Re: Potting Diode Strings

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Alexander Rice by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <alex-at-rices.myip-dot-org>

26/03/2002 00:32:55, "Tesla list" 
<tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> wrote:
Hi Malcom,
>Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of 
Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
<m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>
>
>Hi Alex,
>
>On 25 Mar 2002, at 7:46, Tesla list wrote:
>
>> Original poster: "Alexander Rice by way of 
Terry Fritz
><twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <alex-at-rices.myip-dot-org>
>> 
>> Hi All,
>> 	This whole discussion on potting a few 
>> diodes seems a little long, but FWIW here 
are 
>> my comments - firstly, if you were to use 
a 
>> full wave rectifier the greatest PIV seen 
by 
>> the diodes would be about 20v at the most 
>> (number of diodes * foward voltage drop) 
>> which kills the risk of flashover, for the 
>> time and money and effort you may as well 
go 
>> for full wave and get more power in the 
>> process. As for holding them neatly, i 
would 
>> suggest attatching them to a piece of 
>> acryllic, either with hot glue (easy way) 
or 
>> by putting four bolts though the plastic 
and 
>> gluing them in, then attach the ends of 
the 
>> four strings to the bolts.
>> 
>> as a sideline i just remebered that with a 
>> center tapped transformer you can full 
wabe 
>> rectify it with just two (strings of) 
diodes,
>> 
>> 
>> AC_1---------->|---|
>>                    |
>>                    |
>> CT-------LOAD------|
>>                    |
>>                    |
>> AC_2---------->|---|
>> 
>> 
>> Whilst i am sure all the EE's on the list 
>> knew about this it is not an obvious 
config.
>> 
>> regards 
>> 
>> alex
>
>The main problem with that configuration is 
that you aren't making 
>best use of the copper in the windings. Only 
one half of the 
>secondary is delivering power at any one 
time. A bridge would be the 
>way to go in my book. You still only need 
the same number of diodes 
>and they would be distributed in four 
strings rather than two.
>
>Regards,
>Malcolm

I know, i realised this soon after i sent it, 
rectifying it like this means you only get 
about half the peak ac voltage - which sucks 
for TC applications.

Regards

Alex