Transformer Corner part 3

Designing your own HV Transformer

In Transformer Corner Part 2, I looked at the power supply used in my early Prototype, and showed how to determine the key requirements for the HV transformer.

Now, let’s see how I could choose the materials and design the transformer – without any pesky mathematical formulae!

A hand-wound HV transfomer!

The end goal – a hand-wound HV transfomer!

Picking a core

The first challenge was to find a suitable core from my junk box. First off, recall from Part 1 that this couldn’t be iron (too ‘slow’ for 151 kHz), and it couldn’t be air (too ‘weak’ for 25mA). I suppose I could have tried plastic, milk, or even beer – but I knew better. I knew about a substance called Ferrite.

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