High voltage with no spark?

The diode is a good start. However, 50 volts is not likely going to give you a visible spark. It takes 30,000 volts to jump a 1 inch gap. By that calculation you should be jumping a gap of 33 microns. Many germs are bigger than that.

It also depends on the atmosphere through which the spark is passing. Regular air - you need to go a whole lot higher.

Research (or google) Electrical Jacobs Ladder& capacitance discharge ignition

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oG7hETb_lQvQ...

http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/jacobs.htm

The diode idea works well with the Capacitance Discharge Ignition. Here's another site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_discharge_i...

You will learn what it takes to create a spark - and hopefully learn of the dangerous voltages you will be playing with (and possibly dying by). BE CAREFUL! HEED ALL SAFETY ADVICE. OTHERWISE IT WILL HAVE BEEN NICE TO HAVE KNOWN YOU (ONCE).

Hope this helps.

'av'a g'day mate. And be safe.

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You won't get any visible spark from a 50 volt AC signal, unless the room is dark, the electrodes are incredibly close together but not touching that the human eye would be hard pressed to see.

What you could do is put a multi vibrator and a coil ahead in the 5v circuit and then you would get a spark at around 3000 vac.

The source must be more powerful than the load because the inverter will not be 100% efficient - if you want to operate a 100 watt device the 5 volt supply must deliver 20+ amps.

Power in watts is Volts x Amps, so 100 watts = 5 volts x 20amps.

If you use mains voltage and step it down you can get kilowatts because the mains supply is very powerful. but a DC supply like a battery is not nearly as powerful as the mains so you are severely limited in the power you get out.

Why do you need to see a spark? invest in a multi meter and measure your load

Don't ask people about electronics or electricity because for the most part you'll end up with a bunch of stupid answers from people who don't know wtf they're talking about!!!