Re: John Freau's SRSG Dwell Controller

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 12/18/00 9:18:02 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:
>   snip
> The input voltage was 114 VAC and the motor's normal current is 0.835 amps.
>   Thus, the circuit doubles the input current.
>  
>  Of course, I need to really test all this to see if it is at all accurate
>  or not.  However, the computer model gives me a good idea of what is going
>  on and what to look and watch out for.  I will now find the components and
>  give it a try in the next few days.
>  
>  Cheers,
>  
>   Terry
>  

Terry,

Thanks for the nice comments.  I measured the current on my
setup (max L dialed in) and I'm seeing only about 60% as much
current, compared to running the motor normally without
the circuit.  When the cap only is installed the current is much
lower still.  So the circuit is actually reducing the current. I think
the circuit is not only shifting the phase, but maybe
correcting the power factor also.  The current stays pretty
constant over the range of the variac, except when the variac
is set near minimum L, where the current is much lower still.
At the worst position, the current is still only 60% of the current
the motor draws in normal operaton without the circuit installed.

I next measured the voltage across the motor.  At the highest,
it jumps up 10 volts above the input line voltage of 122 volts, 
which is not too bad.  I'm not using a resistor in the circuit.

John Freau