DRSSTC goes BOOM!!! :o(

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

Original poster: "jimmy hynes by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <chunkyboy86-at-yahoo-dot-com>

Hello everyone,

A couple nights ago, I had my coil running, but it was still at 10 bps, and 
pretty small sparks (a foot or so). I turned it all the way up on the 
variac, and it seemed to be working fine, although the sparks didn't seem 
to grow much from 60 to 120 volts. I came back to it a little later, to 
show my family, but this time it didn't work so well. I turned it up to 30 
volts to make sure everything was working, and then cranked it up the rest 
of the way. BOOM!!! Afterward, most of the energy remained in the 
electrolytics. It turns out I blew an IGBT open. Here are some pics 
<http://www.hot-streamer-dot-com/chunkyboy86/deadigbt1.jpg>www.hot-streamer-dot-com/chunkyboy86/deadigbt1.jpg 
www.hot-streamer-dot-com/chunkyboy86/deadigbt2.jpg. The zeners survived (400v 
from + rail to - rail, so I don't think overvolted it. The only other part 
of the circuit that died is one pin ! on the microprocessor. I will work on 
getting a schematic on my website. The only thing I can think of is that 
maybe the gates finally punctured. Do gates have that ion inception thing?


Jimmy