hint well taken. I've been reading all your comments but I won't have any useful feedback until later. this just dropped down on my supervisor-written list of priorities. I tried hooking my clampmeter to the oscope as I mentioned but I seem to have a problem with my clamp meter - it's not reading current - big problem for a clamp meter. I am going to send it off for repair.did you have a look at the link I posted?
I can't remember it very well, because it's been a while, but I did a test on exactly this phenomen, and as far as I remember I was surprised seeing a bigger inrush current when the transformer was connected at zero voltage. Maybe someone should test this again...