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Re: Capacitor test results
Hi Ed,
It's certainly a beaut!
> With the symptoms I have with the system, I was very suprised to
> hear from Condenser Products that the capacitor is good. The
> symptoms say otherwise. I would like to set the capacitor up with
> the pig (on the work bench) and test fire it with some short,
> direct wiring. I will need to use the rotary gap however, as a
> normal gap will not quench with the pig even with the current
> limited down with the welder.
>
> How should I connect this? Wire the capacitor directly across the
> high voltage supply and the put the gap in parallel with it? Maybe
> I will try it first with a couple of neon sign transformers.
Maybe the neon transformers with the cap and rotary across them as you
suggest. I just don't like the idea of the pig alone - in fact I don't
really like the idea of running the cap with no effective load. The
reversals are really going to test it. Some resistance in series
with the noen secondaries I think would be a good idea to minimize
spurious resonances that seem to occur with neons so you don't
overvolt the cap. I wonder if this thing's heat related? Were the cap
terminals warm at all after your runs? I admit this one's bugging me
heaps. Perhaps just run your system normally (normal run times) until
it fails, then check for heating at the terminals. You could also
check before running that the cap is normal (use an ohmmeter on a
high resistance range to check for charge current), then same again
when things fall over.
I'm sorry you're having so much difficulty. I just hope the same
thing doesn't happen to me at some stage. It really does sound like
it's going open circuit. Hmmmm....
Regards,
Malcolm