Recent content by loneoceans

Thanks everyone for the kind words and comments. Here's a quick update. I've since updated this build with an improved diode host. Project 450 now uses a very well machined aluminium diode block made by Lasertack from Germany. Thermal performance is in fact much improved. In addition, some...

Thanks everyone for your kind words and feedback. Thanks Paul1598419 for your concerns. The EBL 16340 batteries just about keep up with the 20+W load. Buck efficiency was measured to be just over 95% at 20W output load, which equates to just under 3A draw for those cells (which are in series)...

Hello LPF, Here's a project from end of last year, but I finally had some time to do a short post about it. Thought some folks here may be interested in. I hope this is in the correct forum category! Here's what I'm calling Project 450 - a compact, simple, fully-integrated laser platform. It...

Sig made some good summarizing points and if you follow the steps I think you'll do just fine. Steve's design is basically the same as the USSTC. The only difference is the use of the 5V part instead of the higher voltage inverter but essentially no difference. The hard part about making...

Good to finally see the schematic; looks exactly like what I thought it would be from looking at the photos. Your scope shots are fine (the recent one shows the invert as off) so it's what you should be expecting. By the way this is about *as simple* as any circuit can be (not just for coils but...

Looks like it's doing fine (i.e. one of the scope measurements is inverted right?). I'd imagine the outputs of the board are basically connected to Pin 6/7 of each UCC with one of them having a cap in series. Is there a schematic for this you can post? I think it would help me a lot instead of...

Unless your GDT is huge, it will typically saturate around a few tens of kHz, especially one designed for ~200kHz operation. What core is being used and how many turns? The DC blocking cap prevents 'flux walking' so the core will not saturate in the long run so it's an essential part, but the...

It depends a lot on what happened since there can be a lot of reasons for a failure. Though typically an antenna feed-back type system like this, especially one which requires a very strong antenna feedback, can be quite problematic if not set up and operated properly. The system works fine if...

DownWithUmbrella, The ground pin on your scope is always connected to earth ground through your mains cable. When scoping this driver, there isn't much to be worried about since everything is isolated (your driver is powered via a small transformer which is already isolated and most low voltage...

Could you post a photo of your new setup again? Like what Sig said, lets figure out if the driver is working or not first before looking at the bridge. I don't understand what I'm looking at in the scope shots. What exactly are you probing, what are you feeding in into the driver? You sound...

Down with Umbrella, Thanks for sharing the details. Here’s a very quick reply for now but let’s try to break this down into two aspects – (1) Physical construction and heatsinking, and (2) Electronics. Physical Construction That looks like an ok set-up you got there. Ideally I’d try to tidy...

DownWithUmbrella, That looks like pretty bad heating on the components!.. and it even looks like the tinning on the metal surfaces has melted, meaning that the components have got really hot. So suppose they were heat sunk to the heat sink with a sil-pad? If so this means either your...

Thanks. In fact a similar effect can be achieved the same way VTTCs do so, by using the rising sine wave of the mains to drive a small SSTC. This was designed primarily to experiment with this effect before moving on to the more complex QCW designs. It was also an exercise in developing a...

That's correct, and in fact was an active design choice. By the way, is there a way to embed youtube videos in the posts? I'm not sure if it's possible. The electrical 'crack' from typical spark discharges (speaking in a simplified way) is caused by a sudden increase in energy dumped into the...

Yep I did have a link to a youtube video at the end of my original post above :) Creating a single 'bolt' with no branching is essentially the main goal when developing this type of Tesla Coil. It was a bit of work to get right but it seemed to eventually work out. It's somewhat mesmerizing to...