examine what
Lightning pulses do to
outer skin of Jet Aircraft
and Passenger Planes.
 Building something
dangerous due to
overall boredom.

4. Supplies
-1 Ballast Resister (pulse
timer) = 6.8MΩ (2 Watt)
-30 1MΩ (0.5Watt)
Resistors
-16 1nF (3,000 volt)
Capacitors
-1 $7 Electric Flyswatter
fromWalmart (2.75kV)
-1 9V DC Battery (Duracell
is a good brand)
-Alligator Clips
-Patience

5. Problems
 We had trouble with
finding an appropriate
high-voltage power
supply
 There was a point
where only about half
the stages would spark

6. Solutions
 Instead of attempting the high
voltage transformer, we used a
high voltage, low current
transformer from a fly swatter
 When we couldn’t get sparks
all throughout the generator,
we tried tweaking the spark
gaps, replacing components,
etc.
 Replacing the battery did the
trick!

7. Expectations
 We wanted a 1 cm spark (roughly 30 kV)
 We wanted our experimental value to be
consistent with the theoretical value
 We wanted all spark gaps in every stage to
light up

8. Results
 Our transformer output was measured at 1,780V
 At 16 stages, we achieved 1 cm of sparks
 16 stages X 1,780V = 28,480V
 The experimental result was well within
theoretical bounds (30,000V)

9. DEMO!