I have spent a lot of time trying to make a safe HV power supply, EVERYTHING is enclosed in plastic. All along, I kept thinking, that if I loose the groung while the thing is on, everything in the power supply goes to a high potential, and it becomes an electrocution machine! I don't why, because I have been playing around with high voltage stuff all my life, but the HV power supply really scares me.
I was talking to my neighbor, who is an electrician, and it turns out, that in homes like mine that have conduit wiring, the groung is not 100% reliable. You have to rely on the multiple connections of the conduit, and there may be corrosion leading to a poor ground. A Romex system is better but still not 100%. In critical applications, they install a dedicated ground bus.
At his suggestion, I added a ground buss. It is attached to the garage wall near the fusor and connected via 8 guage bare copper wire directly to the load service ground. I am using 8 guage two conductor Monster Cable to go from the bus to the chamber and the power supply ground. The Monster Cable has multiple fine strands of wire, is very flexible, and not easly broken. I will still use the ground wire on the power cord.
I just have a few connections to make and the demo fusor is done. Perhaps tomorrow I will get up the nerve to finish it and turn it on. But I think it is going to be a long time before I touch any part of it with the HV power supply on.
Created on Saturday, May 19, 2001 7:26 PM EDT by Thomas D Dressel Last Modified on Sunday, May 20, 2001 11:22 AM EDT by Thomas D Dressel