Designing a transformer - RF Cafe Forums

RF Cafe Forums closed its virtual doors in late 2012 mainly due to other social media platforms dominating public commenting venues. RF Cafe Forums began sometime around August of 2003 and was quite well-attended for many years. By 2012, Facebook and Twitter were overwhelmingly dominating online personal interaction, and RF Cafe Forums activity dropped off precipitously. Regardless, there are still lots of great posts in the archive that ware worth looking at. Below are the old forum threads, including responses to the original posts. Here is the full original RF Cafe Forums on Archive.org

-- Amateur Radio

-- Anecdotes, Gripes, & Humor

-- Antennas

-- CAE, CAD, & Software

-- Circuits & Components

-- Employment & Interviews

-- Miscellany

-- Swap Shop

-- Systems

-- Test & Measurement

-- Webmaster

thrival

Post subject: Designing a transformer Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:38 pm

Lieutenant

Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:22 pm

Posts: 1

Hi.

I wish to build an oscillator of the multivibrator type, for induction

heating experiments. The transformer will be 1:1 with center-tap

on the primary. Frequency between 1khz to 50khz. Needs to be

small as possible to fit on the PC board. Now here's the rub;

needs to handle 115V-230V @ 1-10Amps, but should run off as

little as 12V.

Torroids are fine, have the ARRL Handbook 2008 and many online

L calculators but am still way over my head. No idea what core material,

size, wire size, number of turns, etc. Don't want to inductively heat

the transformer, just the workpiece! Suggestions welcome, and

thank you.

l

Top

fred47

Post subject: multivibratorPosted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 12:41 pm

General

Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:51 pm

Posts: 104

Hi!

You sure have some stringent requirements.

Start with the simple ones:

Assuming your output is 115-230V@1-10 A:

230V at 10 Amps is 2300 watts, so you'll need a big core with thick wire.

At 12V input, this is about 192 Amps - so you'll need transistors rated for at least this much current. Likewise, at 230 V input, your transistor should be rated for at least 500V.

200 A and 500 V transistors are rare and expensive, and need special heat sinking and drive. You're into specialist territory, not hobbyist or experimenter territory, if I've interpreted your requirements correctly.

Good Luck!

Fred

Top

nubbage

Post subject: Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 6:36 am

General

Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:07 pm

Posts: 218

Location: London UK

As Paddy once said: If I was goin thar I wouldn't start from here.

I agree with Fred: 12V is the wrong starting point for a system consuming more than 1kW, and using transistors is also probably the wrong approach.

I would be thinking in terms of 56 volts at least, and using Triacs, not transistors. The triacs would be driven from a reliable DIL TTL or CMOS multivibrator 4047 or similar.

Why 12V?

Also you state the transformer is 1:1 ratio, but with a primary of 12V and a secondary of 115V or 230V, the ratio would be more like 10:1 or 20:1.

Are we missing something here?

Posted  11/12/2012