Geek Group Impulse Generator Demonstration – Project Thumper


The Geek Group has lots of interesting equipment but the Thumper Project is one of the most impressive. The system has gone through 7 revisions so far and more are in the works. Our friend Bob Davis has been making lots of similar devices but on a bit of a smaller scale.

“Thumper is a High Energy DC Impulse Generator that is capable of producing a 1,800 Volt discharge of approximately 80,000 Amps for a duration of about 0.003 seconds. For a brief instant Thumper can output roughly 144,000,000 Watts, or more energy than most fair sized cities use at any given moment.

Imagine that for a second. Take all of the electricity in every home, business, school, hospital, everything in your entire town….and run it through a pop can for just an instant.

The capacitor storage banks are configurable for different voltage ratings, current ratings, and discharge times when needed. This is the standard 1,800VDC configuration that it was designed for and how it is usually operated as it’s a pain to change all the bank and cell jumpers. We operate Thumper at the 1,800 volt setting, but only charge it to 1,600 volts to be as nice to the caps as we can be as this is a particularly harsh use for them”