Aleph-X: High-Power Version

[nania]

Blitz

real good chokes have not more resistance than the resistor you use anyhow

Even if the coil is built from wire thick enough to mitigate its resistance, the reactance remains a problem. We put caps in parallel to reduce the reactance and then we put in a coil in series to contradict the desired effect? I don't like taking one step back and then having to go two steps forward. Does your hotshot custom coil guy take quiescent current measures? Will he spec to a value and take them back if they fail to meet spec? If so, I may play with some of his coils myself because I would like to see if the "X" circuit levels the playing field to the point of sonic indifference between these two strategies.

I guess it won't help that most of the Cellp-Amps by MArk LEvinson use them, and Nelson and many others besides me like chokes

You are in good company. Have you considered that Nelson eschewed the use of a coil in his XA series and that ML might be using them as a cost cutting tool (ie.: in order to get away with using a smaller transformer).

I like a choke too when I can be assured the aforementioned problems are not issues but until then, I will enjoy them much more in other peoples amps than my own.

[GRollins]

Inductors are fine. There's no need to be suspicious of inductors in power supplies. The reason you don't see them in more pieces of commercial equipment is because they're comparatively expensive and bulky. For the average DIY critter those aren't big concerns--especially if you wind your own.
I'd use them more often, but I'm hampered by inability to get decent gauge wire here in SC. Would you believe that the biggest wire I can find in the entire blasted state is 14 ga.? And they act like that's asking for the moon. They'd rather talk about 16 ga. and smaller. I draw the line at mining my own ore, smelting the copper...there's a practical limit to this DIY thing.
<i>Sigh</i>

Grey

[Nelson Pass]

I gave up making my own transistors in the 12th grade.

[BrianGT]

Originally posted by GRollins
Inductors are fine. There's no need to be suspicious of inductors in power supplies. The reason you don't see them in more pieces of commercial equipment is because they're comparatively expensive and bulky. For the average DIY critter those aren't big concerns--especially if you wind your own.
I'd use them more often, but I'm hampered by inability to get decent gauge wire here in SC. Would you believe that the biggest wire I can find in the entire blasted state is 14 ga.? And they act like that's asking for the moon. They'd rather talk about 16 ga. and smaller. I draw the line at mining my own ore, smelting the copper...there's a practical limit to this DIY thing.
<i>Sigh</i>

Grey

Have you tried Home Depot? They have up to 0 gauge...

--
Brian

[nania]

BrianGT

Have you tried Home Depot? They have up to 0 gauge...

I've never heard of "0 gauge" wire, if it exists, what was it designed to carry and how would you work it? I'm presuming it's only available in stranded variety. Number "1 gauge" wire was meant to carry mains (25KW loads) and you need to be able to split an apple with your thumbs to work with it, I can't even imagine what "0 wire" would be like.

[GRollins]

I actually considered the possibility of making my own tubes at one point. I've got several old McGraw-Hill textbooks on the nitty-gritty involved, but decided it would be a little-bitty smidgen too far along the diminishing returns curve for me to justify the trouble.
All the wire I've seen at Lowe's/Home Depot is standard house wiring stuff with a plastic jacket. Do they have enamel insulation stuff hidden away somewhere?
I ought to come over and visit. The Atlanta area alone has a more extensive industrial base than the entire state of South Carolina. I could probably pick up all sorts of things over there.

Grey

[nania]

Well, it (0 gauge wire) evidently does existlink

[Sparhawk]

Originally posted by nania
Well, it (0 gauge wire) evidently does existlink

Actually you can go quite a bit larger than 0 gauge. Zero gauge is commonly referred to as 1/0 (one-aught), and has a maximum ampacity (as defined by the NEC) of 170A. There are also 2/0 (00) and 4/0 (0000) gauges, with maximum ampacities of 265 and 360A. Beyond that, wire sizes are measured in kcmil (thousands of circular mils), from about 300 and up.

Good luck forming a coil out of it, though.

[nania]

Sparhawk

Do you know if these wire gauge measures are a recognized ISO (or any other organization) standard? The notion that a wire can be custom made for any application was not unfathomable but I was surprised to learn that "0 gauge" is common enough to put on a wire measuring gauge and even more surprised that a Home Depot would carry it! Your comment about winding a coil with it corroborates my point about how practical it would be to use it. BTW, I have seen a transformer built with "gauge 1" wire and know the man who wound it (my uncle). It was 12"x12"x26" and weighed 320lbs and he was the one who showed me that aforementioned apple trick.

[Sparhawk]

Nania,

These are American Wire Gauge (AWG) sizes. There are other standards, such as the British SWG (Standard Wire Gauge). Metric sizes are in square millimeters. I don't know if there is an ISO standard.

These sizes are quite common in commercial / industrial applications. Our data centre here has a 600/208V step-down transformer with 2 parallel runs of 500kcmil on the secondary. (For comparison, 1 ga. wire is about 83kcmil).