DrStiffler's exotic generator.

[Allcanadian]

@Dumped

"Exnihiloest" provides an excellent explanation.

I did not think it was all that excellent and I rebutted his post over at overunity.com. I know some have mentioned a "Litmus Test" and in my opinion Exnihiloest has failed it by using statements such as "a neon or any piece of metal, possesses its own capacity"-- which suggest he does not know what capacitance is and "Current is consumed" -- Hmm current is consumed? that is a new one. As well he contradicts his own statements such as "Even though this capacity is very weak (<< 1pF), it loops the circuit" and "any piece of metal, possesses its own capacity, i.e it constitutes a capacitor, the other "plate" being the surrounding (ground, earth...)". Now if this supposed capacity which Exnihiloest uses out of context loops the circuit then how can the earth act as the "other plate"?. As well how can capacity be weak? If capacitance is a measure of a conductors ability to store energy as an electric field then capacitance cannot be weak, how can a measure of something be weak?. The difference in charge density could be low leading to a weak electric field but capacity nor capacitance cannot be weak, that is absurd. It sounds like he just read this out of a textbook and posted a half-assed conventional explanation to make his point, rather poorly in my opinion.

I should note in that I am not unlike Exnihiloest in that I routinely make out of context half-assed attempts at explaining things and this is why I know how poor his post was.
Regards
AC

[Microcontroller]

Whenever you put a high potential on electrodes that are in contact with a noble gas it tends to ionize.
The air being a good insulator makes the voltage required to see any effect very high, but when you touch the neon bulb you actually lower the resistance path to earth and the electrons will start to jump energy bands emitting photons.
This is what makes you see the neon glow.
It's quite simple.
Offcource capacity plays a role we all know capacitors tend to block DC .. however the HF in these types of setups is passed and it creates the pathway needed for the sub-atomic (particle) energy flow.

[MileHigh]

AC:

I am going to try to give some colour commentary for Exnihiloest's comments.

Whatever conductor, like the terminal of a neon or any piece of metal, possesses its own capacity, i.e it constitutes a capacitor, the other "plate" being the surrounding (ground, earth...)

I will cite a related example here.  He is saying that a piece of metal can have a large surface area.  This conductive surface area will exhibit a stray capacitance with it's surroundings.  So if you connect one lead of a neon to the metal plate and the other lead is connected to a high-frequency AC source, the metal plate's stray capacitance completes the circuit and acts as an AC earth ground, a.k.a.; "it loops the circuit."  (Current flows in "loops")

Make the metal plate larger, the stray capacitance gets larger, and hence the neon gets brighter.  You see Lidmotor use a block of aluminum for his "ground."  He really means it's his AC ground due to its inherent stray capacitance to earth ground.  The stray capacitance to earth ground is large enough to act as a decent AC ground for some of his circuits.

Current is consumed.

For starters, he is French and he is doing a literal translation from "consommation de courant."  That actually would normally mean "power consumption."  What he is really saying in this particular case is that the AC current flowing to and from the earth ground goes through the stray capacitance.  This is real and measurable and indicates that real AC power is flowing through the circuit.  That's in contrast to what could be a mistaken impression that no current is flowing because there is no directly obvious means for the current to flow.

Even though this capacity is very weak (<< 1pF), it loops the circuit

When he says "weak" it is synonymous with "small."  It's "weak" because it's ability to pass AC current is very limited because of the very small size of the capacitance.

Granted his posting was not as clear as it could be.  Language is a bit of an issue, but a relatively minor one.  In my case, I understood exactly what he said and he is dead on.  I have been reading him for a while and he really knows his stuff.

MileHigh

[Microcontroller]

Isn't this like the most simple thing in the world?
And if you know this your considered to be the expert?
I guess you ain't seen nothing yet..

[Grumpy]

I guess you ain't seen nothing yet..

That's fer damn sure!

[MileHigh]

This is the "closing of the loop" from Exnihiloest:

http://www.overunity.com/index.php?topic=8977.msg266455#msg266455