Re: strange variac

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

Original poster: "Andrew Genseal" <aggniu-at-hotmail-dot-com> 

I would like to thank you all for your advice on the topic.  It happens 
that I have taken some time and thought this thing through.  Anyways, I 
have basically figured out the setup that they chose for the terminal 
assignments and have been able to get the desired output.  It basically 
boiled down to checking staco's standard against some rough measurements of 
resistance and basically taking a chance on what I thought it was.  What 
was the worst that would happen? I would trip the breaker again.  For 
anybody who was curious, for 120V output, the common was placed on 4 and 
the hot was taken to 1 (just like every other stat on the market) and 
naturally the brush was on 3.  Once again, thank you so much for your 
comments and suggestions.
-Andy
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 8:45 AM
Subject: Re: strange variac


>Original poster: "Gerry Reynolds" <gerryreynolds-at-earthlink-dot-net>
>Hi Andrew,
>
>If all else fails, you can take it apart and trace out the connections.  I
>took a used powerstat 1256 apart to clean everything up and found the
>connections very easy to figure out.  Anyway, I didn't like the physical
>placement of the terminals since it would be easy for the output to get
>shorted and repositioned them and also made it more intuitive to hook up.
>These things aren't rocket science.
>
>Gerry R.
>
> > Original poster: "Andrew Genseal" <aggniu-at-hotmail-dot-com>
> >
> > Hello all,
> >
> > This is my first time attempting to post anything, so please bare with
> > me.  At any rate, I am in the process of building my first coil and at a
> > recent Ham-fest, I picked up a variac that looked as though it was in
> > excellent shape (good brush, easy rotation, no burnt windings). > Anyways,
>I
> > have come to find out that I cannot find any litterature anywhere about
>the
> > terminal assignments for this thing(except for the brush on T-3).  It 
> is > a
> > Staco Adjust-a-Volt with the following characteristics:
> > Type: 500 BU
> > Rated Current:  7.5A
> > Input V: 120V 50/60Hz
> > Output V: 0-140V
> > Additionally, it has 7 terminals to choose from(That is the real source
>for
> > my confusion).
> >
> > The first time I hooked it up with the common on T-4 and hot on T-5, 
> I > got
> > 140V at max scale between common and brush.
> > The second time, I used T-4 for common and T-6 for hot and tripped the
> > circuit breaker.
> > Then, I changed it back to T-4 and T-5 and was checking the current into
>it
> > with my meter in series.  It was not drawing much current in a steady
>state
> > senario, but once I hit the terminal and backed of and hit it again and > a
> > nice spark roasted my fine point of my meter into a flat.  Is this the
> > effect of "inrush current?" (BTW, it was still operating at the > 
> prescribed
> > 140V out at max on the scale.)
> > Also, if anybody knows anything about this crazy variac.  How do I 
> hook > it
> > up to get 120V max output for my NST?
> > I cannot find anything from Staco's site that says that this thing ever
> > existed, so any help will be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Andy
> >
> >
>
>