A close friend bought a TrueRife frequency generator in hope of improving health. I'm skeptical of the claimed healing powers, however let's put this aside for a moment; if it helps – great! The question is not about that.
The above linked page states:
Please note there are no Ground Ports on Generators produced after June 2023. All of our grounding products plug directly into a wall outlet and new grounding units will need to be purchased if you have old products that used to plug into the machine.
There's a warning label on the top cover of F-122:
Concerned from the stories about high voltages, high currents, static zaps, and necessity for grounding, I opened the entirely plastic case to check what's inside, and I'm flabbergasted:
A circuit board "SG03-" with Lattice iCE40HX1K Field Programmable Gate Array, USB 3.0 (Type B) port, and 12V power input, seems to be the only properly engineered component.
The tightly packed mess in the middle with lots of electrolytic caps must be a PSU.
Outputs (12V DC). Notice bad soldering:
Inputs (120V AC). Notice the melted T2.5A 250V CQ MST microfuse corner:
On the other side of PSU is a transformer with open(? or non-looped?) core.
The back wall houses two (plus one spare, not connected) 2N6284G power transistors with heatsinks, soldered together in some really funky way. There's also a fuse, which is wired between ground from the power cable and Darlingtons' emitters (blacks, also see 1st photo).
Some wires are hard to trace. Here's my best effort (may have diodes in reverse):
I marked wire colors (in parenthesis) and nominations, where identifiable.
I am a 30y computer engineer with some experience specifically in electrical work. This cobweb of wires makes me shudder, even though they are soldered in most places (as opposed to pin connectors – better solid contact). Here're some of my issues:
- Wires soldered together in the middle (e.g. 2nd red +12V from the top of PSU)
- Tightly packed electrolytic caps inside a heatsink (top of PSU)
- WAGO 221 clamp to connect a ~2mm thick black output cable with 0.25mm red (not sure where is it from, if that's the core can it be 120V AC?), 0.5mm black from the winding, and two more 0.5mm black wires going to front LEDs
- PSU board mounted on a foam pad
- No ventilation of any kind in the case
- Power transistors (rated 100V 20A 160W) mounted on the outside with heatsinks on the plastic wall
- Excessive hot glue to "clamp" cables and other components
- Even the hole for USB port could have better fit
To me this looks like a poorly executed one-time garage project.
My questions:
- How safe is this apparatus?
- for plugging into a home outlet
- for touching /making contact to body
- Is there any way to scientifically verify generated frequencies?
- With an oscilloscope? Any advice, how exactly?
UPDATE 2024-Jan-11:
-
Added 1st (so question reads more consistently) photo of a warning label on top cover.
-
A device of similar purpose (Spooky2 Generator X) has full metal case, ventilation holes on 2 sides, proper USB port cutout, and is powered by 12VDC 2A wall wart PSU.
At least that makes more sense to me. -
Upon digging deeper through TrueRife's website I found the F-122 manual!
I may be wrong about the need for skin /body contact, but they mention footbaths with salted water in manual and video, which makes me really nervous. Due to high voltage /current warnings combined with shoddy manufacturing this looks like an electrical and/or fire hazard.
UPDATE 2024-Jan-15:
- Added an electrical schema.
Best Answer
This contraption is supposed to power a plasma tube which looks suspiciously like a neon tube, so the high voltage transformer will have at least several kV output.
Internal wiring is complete garbage, I can't even see on the photos where the high voltage wires go or if they use insulation rated for this voltage. Given the mess, there could be all sorts of arcing opportunities between high voltage wires and... everything else.
Then the high voltage is output on banana jacks, which is insane. Held together with hot melt glue.
I find the switch above the banana jacks particularly tasteful:
It is probably within arcing distance of the high voltage.
Its placement means fingers will be in close proximity to high voltage on banana plugs held together with hot melt.
It says "Footbath".
Honorable mention for the note that says that if it is arcing, you have to put your finger on the thing to turn it off.
It probably won't cure cancer. But at least the user won't die of cancer when they get electrocuted, so there's always that.
The most reliable item in this device is probably the wago XD
Related safety video.