- #1
zuulmusic
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So I'm building a CO2 laser for fun, basically.
I have a tube that requires 11-18KV DC to fire.
Right now I have a 20A variac, a 15KV transformer (30ma out) and then I need to build a rectifier.
I have a bag of "1A, 1000V" diodes.
So far, I built a full-wave bridge rectifier out of them. I used 6 of these diodes for each "diode" in the bridge, so 24 total. This was to handle the peak voltage.
So I have the variac to the 15kv transformer to the rectifier to the tube.
I can't get the full-wave bridge rectifier to put out enough voltage.
When I use a string of diodes in a half-wave rectifier setup, It works, but I get a TON of AC in the output (tested with multimeter at low voltage levels, about 100vcd and 400vac).
Also interested in using a capacitor to level things out, but don't know what size to get. I figure 20kv peak, but what about the farads?
So any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!
Bill
I have a tube that requires 11-18KV DC to fire.
Right now I have a 20A variac, a 15KV transformer (30ma out) and then I need to build a rectifier.
I have a bag of "1A, 1000V" diodes.
So far, I built a full-wave bridge rectifier out of them. I used 6 of these diodes for each "diode" in the bridge, so 24 total. This was to handle the peak voltage.
So I have the variac to the 15kv transformer to the rectifier to the tube.
I can't get the full-wave bridge rectifier to put out enough voltage.
When I use a string of diodes in a half-wave rectifier setup, It works, but I get a TON of AC in the output (tested with multimeter at low voltage levels, about 100vcd and 400vac).
Also interested in using a capacitor to level things out, but don't know what size to get. I figure 20kv peak, but what about the farads?
So any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!
Bill