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Registered Member #46251
Joined: Sat May 10 2014, 12:55PM
Location:
Posts: 16
A week trying to figure out how to set up a strike target, and... you don't need one!
I feel like such a clod sometimes.
Let this thread stand as a warning...
(Now I just need to get the Arduino control working (basically done), incorporate the smaller sparkers, and ... get to work programming my musical masterpiece!)
Registered Member #6038
Joined: Mon Aug 06 2012, 11:31AM
Location: Salado, TX
Posts: 248
I built the MiniBrute a couple of years ago and had the same problems you are experiencing. I had everything grounded to the mains ground wire - base of secondary, strike ring and a strike object. Whenever it hit the strike object the USB on the laptop would be hosed, TV's go berserk. Just way to much EMF noise. Following advise from others here I now try and prevent the arcs from striking any grounded object. Strikes to the basement concrete floor are fine, and the strike ring is just for added protection. I keep the breakout long enough and pointed up so it never wants to hit the strike ring. The concrete is more of an indirect ground.
For demo's I have a small torroid on plastic stick as a strike target. The streamers hit that and it looks good, but EMF is not an issue and current draw is no where near that of a true ground strike. I can run a laptop 10ft from the coil (throwing 34" streamers) without any problems. One ground strike though and I have to reboot the machine.
I had to play around with the setup in my environment and see what works. I didn't want to depend on RF grounds or anything I may not have at a school or somewhere I was doing a demo.
FWIW I have had excellent luck protecting household devices by using Class-Y capacitors between all three conductors. I use 300V 100nF Class-Y2 caps (but I'm on 120V mains - don't use these for 240v!) between Live and Neutral, and between Live and Earth, and Neutral and Earth. I've one set of caps set up near the TC, and another set at the outlet where the home electronics are plugged in. I've been able to run my 3kW CW SSTC (280KHz) in the house without frying anything as a result. I do have a dedicated ground rod and grounding cable, but the cable is more than 6 meters long, so everything is tied into mains ground as well.
Registered Member #30656
Joined: Tue Jul 30 2013, 02:40AM
Location: UK
Posts: 208
Has anyone here actually looked at what makes it onto the mains from TC usage? Probably varies a bit depending on the mains grounding scheme used, but shouldn't be hard to chuck a scope across the mains to check (obviously this should be done with care). Unfortunately my coil is in pieces right now, otherwise i'd have a look.
What I can say about my DRSSTC is that I haven't had any issues with other devices in the house using just a standard line filter and a short ground stake (it has mains earth, ground stake, secondary base and strike rail all bonded to the large heatsink the bridge is mounted on). Here in New Zealand we have an earth stake per house, with earth and neutral also bonded at the switchboard, which should help keep the noise between earth and phase/neutral reasonable.
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Strike target grounding
