building an ozone generator

[AngryOnion]

anyone ever build one?
I have a kit coming and I need to brush up on basic electronics its been about 20 years since I took a class.So can anyone recommend a good book ?

[yawanur]

To cover the smell? :p
Let me know when you harvest, I'll definitely pick up from you! :D
Where in MA are you? I'm near Concord

[nuclearrabbit]

I tried to make a BE reactor once. It hurt. :(

[JoePedo]

j00 needz coronas!

...and not beer.

[i have to poop.]

therez ah holeeeee N mAh OzOnee layre?1?!!?

[AngryOnion]

To cover the smell? :p
Let me know when you harvest, I'll definitely pick up from you! :D
Where in MA are you? I'm near Concord

I do not have a grow op going I'm just going to use it for mold control.I have a wet basement.AS for where I live I'm just outside of Framingham.

[zombo.com]

I'd considered it for my grow, but heard a lot of bad shit about it affecting your breathing and such.
probably no worse then the mold will, but still be careful not to run it when your around to much.

I'd be interested in hearing how tough it is to build, how expensive was the kit?

[reggie_love]

Those things have health effects, man.

[IcarusTheFool]

Am I the only one that thought this was about repairing earths ozone layer?

[Christ puncher]

Ozone generators are awesome, it will eliminate any odors from the air and leave you with a fresh smell of after a thunderstorm, but retail ones are expensive and consume a decent amount of electricity.

I personally did some research on building one myself and I had a difficult time finding even a few decent resources, I did how ever a lot of warnings saying how dangerous it can be to attempt to build one yourself. Who knows maybe its true, and maybe its a attempt by Ionic air or some fucking company that payed of the search engines to make it look like a bad idea to make your own.

For your problem you may be better off getting a de-humidifier, put it in your basement and see how much water it collects from the air. You will probably have to empty the water collector often. But it will suck all the moisture out of everything down there and dry the air. You'll probably have to clean the place with bleach but the mold shouldn't come back. Yet again though a de-humidifier his basically a mini fridge and uses a decent amount of electricity.

Other than that I can't believe munkey hasn't had any input on this yet.

[MunkeyQ]

Other than that I can't believe munkey hasn't had any input on this yet.
I almost finished writing a long reply, came home drunk, closed Firefox and got throughly demoralised about writing it all out again. :( So here's the drift of it.

[By the way, a dehumidifier isn't quite like a mini fridge...more like an AC unit. A mini fridge uses a Peltier element with a heatsink and fan on the hot side and another heatsink on the cold side inside the fridge. A dehumidifier is like an AC unit in that the air first passes through the cold coils of the evaporator, which causes the moisture in the air to condense onto the coils and drip off into the tray. The cold, dry air is then fed into the hot condensor heat exchanger to reheat it back to room temperature again. Well, it's actually a bit warmer as the compressor adds a bit of heat.

An AC unit has the condensor outside the house and the evaporator inside to act as a heat pump - it's essentially the same otherwise. A dehumidifier uses a tad less power though as the compressor is typically smaller and only one fan needs to be run.]


Anyway...if it's mold you're wanting to kill, a dehumidifier is indeed the way to go. An ozone generator will kill only airbourne bacteria so the crap on the walls will still happily grow.

If anyone's seen inside an electrostatic speaker, you'll notice that it looks a lot like an ozone generator, minus the medium to generate a corona.http://img.alibaba.com/photo/100948714/Corona_Beer_33cl.jpg <- Not that sort of corona unfortunately.

If you turned the volume up too high, a corona would form using the air and speaker membrane as a dielectric medium and the thing would niff of ozone something awful. That's exactly how large scale ozone generators work - two grids charged to 6kv or so with a medium inbetween...normally glass or air in smaller ones. It's pretty simple to make, and the 6kv can be gotten from a car ignition coil driven by a 555 timer.

Another way is to simply use two electrodes, one inside the other. One is shaped like a needle and the other is a hollow cylinder - once a few kv is put across it, it causes an ionic airflow through the cylinder because of the corona forming.


A little company called DuKane made a plasma tweeter called the Ionofane (Ionovac in the US) back in the 50's, which kicked out a buttload of ozone from the RF heating of the air. It was known to irritate your nose if you ran the thing at high volumes in a small room. :p Some old consoles have them inside and they're worth big $$$.

(lol at how I've managed to include audio in an almost unrelated thread...)

[AngryOnion]

Ok I got the kit yesterday most of it seems pretty straight forward.but the instructions kind of suck.They don't really name components only refer to positions on the circut board.All the parts are included but none are labeled.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj317/lovecraft_2007/DSC02629.jpg
This is just a dry fit nothing is soldered yet.

[FoodStamps]

Am I the only one that thought this was about repairing earths ozone layer?

i thought the same as well :redface:

[yawanur]

Anyway...if it's mold you're wanting to kill, a dehumidifier is indeed the way to go. An ozone generator will kill only airbourne bacteria so the crap on the walls will still happily grow.

Quoted for OP...

Of note- Ozone is an indoor air pollutant (can harm lung function and irritate the respiratory system.)

...can harm lung function and irritate the respiratory system.

But good luck with the electronics, sorry I can't help
Btw, I'm like a half an hour away! :D
You blaze? I'd meet up and smoke a bowl for kicks

[MunkeyQ]

They don't really name components only refer to positions on the circut board. All the parts are included but none are labeled.
That's how most kits are unfortunately. ;) Not really a problem - just make sure you get your electrolytics the right way round.

Does the kit include a corona tube or does it use a spark gap?

[rabbit boy]

One of my friends showed me this thing in a physics equipment closet. You cranked it and a bunch of brushes built up electric charges which occasionally neutralized with a spark across two metal orbs near the top. You could move the orbs further apart and it'd take longer for each spark, but you'd get bigger ones. I wouldn't want my hand in between some of those larger sparks.

He told me that he was starting to smell ozone so he stopped cranking it. I could smell it too. That's what made me think of some of the other stuff people here were saying.

[AngryOnion]

Ok thanks for all the replies and info.
Their is one part I'm having a problem with maybe MunkeyQ can explain.
One of the components I had to assemble it is made up of a plastic piece that I had to wrap 10turns of 22 gauge magnet wire around,then two ferrite cores fit into it with an air gap then you just tape up the whole thing.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj317/lovecraft_2007/DSC02624.jpg
The instructions do not say where the ends of the magnet wire connect to the board, do I just trim them close or what??
finished pic http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj317/lovecraft_2007/DSC02628.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj317/lovecraft_2007/DSC02625.jpg
this piece fits into the L1 spot on top sorry for the crappy pic.

[MunkeyQ]

That's an iron core inductor, used to store energy in the form of magnetic flux if you're interested. :P Be careful not to overlap the turns of wire.

Sorry, I'm a bit confused. Are you not sure where to solder the wires onto the board - does it not say?

It looks like the ends of the wire need to be soldered to a leg of the assembly, which then makes its connection via the PCB. The wires do need to be connected to the circuit. I'm not entirely sure from the photos so a piccy of the back and front of the PCB would help a lot.

[yawanur]

One of my friends showed me this thing in a physics equipment closet. You cranked it and a bunch of brushes built up electric charges which occasionally neutralized with a spark across two metal orbs near the top.

Was it a Van de Graf generator?

[AngryOnion]

That's an iron core inductor, used to store energy in the form of magnetic flux if you're interested. :P Be careful not to overlap the turns of wire.

Sorry, I'm a bit confused. Are you not sure where to solder the wires onto the board - does it not say?

It looks like the ends of the wire need to be soldered to a leg of the assembly, which then makes its connection via the PCB. The wires do need to be connected to the circuit. I'm not entirely sure from the photos so a piccy of the back and front of the PCB would help a lot.

The instructions do not say where to solder the legs down, I have two different places to choose from.The diagram is shit.If I knew more on the theory of operation it would probably be a no brainer.
I will post some good pictures later.Thanks again MunkeyQ

[rabbit boy]

Was it a Van de Graf generator?

It was similar in concept, but not the same design. This one you cranked by hand, and sparks were produced at regular intervals. There were vertical circular disks that rotated and at least one of them had brushes. It only worked if you turned it the correct direction (my friend started off turning it the wrong way). Above the disks and other parts of the machine were two metal orbs which could be adjusted to different distances. I think the orbs were at the ends of some metal rods, but my memory is dim.

[Kamuy]

I do not have a grow op going I'm just going to use it for mold control.I have a wet basement.AS for where I live I'm just outside of Framingham.

An ozone generator i'snt going to fix the issue, the moisture needs to be removed.
This would be the best option;
http://www.rcil.ca/framework/products/14.jpg
Have afew buckets around the room with wire mesh on top and pile the calcium chloride pallets/flakes ontop. As it absorbs the moisture water will form in the bucket, which will need to be changed now and then.(A fan for circulation will speed this up)

Now destroy the mold... scrub the walls etc....

With the idea or glowing coronas' and ozone generators an idea came to mind. The idea involves using a titanium dioxide solution (white paint etc) and blacklights. Which would mean hydroxyls on your walls with a nightclub feel of UVA through the air.

[AngryOnion]

Ok MonkeyQ here are some pics I put arrows where I think they should go.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj317/lovecraft_2007/IMGA0695.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj317/lovecraft_2007/IMGA0696.jpg
thanks again!

[MunkeyQ]

Whoops - sorry, I didn't see your reply.

Yep, the two holes you've pointed out with the arrows are where the inductor leads go to - they're the only pads with tracks. For future reference, an inductor on a PCB or in a schematic is normally marked with an L followed by a number. It doesn't matter which way it goes round.

[Winter]

Am I the only one that thought this was about repairing earths ozone layer?

Your not the only one. I wouldve said: Copy Total Recall and melt the ice caps, but alas, this thread is about some gay air freshener or something.

[AngryOnion]

Whoops - sorry, I didn't see your reply.

Yep, the two holes you've pointed out with the arrows are where the inductor leads go to - they're the only pads with tracks. For future reference, an inductor on a PCB or in a schematic is normally marked with an L followed by a number. It doesn't matter which way it goes round.
Thanks for the info I'm going to assemble it this week and then brush up on using a scope to make the final adjustments.

[BoilingLeadBath]

"Two-disk high voltage power supply"
Wimshurst generator... only thing it has in common with a vandegraph is that it produces high voltage.

"How to generate ozone"
Only way I know of is to bust up some oxygen in the presence of more oxygen... the only designs I've seen do this by corona discharge.

"how to get a corona discharge"
Wikipedia

[MunkeyQ]

"Two-disk high voltage power supply"
Wimshurst generator... only thing it has in common with a vandegraph is that it produces high voltage.
Actually, they have a lot in common. ;)

Both are influence machines, meaning they generate a potential by the seperation of electric charges using electrostatic induction.