Hi Derek & Bert, Got all things grounded, performance went off the charts,
Very hot bolts to lower hemisphere, till the motor controller went to
heaven, why did you have to mention
"motor Controller"! Is it safe to run this monster through a Variac? [For
the variac I mean]
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2018 10:50 AM
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List
Subject: Re: [TCML] VDG
Doug,
A pleasure,
Earthing even a small VDG is a problem. I killed some electronics
from mine purely because they shared a common earth. The impulse can be
very large.
I run mine from 12V as this removes some of the issues, but I still
kill my motor controller from time to time with a good discharge.
But maybe I shouldn't have tried to do the motor control with a
microprocessor :)
Derek
On 18-Feb-18 14:14, doug wrote:
Hi Derek, Thanks for your advice! I will be putting a grounded power cord
on the VDG today, and I think it also may be wise to run it through a line
filter I built from a Diagram Bert sent me!
Doug J.
-----Original Message----- From: Derek, Extreme Electronics
Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2018 4:08 PM
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List
Subject: Re: [TCML] VDG
Doug,
You must move some sort of ground, When a VDG strikes you can get
very large currents flowing especially in the loop of the discharge.
Ideally I would have a separate earth and not depend on the mains
wiring, else you can get spikes into other connected electrical powered
devices.
It is also important that the discharge cannot not make a connection to
the supply, otherwise you may have a long spark backed by mains current.
An earthed box covering the mains powered items is vital to prevent this.
Derek
On 16/02/2018 19:32, doug wrote:
For those also interested in VanDeGraaffs a question
This is a video of a VDG I just finished building, You will notice some
strikes to the dimmer switch, would it be wise to use a 2 wire + ground
for the AC hookup I have instead of the 2 wire only?