While scouring the Internet for interesting high voltage modules, I came across this little unit that stood out from the others by having two different coloured leads going to a classic double carbon-fibre emitter. There was no real information regarding its function, so I bought one to analyse.
It was either going to be just two random wire colours commoned inside, possibly a high voltage one and one referenced to internal ground or possibly even opposing polarities.
When it arrived, the first test I did was to see if both emitters were directly connected. They aren't. I then powered it up and used the floating probe test in front of the emitters to give a rough indication of ion polarity and level. The white lead showed a negative potential and the green one a positive potential.
A full depotting and reverse engineering shows that the high voltage side has only a slight capacitive coupling to the low voltage side, and uses a two capacitor/diode voltage multiplier for a high negative voltage on the white lead, and the green lead is effectively high voltage ground.
The vicinity of the carbon fibre tufts to each other, and high potential difference between them results in a very faint purple corona discharge on the tips and a very low level output of ozone. It appears that the primary function of this device is purely trace ozone production.
I'd guess it's designed for use in generic fan/filter units for small rooms, or perhaps for vehicle use.
The power consumption of the circuit is surprisingly low. It runs on 12V (with polarity protection) at a tiny current of 17mA (0.2W). That would make something like this perfect for use with a small 50mA 12V solar panel for adding a slight hint of ozone to remote buildings/vehicles likely to get musty.
The lack of direct connection to the 12V supply and effective ionic "short circuit" at the emitter head suggests this unit won't have the issue of classic ionisers creating a high voltage difference between the primary and secondary of an isolated power supply.
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