Strange Results From Electronic SSG Trigger Part 1

[Peter Murray]

Hi All,

I have some strange results to share. I recently built an electronic trigger that uses a Arduino that works as follows.
Arduino receives opto signal from SSG this is received as an interupt, trigger fires on a 20 percent duty cycle. The output from
the Arduino goes to the bases of the MJL21194's. which also includes a potentiometer.

Now for the strange stuff.
Photo 1 shows 'h' wave as produced from electronic trigger
Photo 2 shows 'h' wave + trigger signal
Photo 3 shows DMM reading secondary battery voltage
Photo 4 shows DMM reading 0.0 as the positive probe is disconected
Photo 5 shows DMM reading nearly 2000V with only the negative probe connected.
this does overload the DMM and a '1' is displayed.

This anomaly happens at a certain setting on the potentiometer, as you will see in part 2 I have included further photos from the scope.

[Peter Murray]

Strange Results From Electronic SSG Trigger Part 2

Photo 6 shows thick vertical line from the trigger wave
Photo 7,8 & 9 show same line at different timing

I have reproduced this effect two days running and until I get to the bottom of this I will not change the set up
except for testing one setting at a time starting with probe cables and DMM.

Observations;

Adding an Earth kills the effect.
Using both DMM Probes on the secondary battery results in a fluctuating reading around 50 - 60v

At this stage I am not going to guess what is happening, I have got a list of ideas that I want to try but it does seem to be charging through one wire.
I would appreciate any experiences from the group on this.

Peter

[Nofear]

He are few thoughts for your consideration:
Please include the use of neon bulb in lieu of a voltmeter, Also check if you see sparks when you rub the lead to the battery connector. How is your battery charging with one wire?
Good work,
NoFear

[RS_]

Take a neon bulb with one lead hooked a clip lead, and hook the other end to your earth gnd, then probe around the charging battery's with the other lead on the neon, and see if the neon glows......

Chad and i have seen this once, and JB shows this in a video some where

[Brodie Gwilliam]

ive had weird stuff happen when i had a burned out potentiometer, im guessing their was a spark gap being produced inside of it, whats the resistance on the pot when its happening?disconnect it to see if it actually is charging fast? current draw from primary? at certain frequencies ive also seen voltmeters go haywire and not like it

[Peter Murray]

Hi all,


further tests reveal the following:


1) DMM replaced with spare DMM display same high voltage.


2) Connecting DMM positive probe to the secondary positive terminal destroys the
high voltage and shows the true battery voltage.


3) Analogue meter did not show any voltage.


4) Replaced potentiometer with resistor, same high voltage.


5) Only happens on the negative pole of the secondary battery but connecting the
DMM negative probe to the secondary positive terminal shows the same high voltage.


6) Frequency of wave = 2.5Mhz


7) Only happens when the scope is connected.
a) CH-1 negative lead conected to the negative rail on the circuit board.
b) CH-2 positive lead to the trigger circuit.

This is the least possible scope connections to allow high voltage to the
negative pole on the secondary battery.
Connecting CH-1 positive lead to collector of transistor shows 'h' wave but
does not affect high voltage reading.
Connecting the CH-2 negative lead to the trigger circuit, desroys high voltage.


8) So as not to smoke my transistors I decided not to remove positive lead from
the seconday battery. But I have connected a second battery negative to secondary
battery negative only. ie. one wire only.
a) DMM negative probe displays same high voltage on the negative or positive terminal.
b) Using analogue ammeter 0.5mA scale did not show any reading.
Battery test still running.

No conclusions as yet only ideas as to why this anomaly is happening.

[Peter Murray]

Just a quick update on the single wire charging.

I can charge the battery from around 12.00V to 12.31V, even if I keep charging the battery so that a battery voltage
during charging shows above 15.0v it still returns a resting voltage of 12.30V

I have just ordered the West Mountain CBA IV so that I can take accurate charge/discharge rates of this anomaly.

To recap
This is currentless charging at over 2000V and very high frequency. It is using only one wire. That is as much as I can say for definate.