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Registered Member #6038
Joined: Mon Aug 06 2012, 11:31AM
Location: Salado, TX
Posts: 248
Finally completed assembly of my modified miniBrute and fired it up for the first time today. Don't think it's properly tuned yet, but getting consistent 36" arcs when running the variac at 75%. No need to push full power as it looks great.
Wanted to thank all who helped through some frustrating gate driver problems and especially to EVR.
I increased the current limiting to 500A but the LED never comes on (it does when badly out of tune). The dot-bar graph only ever lights up the 100A LED though it works perfectly with a variable DC test voltage. Seems the voltage from the CTs may not be representative of the actual current. Keeping run time low until I figure this part out.
Registered Member #6038
Joined: Mon Aug 06 2012, 11:31AM
Location: Salado, TX
Posts: 248
Electronics held up great. I had one big arc to the strike rail around the primary and everything was fine (glad I put that in). I have the current limit set at just under 500A and it runs very happily with the IGBTs or MMC barely getting warm after a few minute run. I have the fan but not installed it yet while still tuning. Took out the copper shield around the resonant driver board and it still runs fine. I modified the MiniBrute quite a bit, with larger MMC bank, lower res frequency (~110kHz) (larger secondary and torroid). Also built large copper bus bars with DC caps less than 1" from half bridge board. She seems happy with this config. Only thing not working is the dot-bar graph on the display board - only ever shows 100A primary current (works when testing it though). not sure why this is?
I can tell by the spark pattern that it's not properly tuned yet, but need to modify the primary so I may make a new one soon. Would rather have stability (with the money spent) than absolute longest arc possible. That's just me. Now to start having fun with it
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