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Registered Member #1389
Joined: Thu Mar 13 2008, 12:50AM
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 346
Hi all, since I am new to HV and electronics, I decided that along with some friends of mine who are interested in this as well, that we would build a capacitor bank from photoflash capacitors as a simple, cheap way of starting into the hobby. My first question about this type of bank is how to connect the capacitors together. I've seen some of the bigger banks using bolts on aluminum/copper bars because soldier would vaporize at that point, but is soldier appropriate for small cap banks like this one? I do plan on pushing 1kJ with it someday, before I move on to bigger and better things. More importantly, I am having trouble understanding how the protection mechanisms on the capacitor banks work, such as the diodes for ring-back protection and connecting a volt meter to the setup. It is simple enough to chose a bleeder resistance with a simple RC constant, but how do you decide what wattage the resistor needs to be? What other safeties need to be added to the circuit. I also plan to take apart one of the charger circuits and streamline it, are there any problems with doing so to charge a large cap bank?
If I think of anything else, I'll ask. Thanks for answers in advance!
Registered Member #575
Joined: Sun Mar 11 2007, 04:00AM
Location: Norway
Posts: 263
I used a veroboard like this . Then made the rails better by soldiering a layer of soldier over the copper. This bank had about 700 J energy and the soldier didn't vaporize.
You could just use ohm's law to figure out what type of bleeders to use.
The diodes also called freewheel diode are used to take the inductive "knock backs" you get when you use a inductive load, such as an electromagnet.
I am a bit too tired to draw a schematic but i believe that the 4hv wiki have rest of information you need.
Registered Member #1394
Joined: Sun Mar 16 2008, 06:18PM
Location:
Posts: 111
You don't have to take apart the circuits go here and watch my youtube video i modding the circuit.
As for wiring the capacitors put them in parallel, if its under 330v you don't need resistors for the voltmeter but you should put them on just in case.
Registered Member #1389
Joined: Thu Mar 13 2008, 12:50AM
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 346
Thanks for posting! I found your tutorial this morning and already had one apart and built. It works great! I swapped out the second diode with one I pulled from another camera and put it on the board instead of at the end of the wire. That way I can encase the whole thing in epoxy and put a few screw terminals on it for a universal charger. I also put on a LED with longer leads for this purpose.
Registered Member #1208
Joined: Thu Jan 03 2008, 05:30PM
Location: Chesterland, OH
Posts: 154
i don't think you need a resistor on any multi meter. i use my digital one right up to the rated 1KV with no resistor. i tried a resistor (1Mega ohm) and it worked with the multimeter's impedance in a voltage divider, which caused me to overvolt my 45joule photoflash bank by 20 volts. no harm done, but be sure to compensate for the divider effect!
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Building a Photoflash Bank
