High voltage spike measurement

Thread Starter

chetanagorle

Joined Jan 17, 2007
1
Dear friends, I wanted to know the procedure for high voltage spike measuement. i.e, consider my source is 230v supply and I'm using some step down transformer to convert it into 5v as my ADC is 5v ADC and then I measure the voltage fluctuation by digital processing on acquired data. Now my problem is if sudden 1-2 kv voltage spike is there on 230v supply then how to measuer it? as if I feed the signal through same channel as 230-5v conversion Transformer then that 1-2 kv will convert into 400v or somewher near but 400v is too high for my ADC. so can u please help me to find out general idea to do it. u can mail me to my id.
 

beenthere

Joined Apr 20, 2004
15,819
Hi,

You would need to reduce the spike voltage by a factor of 80 to be able to measure it. Voltage spikes also tend to be quite narrow in time - the chance of your A to D catching it are pretty small. The better device to use is DSO set to trigger on a spike. That will give you a better picture of the spike.

The problem is that voltage spike of that magnitude are going to damage your equipment. The best bet is to put something like some ZNR snubbers in the mains to eliminate the spikes before they eat your gear.
 
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