Speaking of Other Hobbies...

[cherokeej]

Do we have any coilers on this forum?

I found some brick IGBT's with some reasonably impressive specs. 1200 volts, 200 amps... For $29 a copy. Start small, with a Class E running a hot mosfet on a CPU cooler. Then a single resonant half-bridge, then move up to dual-resonance using a full H-bridge. A hunk of 98mm FWFG a/f tubing will make a really nice secondary...

I built a SGTC way back in the day. Ran for a good two minutes before it arced inside the NST. Oh well... Guess I'll just have to see how far I can push those IGBT's.

 

[markkoelsch]

You are talking making a transformer, correct? For what purpose?

 

[dhbarr]

Tesla coil, I think.

 

[cherokeej]

Dual-resonant Tesla coil. Add a series cap to resonate the primary circuit at the same frequency as the secondary, and input impedance of the primary circuit goes to zero. P-in equals P-out. Two foot coil throwing 6 foot streamers...

Just for fun. And because I can solder sitting in a chair.

 

[Cl(VII)]

Sounds cool, any pics/video? Being that I literally blew the leads off a multimeter this weekend (stupidity, don't ask because I ain't admitting) I will leave the electrical hobbies to others. Hard to pass off the electrical fire smell in the bathroom as no big deal to the better half. Me: :shock:...:confused2: Her: :eyeroll:...

 

[cherokeej]

Checking voltage with the DVM set on current? It's good to eyeball the setting before hooking up the leads. D'oh!

 

[Cl(VII)]

Checking voltage with the DVM set on current? It's good to eyeball the setting before hooking up the leads. D'oh!

I will nether confirm, nor deny. :blush:

 

[WAC_Hal]

I've been wanting to build a Tesla coil for ages. A friend of mine and I built one back in the '60s from an article in Elementary Electronics. It used a 50 kV neon transformer as the exciter. According to the plans it was supposed to develop 1 MV. We didn't have any way to confirm the voltage, but it did throw some nice three foot long arcs.

 

[cherokeej]

HSC has Fuji 1200 volt, 200 amp IGBT's for $29 apiece. Now, everyone can afford to build a DRSSTC.

Already wound a small secondary. Calcs say it'll ring right around a half megahertz. Sweet. Small SSTC. Fun on a table-top.