Jim Mitchell SSTC help!

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

Original poster: Robynsaddiction-at-aol-dot-com 

Has anyone had any luck with getting this board to operate? I have blown 
six ucc37321 and ucc37322 chips, and had to replace a few max913's and 
555's as well. When these things go it burns up my voltage regulators, and 
now I don't even have pads left on the board to plug regulators into 
because I have replaced them so many times. Everything seems to be hooked 
up just fine. I have 15 volts at the gate drive chips. I have five volts at 
the 555 chip, and get a square wave from it (with a bit of ringing). The 
MAX913 spits out an even cleaner square wave. I am using type 77 gate drive 
transformer material, and am seeing about 25 volts p-p on the output of the 
GDT. I have double and triple checked my half-bridge. The GDT phasing is 
correct. Oh yeah, my zener diodes heat up so badly they burn the heck out 
of me if I touch them. For all I can tell the board is doing it's job until 
the thing is hooked up to the half-bridge, but I know the half bridge is 
just fine. Does the thing just not like seeing a load what? TO ANYONE 
INTERESTED and ABLE!!! I will pay for shipping from here to there ( and pay 
you for your time ) if you would test to see if things are all right with 
the board, and if you could see if I am making some serious error. I will 
replace everything once more before sending the thing out. I simply am 
tired of messing with the thing, and very frusterated. I only ask that you 
do not "lose" the package like Aron Kosko did when I last sent him one of 
my boards for evaluation. That left me out one driver and one half-bridge 
that, as he put it, "were working just fine". Anyhow, any help would be 
much appreciated.

                                   Thanks, Richard Harris