RE: high voltage measurement w/ divider

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

Original poster: "brianb by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <brianb-at-antelecom-dot-net>

Gary/all,

Let's not forget that this thread started with a question on building a
divider network to measure the voltage on an energy storage cap...

Regards,
Brian B.

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 5:45 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: RE: high voltage measurement w/ divider


Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Gary.Lau-at-hp-dot-com>

While there are plenty of things to be careful about when working with high
voltages, let's not spread alarm where none is warranted.  Exploding wires
occur when pulse caps are discharged into (essentially) short circuits.  A
resistor in a divider network going open (or even if one were to short)
could not result in currents sufficient to explode anything.  The worst
that might happen is your meter may fry somewhat.

Gary Lau
MA, USA

  >Original poster: "brianb by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<brianb-at-antelecom-dot-net>
  >
  >Guys,
  >
  >Be careful. A failure of one resistor here will most likely cascade down
the
  >string turning all the resistors and associated wiring into an exploding
  >wire experiment with shrapnel flying everywhere. Carefully think this
  >through and provide plenty of safety margin before proceeding...
  >
  >If you want to see what an unexpected failure scenario can do check out

 >http://www.briananddebbie-dot-com/images/Backyard%20Science/Quarter%20Shrinker/
A
  >ccident/accident.htm
  >
  >Regards,
  >Brian B.