Re: Discharging HV Caps

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

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

In a message dated 6/6/01 11:14:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
writes:

<< Hi Ben,
 
 If it is an MMC, placing 10 Meg bleeder resistors across each cap is an
 excellent and transparent way to drain the caps automatically.  For a non MMC
 cap, you can string together a bunch of resistors to accomplish the same
 thing.  These resistors can stay in place since they do not affect the normal
 operation of the cap in TC use.
 
 If you have a BIG cap, you need to discharge,  Shorting it directly out is
 probably not a great idea.  Depending on the voltage and value, you may get a
 much bigger spark than you bargained for =:O  Also a direct short can draw
 fantastic currents from a pulse cap that can damage it.  You should have
 something to limit the current.  A big wire wound resistor works well.  Say a
 10K 100 watt resistor on the end of a long PVC pipe.  You can then drain the
 cap from a safe distance in a controlled way.
 
 It all sort of depends on what type (value voltage) of cap you are trying to
 discharge, but a resistor on the end of a plastic pipe (with wires sticking 
out
 to make contact) is a pretty good way to go.  The long pipe is important 
 incase you slip and short it or the resistor blows you will not be damaged.  
In
 my case, the long pipe also helps when discharging high power equipment that 
I
 still have connected to the mains which blows the resistor to bits ;-))
 
 Cheers,
 
         Terry
  >>
I would think the best way to manually discharge the cap would be by using an 
insulated stick of some kind and shorting the spark gap.

Ed Sonderman