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Registered Member #3114
Joined: Sat Aug 14 2010, 08:33AM
Location:
Posts: 608
So I drew up a PCB for Gren’s plasma speaker (second version) and I etched everything, soldered everything up, first light, didn’t work.
After many hours of checking for errors and leaving it alone for 3 weeks I can rule out bridge connections
Nothing is getting HOT/warm the chip gets slightly warm, and does not get any hotter. The high voltage side I guess you would call it (irfp250’s and filter cap side) is not drawing any power.
I ASSumed that I had the GDT is wired wrong, even though I tripled checked it, so I looked at the plasma speaker board I already made and copied it, still didn’t work, anything that could cause this?
Registered Member #3943
Joined: Sun Jun 12 2011, 05:24PM
Location: The Shire, UK
Posts: 552
From the photos it looks like one or more of the zeners might be electrically touching one of the drain pin's via some excess solder. Although I can't really tell.
Registered Member #3114
Joined: Sat Aug 14 2010, 08:33AM
Location:
Posts: 608
Alex1M6 wrote ...
From the photos it looks like one or more of the zeners might be electrically touching one of the drain pin's via some excess solder. Although I can't really tell.
double checked, theres a space between the two.
What would cause the mosfets not to turn on, a bad signal from the GDT?
Registered Member #3943
Joined: Sun Jun 12 2011, 05:24PM
Location: The Shire, UK
Posts: 552
I know its a pain as you have everything soldered down but unsolder one of the GDT outputs and connect your multimeter across it set to measure AC volts then power the driver on.
Should be getting somewhere around 10-12vac out of it. Or alternatively you could set your meter to measure continuity and connect it across the source and drain of one of the MOSFET's, if it turns on your meter will beep.
If nothing happens then you have a problem/incorrect connections in the driver section somewhere.
Also you have probably already tried this but just to be sure, have you tried adjusting the potentiometer to change the frequency?
And something jmartis told me is that not all ferrite cores work for this type of thing, first one I tried did not work very well at all.
Registered Member #3114
Joined: Sat Aug 14 2010, 08:33AM
Location:
Posts: 608
Alex1M6 wrote ...
I know its a pain as you have everything soldered down but unsolder one of the GDT outputs and connect your multimeter across it set to measure AC volts then power the driver on.
Should be getting somewhere around 10-12vac out of it. Or alternatively you could set your meter to measure continuity and connect it across the source and drain of one of the MOSFET's, if it turns on your meter will beep.
If nothing happens then you have a problem/incorrect connections in the driver section somewhere.
Also you have probably already tried this but just to be sure, have you tried adjusting the potentiometer to change the frequency?
And something jmartis told me is that not all ferrite cores work for this type of thing, first one I tried did not work very well at all.
Thanks I will try all that tomorrow, got to get some sleep
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plasma speaker PCB help
