On 2012-10-10, Pete C. wrote:

"DoN. Nichols" wrote:

On 2012-10-10, Karl Townsend wrote:
Xmas came early this year, a couple a great big variacs showed up in
the mail today. Thank you Santa Pete.

[ ... ]

Note that many powerstats (these are not General Radio Variacs,
based on the photos -- use "variable autotransformer" for a generic
term) as well as genuine Variacs have extra taps, so you can boost the
line to something like 140 V with a 120 V input per autotransformer.
And because these can be wired to increase CW or CCW, they often have a
lower tap as well, so they are (in series) 20V, 100V and another 20V if
you want boost. You probably don't want boost.

Lighting control variacs don't have extra taps or "boost" capability,
just simple 0-120.

O.K. I wasn't sure, so I mentioned that for completeness. If
it doesn't have them, ignore them. :-)

Somebody else may wind up dealing with a variable autotransformer (under
whatever name) and find this with a search someday. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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