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Re: Primary Ballasts for Pole Pigs



In a message dated 96-11-22 16:47:30 EST, you write:

<< Brad,
 
 I find that resisitance in the primary circuit of the pole pig is a must 
 have item.  However, I tend to mix it with a bit of inductance.  This 
 mixture seems to allow perfect balancing of the system while in 
 operation.
 
 I would strongly recommend against the use of inductive or resistive 
 balllasts only!  The resisitve ballast alone will dissapate too much 
 valuable energy and the inductive ballast will be far too finicky to 
 adjust to run with great smoothness.
 
 I have found that for my system I require about .3-.5 ohms of resistance 
 and about 3mh of inducatnce. These should be placed in series with the 
 low voltage side of the pole pig and the power source.  I can vary both 
 values to allow for new capaciotr loading in the tank and or replacement 
 transformers.
 
 Richard Hull, TCBOR
  >>

Richard,

Do you use the resistance in series with the inductive ballast?  I had been
using four 2000 W oven elements in parallel and in parallel with my inductive
ballast (which of course is in series with the pole pig primary - actually it
is in series with the incoming AC power to my large variac).  This would be
about 4 ohms in parallel with the welder.  Since I reconfigured my primary
tank connections, sometimes the gaps will hardly fire with that ballast
configuration and I have found it works better now with the parallel
resistive ballast removed - although not smooth and reliable.

Do you think it might work better with the resistance in series?

Thanks,  Ed Sonderman