DIYbanter - View Single Post - FX-6A flashtube availability and data

In article ,
(DoN. Nichols) wrote:

According to Joseph Gwinn :
In article ,
(DoN. Nichols) wrote:

According to Joseph Gwinn :

[snip]

OK. But I bet they read the MIT Radiation Labs series (which laid out
the technical basis for radar, as developed in great secrecy during
WW2).

Quite likely. Or encountered it in their college classes
recently enough so they still remembered it.

Before my time -- I had to read the old books.

This was in the early to mid 1960s, IIRC, so those had a chance
of having encountered it in their classes.

I was in High School back then.

I just got an isolation transformer (Tripp-Lite, 250 watt), so I can now
see the voltage waveforms in the AC powered strobe. After changing the
wiring in the isolation transformer: They had the output-side white
(neutral) hooked to the green (case), which makes sense for many
applications, but not for working on transformerless line-powered
electronics.

Agreed. I think that my isolation transformer is Triad, and
IIRC it has a rotary switch to make adjustments to the output voltage to
test equipment at slight over-voltage, and slight under-voltage.

I haven't seen that. Does Triad still exist?

Anyway, I'll just use a variac at the input to vary the voltage.

However, Tripp-Lite made it easy to fix. All I had to do
was take the cover off, unbolt the grounding terminal, and insulate it
with some green heat-shrink tubing, yielding the desired floating output.

I'm seeing what I assume is interference from the main flash pulse
getting into the optical shaft-angle sensor. It appears harmless, but I
wonder what the path is, and what else it's getting into. The path is
not optical, and the effect occurs long after the trigger pulse has died
away.

O.K. *Which* AC-powered strobe? Not the Strobotach, since it
doesn't have an optical shaft angle sensor to start with. Have you
started working on something else while I wasn't looking?

No, it's the rotation-locked one I built for viewing a coil winder in
action. Without the transformer, I was flying blind because I couldn't
scope anything worthwhile in the line-connected circuitry.

Joe Gwinn