Re: Diode Strings

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

Original poster: tesla-at-lists.symmetric-dot-net 

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004, Tesla list wrote:

 > Original poster: "S&JY" <youngsters-at-konnections-dot-net>
 >
 > Well, yes and no.  Yes, the PIV is 40 KV.  But it will be distributed across
 > two legs of a bridge (goes out one leg and back in through another leg,
 > total of 60 diodes in Rick's design), so I believe his design will have an
 > adequate safety margin with 30 diode legs.
 > --Steve Y.

In a tesla coil, you will eventually get some sort of fault between the
parts. If any output of the DC were to arc over or connect to either side
of the AC input (or if one side is earth grounded) you lose any safety
factor by assuming the reverse voltages will be shared by two legs of a
full wave rectifier. Also,if one leg were to short, you're going to
blow the complimentary side if your DC load has any capacitance without
the double voltage rating.

If these diodes were cheaper than candy, it won't hurt to add more to get
the 2.8X AC in rating per leg. When and if it does fail, you'll be
replacing all diodes in each leg at a time.

KEN