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Re: electronic PWM variac

Original poster: Jim Lux <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

At 11:38 AM 8/18/2005, you wrote: 
Original poster: Brady Hauth <bhauth@xxxxxxxxx>

> Has anyone tried to turn one of these into an "electronic ballast"
> that synthesizes the effect of series inductance into a SG coil?

I believe this is how fluorescent light ballast works, and that runs
about $1/watt, which as far as I'm concerned is ridiculously expensive
when you use a MOT for virtually all ballast needs,  shorting the
secondary or tapping the primary as necessary.

Unless you're ballasting a 20 kVA pole pig and aren't interested in carrying around another 100 plus pounds of iron and copper.

A PWM primary controller also potentially could implement some interesting voltage/current characteristics not possible with a conventional R/L ballast.

Even more interesting might be a three phase configuration driving a DC coil with a triggered spark gap.