Re: Triac-dimmers in TC's

• To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
• Subject: Re: Triac-dimmers in TC's
• From: wwl-at-netcomuk.co.uk (Mike Harrison) (by way of Terry Fritz <twf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
• Date: Sat, 27 Feb 1999 13:36:10 -0700
• Approved: twf-at-verinet-dot-com

On Fri, 26 Feb 1999 21:16:28 -0700, you wrote:

>Original Poster: Gary Lau  26-Feb-1999 1740 <lau-at-hdecad.ENET.dec-dot-com> 
>
>Has anyone had experience using a solid-state off-the-shelf lamp dimmer
>to control the speed of a motor in a Tesla Coil?  I'm currently using a
>variac on my gap's vacuum cleaner motor, but I thought I'd save some
>space and just use a solid-state dimmer.  The motor is an AC/DC
>"universal" type.  I'm just wondering if the voltage spikes and
>interference would either toast the semiconductors or confuse the control
>circuit.  Please don't speculate and suggest using a filter unless you
>know, from experience, that it won't work without it.
>
>Thanks, Gary Lau
>Waltham, MA USA

At the very least, you will probably need to put a snubber network
(100nf + 100R) across the dimmer's triac, as they often misbehave with
inductive loads.

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