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Capacitor discharge
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From: Marco Denicolai [SMTP:marco-at-vistacom.fi]
Sent: Monday, June 01, 1998 1:11 AM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Capacitor discharge
Because tuning a TC is a sequence of power-on / check / power-off / touch-the-
wires I would like to make sure all capacitors are discharged so that I
don't get any electrical shock (that could be my last one...).
I understand that using an NST and HV cap in series with the primary, the HV
cap will discharge through the primary-chokes-NST which is a pretty low
resistance path.
But I haven't got NST: I use a voltage doubler (the microwave oven design)
and that includes voltage doubling capacitors IN SERIES with the
transformers.
This means that, after power-off, the HV and other capacitors are VERY likely
to be still charged: how to discharge them safely?
I DON'T want to short them every time by hands: also that is a pretty risky
operation if you touch the wrong place (and what if you "forget" doing it?). I
see basically two solutions:
1. A 10 Mohm HV resistor in parallel with each capacitor. This is what is used
in the capacitors employed in microwave ovens (they have got this resistor
INSIDE the cap can). But how that will affect the HV capacitor performance?
2. A kind of delayed-relay battery that will short all caps through, say,
100 Kohm resistors. But then you will have HV wires running through your
TC assembly, which is not very nice. And HV relays will be needed too
(do they exist?).
Any suggestions about this?
________________________________________________________________________
Marco Denicolai Vista Communication Instruments, Inc.
Hardware Development Manager www.vistacom.fi
marco-at-vistacom.fi Kaisaniemenkatu 13 A
fax: +358-9-622-5610 SF-00100 HELSINKI
phone: +358-9-622-623-15 Finland
Remember, Murphy was an optimist! I am not...
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