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Inducktion

Sat Feb 19 2011, 12:29AM

Registered Member #3637 Joined: Fri Jan 21 2011, 11:07PM
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 1068

I hate electronics so much sometimes. I just had three failures on three different things.
1. My high power ZVS driver, with 1k gate resistors and 18 v zeners just died, I plugged it in and my zeners glowed. Meaning they just blew the dust.
2. My power supply consequently failed as well, I was moving around the wires and the 12 volt and ground touched for a split second, and I heard a pop inside of the psu. Fuse blown.
3. My under oil flyback failed as well, the container started to leak.

And all I was doing was showing my sister my stuff. Seriously. WHY?

Zum Beispiel

Sat Feb 19 2011, 01:47AM

Registered Member #514 Joined: Sun Feb 11 2007, 12:27AM
Location: Somewhere in Pirkanmaa, Finland
Posts: 295

Inducktion wrote ...

And all I was doing was showing my sister my stuff. Seriously. WHY?

There's your problem. It's a law of nature for projects to work perfectly until you try to show them to someone.

ScotchTapeLord

Sat Feb 19 2011, 01:53AM

Registered Member #1875 Joined: Sun Dec 21 2008, 06:36PM
Location:
Posts: 635

Those don't sound like huge problems. You should be able to replace the zeners (consider higher wattage ones?) and the fuse (or just short it out and be careful from now on!). Flyback failure is on the other hand permanent, unless you consider failure was the leak, in which case that's not terribly catastrophic or electronics related.

If you think showing the stuff to others is hard, try boxing everything! I remember when I tried to box one of my early flyback drivers. Worked until I screwed the top on, then nothing. Took it out, worked again, put it back in, no more! Haha, it's a mentally stressful hobby, but it's rewarding... eventually. Hopefully.

Inducktion

Sat Feb 19 2011, 01:56AM

Registered Member #3637 Joined: Fri Jan 21 2011, 11:07PM
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 1068

When i said the zeners glowed, I meant literally, the filament inside of the zener glowed red. I don't think I hooked it up wrong, polarity wise, but I have no idea. It's just annoying. And I already tried shorting the fuse, it didn't work. I mean, I can fix pretty much everything else...it's just the power supply that's annoying me. I need some batteries or something because I'm tired of dying PSU's. I've had two die in less than 2 weeks. And my batteries are lead acid 12 volt, but only 1.6 amp hours. Runs the zvs for a max of like 3 minutes then the arc's start to get considerably smaller.

haxor5354

Sat Feb 19 2011, 02:04AM

Registered Member #2063 Joined: Sat Apr 04 2009, 03:16PM
Location: Toronto
Posts: 352

arent u suppose to use 12v zener diodes? oO"
and y can't u just use lead acid batteries for power? i'll use lead acid batteries over crappy power supplies anyday. also if the portection diodes fail, it might kill your power supply, wont do much harm to lead acid batteries though ;)

Inducktion

Sat Feb 19 2011, 04:06AM

Registered Member #3637 Joined: Fri Jan 21 2011, 11:07PM
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 1068

haxor5354 wrote ...

arent u suppose to use 12v zener diodes? oO"
and y can't u just use lead acid batteries for power? i'll use lead acid batteries over crappy power supplies anyday. also if the portection diodes fail, it might kill your power supply, wont do much harm to lead acid batteries though ;)

You can use higher value zener diodes for more gate driving power, generally, higher voltage zener = more frequency, because of a harder "on" for the FET or IGBT. Same with the 470 ohm resistor, but its more of an inverse relationship. More ohms = more power that can be pushed in, but at the cost of frequency. That's a pretty general rule when it comes to the ZVS I've learned.

Arcstarter

Sat Feb 19 2011, 04:35AM

Registered Member #1225 Joined: Sat Jan 12 2008, 01:24AM
Location: Beaumont, Texas, USA
Posts: 2253

Inducktion wrote ...

The frequency is determined purely by the tank circuit. The zeners are not even needed, they have no relevance to the frequency. The gate resistor's value does not change the power throughput or frequency. The lower the value, the faster the gates turn on, but no more frequently than with a high value.

Xray

Sat Feb 19 2011, 04:57AM

Registered Member #3429 Joined: Sun Nov 21 2010, 02:04AM
Location: Minnesota, USA
Posts: 288

Inducktion wrote ...

And all I was doing was showing my sister my stuff. Seriously. WHY?

That's what you get for being cruel to animals. No one in their right mind would put a little duck into an induction heater!

Killa-X

Sat Feb 19 2011, 05:01AM

Registered Member #1643 Joined: Mon Aug 18 2008, 06:10PM
Location:
Posts: 1039

Your not alone. I had it worst (in the showing-off category).

I brought my SSTC with me to a christmas party. We had about 30+ people there, and they all knew i had a tesla coil to show off. I took it out of the truck to set it up. It didnt work. I worked on it for 4 fricken hours, and i couldnt make it to work. I had limited tools, limited supply, i couldnt find the error. So, everyone was expecting to see a show, Didnt work. I had plans to do music and all.

I get home. Rip it apart. I come to find my leads i didnt trim back, where making contact with the PCB, causing the gates to be shorted to ground. A simple fix i couldnt see at the party, because i didnt have any screwdrivers to work with!!!

I just hate when stuff fails when it comes to showing off your projects. Lesson learned. Trim leads. No idea why i didnt in the first place. It's just life I guess. I had mosfets explode seconds after showing people stuff too. "Look at my arc!" *BANG* Great..Now they think its even more dangerous.

(lol at the above post...)

Inducktion

Sat Feb 19 2011, 05:08AM

Registered Member #3637 Joined: Fri Jan 21 2011, 11:07PM
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 1068

Arcstarter wrote ...

Inducktion wrote ...

Sorry, I meant the MAX frequency it can be ran at without excessive heating of IGBT's due to slow on and offs, similar to the gate resistors as well. It has to do with how much voltage can be input into the ZVS, not how much output is being pushed out.

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