Congrat's. I'm wondering if you came across any schematics of commercial tig
inverters during your hunt? Or are they drawn as black boxes? Thanks, Jim.

"Ignoramus12834" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 26 Nov 2005 14:12:01 GMT, Glen Walpert
wrote:
On Sat, 26 Nov 2005 08:19:57 GMT, Ignoramus29530
wrote:


Just wanted to say that after slight snubber circuit modifications
(more below), I was able to test my bridge under full welding power of
199 amps.

http://igor.chudov.com/projects/Home...5-Prototype-3/

I also added a cooling fan to cool the main heatsink with IGBTs, as
well as a heatsink for the big ass diode in the snubber circuit. I
drilled a hole in that second heatsink and tapped it for 3/8-20 NF
thread, and screwed the diode in.

It is cold in my garage, perhaps 35F. Given that, and the fan action,
all parts of the bridge stayed cool, except for the main heatsink,
which became warm. Under full power, the IGBTs are expected to produce
approximately 1.2 kW of heat.

Snubber modifications: I added a little Christmas tree of 150 V rated
varistors (total of 5 now), as well as a small 0.33 uF capacitor
across the DC rail. I also remounted the snubber diode by drilling a
tapping a heatsink that I had, and screwing the diode in.

The test (among many tests at smaller amps) went on for a couple of
minutes, until the breakers blew. Like I said, nothing warmed up (I
checked caps, diode, and varistors).

Congratulations! Was that 199 A into a short or into an arc?

Thanks... It was into a short. To have a welding arc, I would need to
put the bridge to the proper place on the commutator.

i
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