[sdiy] Isolation transformer question..

[Tim Ressel]

Big iron can make an effective noise filter. The
transformer is less likely to pass higher frequencies.
However, big iron can and will pass 3rd harmonic quite
nicely. So while the higher freqs are given the cold
shoulder, the switcher distortion that causes bad
power factors will be invited right in. But by all
means give it a try!!

A better solution is the ferro-resonate stabilized
transformer. Sola makes them, among others. Also line
filters make to keep out noise can be had. Sadly, even
with all these wonderful devices, some noise may get
through. There is such a thing as EMI.

Speaking of which, lightning strikes that happen
nearby can cause damage, even though the electrons
never get to your gear. Think of a nearby bolt as a
big wire carrying 100,000 amps, and is parallel to the
wires on your gear. That can induce quite a current on
the parallel conductor. I had a TV once that succumed
to a strike 25 feet away.

--TR


--- Machinerygod <machinerygod at prism.net> wrote:
> Alrighty, so I want to put all the gear in my studio
> on a transformer
> to isolate it from the rest of the mains in my
> house..and preferably
> each other. Just wanted to run this by everybody in
> case there's
> something I'm not thinking of:
> 
> I'm using a super-duper medical-grade transformer I
> found discarded
> somewhere. 5KVA, .005pf capacitance (which is
> supposed to be very good
> isolation from what I've read). I've wired the
> primary windings in parallel
> for 120V input and have two separate windings each
> of 120V on the
> secondary. The idea is to have one circuit coming
> from each secondary
> winding, one with audio gear on it, the other with
> computers/TV/video
> gear/anything with a motor/non-audio on it, so as to
> reduce noise.
> 
> Is this likely to help with computer-related
> switcher noise?
>
_________________________________________________________________________________
> 1010011010==_MACHINERYGOD_!=111101001101001
> "He who wonders discovers that this in itself is a
> wonder."  -M. C. Escher
> "Dave, put down those windows disks, Dave, Dave
> ...." - HAL
> 
> "the well lived life is a series of calculated
> risks.
> If you risk nothing, you gain nothing."
> -Jack Napier, Billboard Liberation Front
> 
> "I make sound from the scum that surrounds my life"
> -Masami Akita, Merzbow
>
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> 


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