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Lots of electrolytics...
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From: Bill Lemieux [SMTP:gomez-at-netherworld-dot-com]
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 1998 2:30 PM
To: Tesla List
Subject: Re: Lots of electrolytics...
Tesla List wrote:
> I believe that you can use a strobe flash tube as sort of a thyratron to
> switch power from your electrolytic capacitor bank.
Well yes, for smaller currents, but flashtubes have a rather high
on-resistance.
Run the voltage up to overcome this, and you will probably see it
shatter.
They don't like very fast turn-on times. EG&G used to have a free
"Flash Tube
Design Guide" that covered the safe operating area of flashtubes.
> Theoretically one could
> use many flash tubes in parallel for higher power outputs.
I don't think so. In all likelihood, one tube will fire before the
others
and take all the current. Flash tubes are not inherently low-jitter
designs,
but they do turn on fairly fast. This makes it difficult to cause
multiple
flash tubes to fire simultaneously.
> The Radio Shack
> xenon flash tube 272-1145 may work but is listed as a 4 watt-sec maximum
> flash energy. Anode voltage is from 200 - 400 V. Trigger voltage is 4kV.
Trigger voltage of any spark gap-type switch (including thyratrons,
trigatrons,
flashtubes, etc) should always be >/= 10X the voltage across the switch
for
low jitter (repeatable turn-on time) operation.
> Camera strobes use electrolytics so the flash tube appears to prevent
> voltage reversal on the cap itself.
And then there's the nearly non-existent inductance of the load...
> If you do try this method, please let us
> know what the extreme maximum flash energy possible with the Radio Shack
> flash tube is. You may be able to trade higher flash energy for lower life
> cycles.
Absolutely. I bet the RadShak flashtube would switch 100 watt-seconds...
once.
Incidentally, a friend of mine _has_ used a strobe circuit discharging
through
a solenoid to fling BB's around...
-Gomez
--
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