Recommendations for essential measurement/bench tools for HV experimentation

high voltageinductormosfetoscillator

I'm making plasma sculptures, and am also really interested in making big arcs and tesla coils. I started with some newer TV flybacks and the 2N3055 single-transistor flyback driver, and am moving on to ZFS and/or 555 drivers. My transistors run hot (and burn up) so I need to do better measurement of what is happening (and tuning of the flybacks).

I think there is a set of measurement tools that will make my life easier, and I am hoping you can add to the list and also tell me what brands are the most cost-effective – remember, this is just a hobby (in a down economy):

  1. Good multimeter

    • resistance
    • continuity
    • volts and current, DC & AC

    nice to have:

    • capacitance
    • inductance
    • transistor testing

  2. HV probe for said multimeter

    • measures up to 40kV

  3. A frequency counter (?) up to 1MHz (?)

  4. An oscilloscope (or digital acquisition device to show waveforms on a computer), the more inputs the better, up to 1Mhz(?)
    5 (not a measurement tool) A good power supply to generate up to 16V and 50V at the same time or two power supplies

What else would be nice to have, and would speed up development? And reduce the number of transistors and MOSFETs I burn up?

Best Answer

Oscilloscope is probably the one thing that will give you the biggest help. But 1MHz is a very poor bandwidth for an oscilloscope. A standalone oscilloscope shouldn't start increasing much in price until you reach 50-100MHz in bandwidth, and you'll need that much to do any sort of debugging in transistors.

You'd also need high-voltage probes. (100 or 1000:1 probes instead of the usual 10:1).

I wouldn't bother with the frequency counter; most oscilloscopes would cover that feature.

Just for some datapoints, a brand new Agilent DSOX2002A 70MHz oscilloscope has a list price of US$1230, and it looks like you can get used 50-100MHz analog oscilloscopes on Ebay for < US$100 -- buyer beware. Stick with reputable oscilloscope brands like HP/Agilent, Tektronix, Lecroy, and avoid the other brands if possible. (Whereas for multimeters, you're generally OK -- I've used BK Precision and ExTech multimeters and they're fine.)

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