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Registered Member #56
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445
The windings don't need to be wound on top of each other, they just both need to be on the same core. The iron carries the energy from the first winding to the second. In order for the transformer to work as a normal transformer you will need the iron core to make 1 or 2 complete boxes.
Yes they are pretty easy to make, but the tricky part is calculating how many turns to use to prevent saturation (when the core can't cary the energy--flux as we call it--between the windings) while minimising the losses encountered from using more turns (of a smaller wire).
Registered Member #58
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:40AM
Location: Tri-Cities, Washington, US
Posts: 317
And to add on to what ... said, You really don't even need an Iron core. Take a Tesla Coil for example, it is air cored. In a really crappy explanation, the primary coil creates a magnetic field which is coupled to the secondary transfering the energy to it, The coils have no need to be on top of eachother for this energy transfer to take place. I guess you might get better efficiency if the coils are much closer together, but watch for arc overs if its high voltage/current.
Registered Member #119
Joined: Fri Feb 10 2006, 06:26AM
Location: USA
Posts: 114
While we are on the topic, what makes something a mains transformer? Gets saturated more easily so that it draws less power than another similar transformer would do(for example, a 120V to 60V transformer versus a 12V to 6V transformer)? Not really a usual transformer, but piezo transformers are another odd type of transformer if you are not just necessarily looking at wire types. They use sound waves and piezo crystals.
Registered Member #63
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:18AM
Location:
Posts: 1425
Nobody seems to have explained well the principles behind a transformer here, yet :P...
I'm illiterate, but I'll try:
When you have an electrical current 'moving' through a wire, a magnetic field is produced around the wire.
When you have a CHANGING magnetic field and a wire present in it, an electrical current is induced in the wire.
Lenz's law states that when an 'electromotive force' (you can think of this as a current, since I've been wrongly using the word all along :P) is generated by a change of magnetic flux or field strength, the polarity of the emf will try to produce a current whose corresponding field would oppose the change.
In a conventional transformer, the iron core provides a permeable medium for the flux to travel in. When you wrap many turns of wire around the core, and run a CHANGING electrical current through it (e.g. 60Hz AC mains / sinewave), the domains in the iron carry the flux around the core.
In the case of the secondary, the wire on the iron core is wrapped around what is in effect a CHANGING magnetic field, and so an electrical current is induced into the copper wires.
Transformers don't (technically) work off DC, because the only change in magnetic field on the secondary occurs when you connect it to power.
Try this link:
You might search that site for a page on transformers - the hyperphysics site is a great resource for understanding/answering these kinds of questions.
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Transformer question
