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Re: Parallel
Chad wrote:
>Has anyone ever experienced any trouble when ganging two or more neon
>transformers in parallel?
>
> Chad Alan Madison
> BSEE Undergraduate Student
> University of Texas at Austin
> Member: Tesla Coil Society
> http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~madison/
Hey Chad,
I use 9,000V 60ma. neons in parallel, started with two and worked up to 6.
These are used xformers -at-$25.00 each, but they seem to work ok. First I
hooked up one (easy just pri. to 120 and sec. to coil) Then I hooked up a
second one to the first one just like you'd think, left side of pri. to left
side of pri. and the secondaries the same way, left to left and right to
right. It worked out fine so later on ($25 later) I added a third. This
really boosted the sparks a lot! Just with two, I had to stand on boards and
plastic to keep me off the garage floor when I'd draw sparks...cause it was
a little uncomfortable to the touch :) When I hooked up the 3rd one, it
really kicked...had to add more gaps and that really made a difference (at
that point I decided NOT to bother tryin' to draw the sparks) Amazed and
inspired by my progress, I got another one, again the same model, and hooked
it up. Fire one...Nothin'! Checked all the connects, all ok...but nothin'
the gaps barely fired at all and no spark. So, I thot "well, it was ok
before #4" so I unhooked the primary of #4 and reversed them...Fire
2...BLAMMO! That was it! So that's what "in phase" means :) I thot about
reversing the secondaries on #4 too, but didn't try that...Maybe someone
that sees this will shed some light for those of us that still have a lot to
learn. BTW I run the neons with no chokes or filters of any kind and in 3 or
4 months of almost daily use, haven't "killed" any of them yet. I do have a
spark gap across the secondarys to RF ground, but it rarely fires at about
1" gap.
Well this is startin' ta look like a mini-novel, so... Why'd ya ask,
anyway? Have you had trubble hookin' em up too?
Ken (don't havva pig) Cravens