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Registered Member #4127
Joined: Fri Oct 07 2011, 05:40PM
Location:
Posts: 22
Hi. I have been building some power supplies for my plasma glass structures using flybacks I was given. My source has run out of flybacks and does not know where he/we can get more. There are no markings on these flybacks, so I can not tell where they are from.
The circuits are pretty simple. A TL494 as a pulse-width oscillator, an IGBT (or IR250) doing the switching and the flyback. My options seem to be:
find another source for flybacks
make or find someone to make new flybacks
use custom wound transformers/inductors
create my HV some other way
My plasma structures need anywhere between 5000 to 20,000V. They have to be AC (so salvaged flybacks from TVs won't help), and I see a number of "sweet-spots" in the brightness of the plasma at different frequencies (20kHz and 40kHz), but that is probably resonant frequencies of the flyback that make it output more power/higher voltage at those frequencies.
I need your advice. How would you say I should proceed? I am enclosing a picture of the current power supplies.
Registered Member #4127
Joined: Fri Oct 07 2011, 05:40PM
Location:
Posts: 22
Alex1M6 wrote ...
Old CRT TV's is probably the best source for these thing. The bigger the screen the bigger the flyback usually.
Also, mind sharing the schematic for your circuit? Id love to see it.
Unfortunately the plasma structures won't light with DC, and it is pretty difficult getting the rectifiers out of the TV flybacks.
I'll see if my friend is ok with me posting the schematics. Otherwise it is a pretty simple circuit with an oscillator triggering an iGBT. I originally did this with a 555 but my friend likes the 494 better.
Registered Member #3943
Joined: Sun Jun 12 2011, 05:24PM
Location: The Shire, UK
Posts: 552
mzincali wrote ...
Alex1M6 wrote ...
Old CRT TV's is probably the best source for these thing. The bigger the screen the bigger the flyback usually.
Also, mind sharing the schematic for your circuit? Id love to see it.
Unfortunately the plasma structures won't light with DC, and it is pretty difficult getting the rectifiers out of the TV flybacks.
I'll see if my friend is ok with me posting the schematics. Otherwise it is a pretty simple circuit with an oscillator triggering an iGBT. I originally did this with a 555 but my friend likes the 494 better.
Ah, I see you need an AC flyback. This place sells them but they are quite expensive scroll down to the flybacks.
Registered Member #2431
Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639
maybe you should try iggies.... they can do AC just fine, you can even put two ofthe same type in parallel or series as needed.
on a seperate matter, i fear this decade with be the end of cheap, plentiful flybacks. i have my latest three DC flybacks from Killa-X and they're real good.
But i expect: first, getting batches of the same type by numbers with datasheets, will be the first to go extinct. then, the big CRT's will be too hard to find. next, they're wont be much but iggies, easy adn cheap to get after that.
i hope im wrong but i doubt it. I should say i doubt they'll ever fully disappear, youll just pay 80 to 200 USD per device on Ebay, and if you can afford that, youll kill it in about 6 minutes anyway.
For these reasons and others ive started to head in two different directions, the iggy and then my own HV ferrites im developing now.
Registered Member #1451
Joined: Wed Apr 23 2008, 03:48AM
Location: Boulder, Co
Posts: 661
The electronics store where I live sells AC flybacks for something like $15 a piece. They are all identical and should be able to provide 15kV according to their tag. Depending on where you live, I could purchase them for you and send them to you.
Registered Member #4127
Joined: Fri Oct 07 2011, 05:40PM
Location:
Posts: 22
Patrick wrote ...
maybe you should try iggies.... they can do AC just fine, you can even put two ofthe same type in parallel or series as needed.
on a seperate matter, i fear this decade with be the end of cheap, plentiful flybacks. i have my latest three DC flybacks from Killa-X and they're real good.
But i expect: first, getting batches of the same type by numbers with datasheets, will be the first to go extinct. then, the big CRT's will be too hard to find. next, they're wont be much but iggies, easy adn cheap to get after that.
i hope im wrong but i doubt it. I should say i doubt they'll ever fully disappear, youll just pay 80 to 200 USD per device on Ebay, and if you can afford that, youll kill it in about 6 minutes anyway.
For these reasons and others ive started to head in two different directions, the iggy and then my own HV ferrites im developing now.
What are piggies?
I'm wondering if I shouldn't start looking at winding my own ferrites. I've done small ones for Joule Thieves, but nothing more.
Registered Member #4127
Joined: Fri Oct 07 2011, 05:40PM
Location:
Posts: 22
Turkey9 wrote ...
The electronics store where I live sells AC flybacks for something like $15 a piece. They are all identical and should be able to provide 15kV according to their tag. Depending on where you live, I could purchase them for you and send them to you.
I'd like to try one and see how it performs. The price is right. Can I contact them directly for a mail order? Or are they too small to handle that?
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