my home made inverter circuit

[Nickk2057]

now you know that will not stop me from trying

[c4757p]

now you know that will not stop me from trying

I'm all for blowing shit up if you can afford to do it, especially if you learn from it. Hell, I blew up a cap yesterday just because it was a new kind I hadn't played around with before and I wanted to know what it smelled like to expect if something went wrong with it 

[c4757p]

Remember that anything with a transformer may be less than grateful for that square wave, especially if it's a cheap transformer.

[Nickk2057]

SHIT!!! the gates hit the ground area of the case and blew one side out... hope it did not harm the other side

[c4757p]

SHIT!!! the gates hit the ground area of the case and blew one side out... hope it did not harm the other side

  It happens, dude. You don't get to work above half an amp or so without the occasional fried silicon.

Mmm... fried chips.

[Nickk2057]

damnit man... now your making me hungry XD

[Nickk2057]

at least i have more lying around XD

[c4757p]

Two words: electrical tape. Insulate that shit.

[Nickk2057]

oh i will... but its for test purposes.... but i will make a sturdy case for it to for the setup i have... maybe i will make a case for it to go in too..... tho it has to be plastic since the heatsinks do not get hot on this...

[c4757p]

Even more important for test purposes because you're bumping it around.

[Nickk2057]

true.... lucky me i got extras now anyways XD

[Nickk2057]

but i am not going to work on it tonight... to tired right now anyways

[Nickk2057]

hmm.... i found something that might proove useful..... i found a neon transformer (electronic type and not magnetic) with a 7555 timer chip setup in it on its own board... only had six pins on the board leading to the main board (which has the transformer leading to the neon sign) hope this works out... but i might need to tweak it to get it to lower frequencies

[Nickk2057]

well... the circuit i found is too high in frequency.... its at 120Hz... tho i know of how to lower it but can't find the location right now

[Nickk2057]

well... i am back to the arduino circuit and made some modifications to it..... i added two more osscilator pins on there and made some higher output on it which was great too... it lit the 200W lights with no problem and still held at 130V AC... without load it held at 180V AC... but with 200W it held at 130V.. but in the input from the battery it went to 30 AMPS.... which i know is overkill for a 7Ah battery.... but it still works good..... maybe i should make a cutout circuit next when the voltage gets too low ....

[c4757p]

200W from a 12V battery is 16A. 30A is definitely high, but you aren't going to get it any lower than 16A. And you might be putting out more than 200W, anyway.

Like I said before, the extra power has to go somewhere, and 168W will make something hot. You should be able to find where the lost power is going, and start working on it from there.

One point - wires. How heavy are they? If I remember  correctly from the picture, I probably wouldn't put more than 8A-10A through them. Are they hot?

I highly recommend you find yourself a true RMS multimeter for this stuff so you can take usable measurements. That 130V is going to be really far out from an average-responding meter. Your output waveform is nowhere near a sinusoid.

[Nickk2057]

right now i was am using a cheapy on from radio shack... which is rated up to 500V... i am using a 12G house stranded house wire to do the circuit from the transistors to the transformer..... but for the inputs to the transistors i am using some cheap wire (which i keep close eye on) to see how much amps it uses.... (kinda like a fuse) but still... 30 AMPS IS kinda high for the circuit

[Nickk2057]

well now... insead of going to big transistors.. i went to a bigger transformer... preferably a big transformer from an old car charger... it is a toroid transformer that was a 200A model from that unit...which was a score for this type of unit.... and trust me.. a picture is worth a thousand words... and also that can is a 12oz can as well... so that you all will understand the size of this beast

[Nickk2057]

and also it was the type of transformer i was using that was not working right....but this one i am using works ALOT better than the square ones...

[Nickk2057]

and also was able to light up a 500W halagen light and also a couple of 100W (with two of them) while the 500W light was still plugged in too... and it only took close to 38 amps.... which was better than with the other transformer....tho i try to do a load test and  one of my transistors. oh well... more will come

[Nickk2057]

*wonders if anyone has seen this*

[c4757p]

I tend to miss things if they scroll off the "new posts" list.

and also was able to light up a 500W halagen light and also a couple of 100W (with two of them) while the 500W light was still plugged in too... and it only took close to 38 amps.... which was better than with the other transformer....

Sounds good. The increased performance with a high power transformer makes me suspect I was right that the lost power was in the transformer. You really should try to find a way to measure the true output power. Anyone you can borrow a true RMS multimeter from?

tho i try to do a load test and  one of my transistors. oh well... more will come

Doing power electronics, especially without "proper" equipment, you're going to break a lot of transistors. Get used to the smell... 

[Nickk2057]

you seen the transformer i got from a charger? that one was a 200Amp model... which should do very well.... then i will order the transistors and line them up so i could get more power to the transformer then it being lost in the transistors... and also to use heavy guage wire of course

[Nickk2057]

I tend to miss things if they scroll off the "new posts" list.

and also was able to light up a 500W halagen light and also a couple of 100W (with two of them) while the 500W light was still plugged in too... and it only took close to 38 amps.... which was better than with the other transformer....

Sounds good. The increased performance with a high power transformer makes me suspect I was right that the lost power was in the transformer. You really should try to find a way to measure the true output power. Anyone you can borrow a true RMS multimeter from?

tho i try to do a load test and  one of my transistors. oh well... more will come

Doing power electronics, especially without "proper" equipment, you're going to break a lot of transistors. Get used to the smell... 

currently i do not know of any friends at the moment that has an RMS meter.... and if i do they will have it at work... and they will not let me in there work environment... oh well.... more braking things i guess XD

[Nickk2057]

and also i will get a RMS meter soon too... i might have to pick one up at Home Depot i guess