Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

This forum is for specialized infomation important to the construction and safe operation of the high voltage electrical supplies and related circuitry needed for fusor operation.
Post Reply
Jacke
Posts: 42
Joined: Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:41 pm
Real name: J

Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

Post by Jacke »

I was able to get a glassman power supply that should output a good amount of voltage and current. However this appears to be a custom model and I can't find any documentation on it and glassman wants $150 for a manual. I was wondering if anyone here that could be familiar with supplies like this one could tell me why the high voltage light on the supply would be coming on but the active lights would not, and the dials would have no affect.

Image

EDIT: Problem solved.
Last edited by Jacke on Tue Dec 23, 2014 4:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Nicker
Posts: 29
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:14 pm
Real name: Nick DePasquale
Contact:

Re: Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

Post by Nicker »

Hey Jake.

Anyone here with experience might be able to help you out. You might want to start by posting a model number, which should listed on the back plate of the HVPS.
You should also add a couple more images, like one showing the rear.
prestonbarrows
Posts: 211
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2012 1:27 am
Real name:

Re: Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

Post by prestonbarrows »

There are two active lights; one for voltage and one for current. There are also two knobs; one for voltage and one for current.

You can independently set the voltage and current to any value in the supply's range. They supply will ramp up the output until either the set voltage or current limit is hit. The corresponding 'active' light will turn on to show which control is limiting the output at the moment (i.e. voltage-limited or current-limited). If you change the non-active knob nothing will change on the output since it is not the limiting parameter.

One or the other active light should be on if the output is hot.

For example, setting the knobs to 10kV and 10mA will output 10kV with something less than 10mA; unless >10mA would be drawn in which case the voltage will drop to whatever voltage will give 10mA.

In case you didn't know, which one gets tripped first will depend on the resistance of the load you have hooked up. If you didn't know that already, put the supply in a closet and go do some more reading into Ohm's Law (V = I * R) before you turn anything on and hurting yourself!

P.S. you always need at least a tiny bit of current set (not zero) to get any output.

P.P.S. there will be some screw terminals or a d-sub connector in the back. These will have pins for remote analog control/monitoring as well as interlocks. You will need to address the interlocks before it will output high voltage. This also looks like it has a secondary 'piggy back' module? If so, there will be a set of HV jumpers and a multi-pin data jumper that needs to go between the two chassis.
Jacke
Posts: 42
Joined: Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:41 pm
Real name: J

Re: Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

Post by Jacke »

Nicker wrote:Hey Jake.

Anyone here with experience might be able to help you out. You might want to start by posting a model number, which should listed on the back plate of the HVPS.
You should also add a couple more images, like one showing the rear.
Here is a picture of the back, I think everything is wired correctly. I aligned the jumpers based on what I found for glassman supplies that were similar to this one, but there is no manual for this specific model.

Image
prestonbarrows
Posts: 211
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2012 1:27 am
Real name:

Re: Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

Post by prestonbarrows »

Everything looks correct to me.

The terminals are all labeled. Ground, signal common, interlock, voltage and current control and monitor, internal controls, and reference.

First, you need to ground the interlock. Then you need to put a 0-10VDC signal on the voltage and current control pins; in your case they are jumpered to the internal control pins whose output is controlled by the front panel knobs. The monitor pins should output a 0-10VDC signal matching the voltage and current shown on the frontpanel meters. The reference pin should just be +10VDC if you want to hook up a secondary potentiometer dial for control instead of jumpering to the frontpanel ones.

Glassman supplies are made to be bomb-proof and really haven't changed in 100 years. If you look up the manual for any similar supply online, the basics can pretty easily be translated to your model if you have any idea what you are doing.

It looks like 'jumpers for normal operation' is printed below the terminals. If so, there should be a set of markings showing which pins to jumper together. But again, it looks to me like you have everything set so that it would run normally using the frontpanel knobs.

Should just need to connect the output cable to a safe place, flip the 'on/off' toggle, press 'HV ON', have one of the active lights go on, and dial up the output.

Are the fuses good? Do you get any low voltage signals on the terminals? If you don't have at least reference and ground, you have problems. Do pins 6 and 9 track with the frontpanel knobs when not jumpered? Does the fan come on when you enable HV?
Last edited by prestonbarrows on Tue Dec 16, 2014 10:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Jacke
Posts: 42
Joined: Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:41 pm
Real name: J

Re: Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

Post by Jacke »

prestonbarrows wrote: Should just need to connect the output cable to a safe place, flip the 'on/off' toggle, press 'HV ON', have one of the active lights go on, and dial up the output.
This is the problem, I can turn the power supply on and turn on the HV switch but neither of the active lights go on.
prestonbarrows wrote: Are the fuses good? Do you get any low voltage signals on the terminals? If you don't have at least reference and ground, you have problems. Do pins 6 and 9 track with the frontpanel knobs when not jumpered? Does the fan come on when you enable HV?
The fuses are fine, What do you mean by track with the frontpanel knobs? Yes the fan comes on when I enable HV.
prestonbarrows
Posts: 211
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2012 1:27 am
Real name:

Re: Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

Post by prestonbarrows »

Jake Lebovic wrote:What do you mean by track with the frontpanel knobs?
Pins 6 and 9 are 'internal voltage/current control'. The knobs on the front panel are just potentiometers from 10VDC to ground to make a voltage divider. The center tap of these pots go to pin 6 and 9. These are then jumpered to the the voltage/current control pins on the back to control the output with the frontpanel knobs (you could also connect to some fancy external control system if you wanted by changing the jumpers).

So, when you enable HV, you should have 10VDC on pin 10, and something 0-10VDC on pins 6 and 9 which actively depends on the knob position(0VDC when all the way counter clockwise and 10VDC when all the way clockwise).
Peter Schmelcher
Posts: 228
Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2010 1:56 am
Real name: Peter Schmelcher

Re: Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

Post by Peter Schmelcher »

I attached a Glassman family manual for a series of similar HV models. It contains sufficient information that a skilled technician could understand and service the electronics.
Have Fun
-Peter
Attachments
Glassman WG 90 and PS-PG .pdf
(2.06 MiB) Downloaded 645 times
Jacke
Posts: 42
Joined: Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:41 pm
Real name: J

Re: Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

Post by Jacke »

prestonbarrows wrote:
Jake Lebovic wrote:What do you mean by track with the frontpanel knobs?
Pins 6 and 9 are 'internal voltage/current control'. The knobs on the front panel are just potentiometers from 10VDC to ground to make a voltage divider. The center tap of these pots go to pin 6 and 9. These are then jumpered to the the voltage/current control pins on the back to control the output with the frontpanel knobs (you could also connect to some fancy external control system if you wanted by changing the jumpers).

So, when you enable HV, you should have 10VDC on pin 10, and something 0-10VDC on pins 6 and 9 which actively depends on the knob position(0VDC when all the way counter clockwise and 10VDC when all the way clockwise).
I got around to testing the pins with a multimeter was not able to get a reading from the pins you listed.


EDIT: I found the problem in the supply. It was just a wire to one of the low voltage transformers that had become unsoldered.
prestonbarrows
Posts: 211
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2012 1:27 am
Real name:

Re: Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

Post by prestonbarrows »

Did you get this all straightened out then?
Jacke
Posts: 42
Joined: Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:41 pm
Real name: J

Re: Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

Post by Jacke »

prestonbarrows wrote:Did you get this all straightened out then?
Yes, it works fine now.
johncollins
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:43 pm
Real name: John Collins

Re: Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

Post by johncollins »

Hi Everyone,
I'd like to ask for some help on a Glassman model KA-PG-DRIVER 5980-0020-0002
I bought this one used, but it came with no manual.

From the picture on the previous page, I see the one discussed here is somewhat similar to mine. I'm looking for a pinout of the 7 pin connector in J1. Where does these leads go to in J1 and J4?

My issue is currently that the unit and fan powers on, but when I press the HV switch nothing happens.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!
Jerry Biehler
Posts: 975
Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 3:08 am
Real name:
Location: Beaverton, OR

Re: Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

Post by Jerry Biehler »

Do you have the whole system? Sounds like you may only have the driver half of the power supply. If you picked up the one on ebay, well... sorry.
johncollins
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:43 pm
Real name: John Collins

Re: Question to anyone familiar with Glassman Supplies

Post by johncollins »

Yea, well it is what it is...didn't get it on ebay though.
I'm just trying to find the manual now, so I can look at creating my own stack.

Anyone in here have the manual for this?
Post Reply

Return to “High Voltage - Fusor Input Power (& FAQs)”