Hi
I have a colleague that built a crude variable 480v drive conditioner out of a 120 to 480-volt transformer, a light dimmer, and a light bulb for current limiting. He told me that the output was reaching a maximum of 380 volts. I told him that the light dimmer is not an equivalent to a variac, in that it chops up the AC waveform to limit the voltage. After getting rid of the dimmer and running the transformer's input on my variac, he asked me if there is a smaller version that he could fit in his enclosure. I told him that variacs don't get much smaller than 2 or 3 amps. I thought about using a rheostat but rheostats limit current and not voltage.
With that said, I came here to see if anyone else had a good idea on how to control voltage while keeping the 60Hz line frequency untouched. Does anyone have any ideas?
Best Regards,
Joe M
I have a colleague that built a crude variable 480v drive conditioner out of a 120 to 480-volt transformer, a light dimmer, and a light bulb for current limiting. He told me that the output was reaching a maximum of 380 volts. I told him that the light dimmer is not an equivalent to a variac, in that it chops up the AC waveform to limit the voltage. After getting rid of the dimmer and running the transformer's input on my variac, he asked me if there is a smaller version that he could fit in his enclosure. I told him that variacs don't get much smaller than 2 or 3 amps. I thought about using a rheostat but rheostats limit current and not voltage.
With that said, I came here to see if anyone else had a good idea on how to control voltage while keeping the 60Hz line frequency untouched. Does anyone have any ideas?
Best Regards,
Joe M