Re: HV Voltage Dividers

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

Original poster: "Eastern Voltage Research Corporation" <dhmccauley-at-easternvoltageresearch-dot-com> 

 > Instead of a HV probe, couldn't one just wire several resistors in
 > series, read the drop across one of them and just apply Ohm's/
 > Kirchhoff's law? Maybe those 10M resistors used for draining the primary
 > caps? Three resistors will give 1/3 of the applied voltage across any
 > single resistor; 4 resistors-1/4.  If you think the 4000V label might be
 > correct, go with 5 resistors, a 1000V meter could do that one.  I don't
 > know why I haven't done this myself, I have been putting 120VAC into the
 > HV windings and measuring the output of the low voltage side, and figure
 > my ratios.  I'm not sure how accurate this is, but it seems to be pretty
 > close.

If you are measuring DC or very low frequency (like 60Hz), this might be
okay.
However, you won't get any type of good frequency response out of a
resistive
divider like this.

To get an idea of some high voltage dividers I've built, see the following
link:
http://www.easternvoltageresearch-dot-com/hv_divider.htm

Dan