why does my inturupter hurt me?
Danielle, Mon Jul 23 2007, 10:41PMI recently noticed that while producing longer than 4' arcs when I touch the grounded metal cace of my interrupter I feel as though millions of volts are going through my body. any answers to this this is the same with any object that is metal and grounded. I am building a new interrupter connected by fiber soon to prevent this I hope.
Re: why does my inturupter hurt me?
Steve Ward, Mon Jul 23 2007, 11:14PM
Your body forms a virtual capacitor with the DRSSTC and when you touch ground, you discharge yourself and feel that. Usually this means you are too close to the coil. Or, if you are running your secondary ground to the mains ground, you really need to switch the secondary over to its own dedicated RF ground rod. Ive seen my terminal strip flash over (so a few kV) from my secondary ground connection to the other mains connections on the strip.
Fiber optic will get rid of this problem.
Steve Ward, Mon Jul 23 2007, 11:14PM
Your body forms a virtual capacitor with the DRSSTC and when you touch ground, you discharge yourself and feel that. Usually this means you are too close to the coil. Or, if you are running your secondary ground to the mains ground, you really need to switch the secondary over to its own dedicated RF ground rod. Ive seen my terminal strip flash over (so a few kV) from my secondary ground connection to the other mains connections on the strip.
Fiber optic will get rid of this problem.
Re: why does my inturupter hurt me?
ArcLight, Tue Jul 24 2007, 03:01AM
A charge building on me while running my SGTC on an unheated porch in northern Illinois is not unusual during the winter months, but I've never had it happen during the summer. You didn't disclose location in your profile. Is it particularly dry where you live? (Not asking where you live, just wondering about relative humidity.)
Regards, ArcLight
ArcLight, Tue Jul 24 2007, 03:01AM
A charge building on me while running my SGTC on an unheated porch in northern Illinois is not unusual during the winter months, but I've never had it happen during the summer. You didn't disclose location in your profile. Is it particularly dry where you live? (Not asking where you live, just wondering about relative humidity.)
Regards, ArcLight
Re: why does my inturupter hurt me?
Danielle, Tue Jul 24 2007, 03:55AM
it was fairly dry but I was over doing it I was only 6ft away from the coil while it was spraying 4ft arcs I brought outside and it was fine. I think the main problem with this is the distance you are from the coil.
Danielle, Tue Jul 24 2007, 03:55AM
it was fairly dry but I was over doing it I was only 6ft away from the coil while it was spraying 4ft arcs I brought outside and it was fine. I think the main problem with this is the distance you are from the coil.
Re: why does my inturupter hurt me?
Shaun, Tue Jul 24 2007, 08:15PM
This happened to me alot with my SGTC, except I was 15 feet away (overkill, it was only 450 watt) and I was getting half-inch arcs from my fingers to the variac casing. It scared the hell out of me, because I though at any second I would be connected to the 120V mains.
This was in my garage in the winter, so I guess it was a pretty favorable place to collect a charge. I've never solved the problem, so now I just only touch the plastic on the variac wheel. BTW, I was using an 8 foot copper ground rod (also overkill). They were only like doorknob static shocks anyway...
At first I thought it might be that "induced RF currents" thing, like the reports of people drawing arcs to grounded or ungrounded objects during Tesla's larger experiments. But I didn't get RF burns, so it must have been a capacitive thing.
Shaun, Tue Jul 24 2007, 08:15PM
This happened to me alot with my SGTC, except I was 15 feet away (overkill, it was only 450 watt) and I was getting half-inch arcs from my fingers to the variac casing. It scared the hell out of me, because I though at any second I would be connected to the 120V mains.
This was in my garage in the winter, so I guess it was a pretty favorable place to collect a charge. I've never solved the problem, so now I just only touch the plastic on the variac wheel. BTW, I was using an 8 foot copper ground rod (also overkill). They were only like doorknob static shocks anyway...
At first I thought it might be that "induced RF currents" thing, like the reports of people drawing arcs to grounded or ungrounded objects during Tesla's larger experiments. But I didn't get RF burns, so it must have been a capacitive thing.
Re: why does my inturupter hurt me?
Dr. Drone, Tue Jul 24 2007, 11:59PM
Dr. Drone, Tue Jul 24 2007, 11:59PM
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