Extreme High Voltage: TinselKoil VII: Early Tuning, Top Capacity, Spark Gap
The weakened flyback has been replaced with another small one scavenged from the roadside yesterday morning. The copper thieves couldn’t pry it loose from the TV carcass but I was able to manage it.
I also tracked the mosfet failures down to the 1n4148 diodes, they just cannae take the strain, Jim. So I replaced them with UF4007 ultrafast 1 amp 1 kV rectifier diodes and now the mosfets run much cooler and the overall performance is improved. I anticipate no more problems with the flyback driver, and I have a couple spare flybacks now as well.
I found an aluminum vase that makes a nearly ideal top capacity along with the cake pans. Also visually interesting.
The secondary and primary are now close to co-resonant and the major further improvements will be focussed on the spark gap.
