I work in a Power Electronics research group at a university. We do power electronic converters from low power right up to HVDC as well as machine drives and machine design. We are often asked to provide lab tours to anyone from school children applying to university, right through to R & D directors from industry.
We would like to have some sort of exciting demonstration that we can do in the lab as looking at solid state circuits is rather boring for the younger visitors. Ideas have included a linear motor/very low power rail gun of sorts, high voltages that produce arcs or sparks, class D amplifiers that make noise or suchlike, stepper motors that you can see moving and working etc. etc.
Just looking for ideas really. Has anyone seen any cool demos over the years? At the moment the high voltage team is rather stealing our thunder with a tesla coil that plays music!
We would like to have some sort of exciting demonstration that we can do in the lab as looking at solid state circuits is rather boring for the younger visitors. Ideas have included a linear motor/very low power rail gun of sorts, high voltages that produce arcs or sparks, class D amplifiers that make noise or suchlike, stepper motors that you can see moving and working etc. etc.
Just looking for ideas really. Has anyone seen any cool demos over the years? At the moment the high voltage team is rather stealing our thunder with a tesla coil that plays music!