Re: ASRG blowing diodes

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "James Zimmerschied" <zimtesla@xxxxxxx>

Mike,
I have had the same problem occur. My bridge rectifier block shorted 
a couple times. It is in an aluminum box next to the rotary motor. I 
added a MOV from each power lead to the box which I ground. This has 
been successful for some time now.

I do not have streamers hitting the power line running between the 
rotary motor and my variac. You may have to put directors on your top 
load to steer the arcs away from your power leads or raise the top 
load to direct the streamers out.
Jim Zimmerschied
----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>Tesla list
To: <mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, July 07, 2006 4:43 AM
Subject: ASRG blowing diodes

Original poster: "MIKE HARDY" <<mailto:MHARDY@xxxxxxxxxx>MHARDY@xxxxxxxxxx>

I recently put a AR propeller gap on my 6", 4 kVA coil. It performs
very well, Had some 9 foot ground strikes tonight. I run a 28V, 1.5A,
3600 rpm dc motor. Powered by a 6A variac into a 120 to 24 V 5A step
down tranny into a full bridge rectifier (20 A, 200V). This should
easilly run this, and it did for many hours. Varying the speed really
does some interesting things to the character of the streamers! I
decided to run the 24 line to the motor thru some flexible conduit
that I grounded to RF ground (in case of streamer strikes). After a
short time on the 4th, it poped the 2 A slowblow fuse, then stopped
all together. I found that half the bridge shorted, overheating the
tranny some. Replaced the bridge, ran it for 3 hours (not hooked to
the coil) at nominal line voltage, and all was fine. Ran the coil
again tonight, and after a few minutes it blew again! Oh by the way,
I didn't ground the flex conduit this time. How do others deal with
this, is my problem unique?