Xenon Short Arc Igniter Help? (fwd)

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Original poster: <sroys@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2005 21:21:39 -0500
From: Charles Brush <cfbrush@xxxxxxx>
To: High Voltage list <hvlist@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Xenon Short Arc Igniter Help?

Hi everyone,

I have a 750w xenon short arc aviation lamp that I bought on ebay a 
few months ago, and I am trying to piece together a power supply for 
it.  The lamp requires about 41 amps at 18 volts DC, so I thought a 
small DC arc welder might make a good supply for it.  There are some 
pretty cheap inverter models that are very light, and have 
continuously variable current.  The problem is what do I use as an 
igniter circuit to initiate the arc?  I gather about 30kV is 
required, and building some simple flyback kinda thing wouldn't be 
hard.  What I don't quite get however is how I'd keep the HV out of 
the rest of the power supply.  it just has to initiate the arc and 
then isolate itself.  Any comments or suggestions would be quite 
welcome, and if anyone here has used short arc lamps I'd love to hear 
your experiences.  I am well aware of the hazards of these kinds of 
lamps and will take full precautions (I have also been collecting 
antique carbon arc lamps for years...as well as building big Tesla 
coils and other fun things).  Thanks for reading this post!

Zap!

Charles Brush