Re: Series or Parallel???

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Matthew Smith by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <matt-at-kbc-dot-net.au>

Hi Gregg/All

> In the diagram of the link below, you can either use a microwave oven 
> diode or 12 1N4007 diodes.  Can someone tell me if you use 12 1N4007's, do 
> you use these in series or parallel?

Series - end to end - cathode to anode (or anode to cathode if you're 
left handed ;-)  1N4007's are rated at 1000V -at- 1A each.  By connecting 
in series, the voltage across the whole string is effectively divided by 
12 (or however many diodes you are using), meaning that the string could 
cope with [ 1000V -at- 1A ] x 12 = [ 12kV -at- 1A ].

1N4007's are nice and cheap so there's no harm in over-rating by adding 
more diodes to the string.  Just allow yourself plenty of time to solder 
them all together ;-)

I am reliably informed that diodes may not be used in parallel, so you 
can't do this to up the current rating.  (They switch on at slightly 
different speeds and the first one on takes all the juice...)

Cheers

Matthew Smith