Inverter gone bang

[minimutly]

Well I had a blown thyristor, with no spare. So, since they are effectively two in one, one for the positive half cycle, one for the negative, I figured using the good half of two separate ones, and as luck would have it I still had one of each.
Wired it all up, switched on, and it ran - for 30 secs.
Anyway, another driver board fault, that was 3 weeks ago. In all the testing I managed to blow a 4010 chip.
Tonight it all went back together for the umpteenth time, switched on, and I nearly did a jig. Running like a dream! I even made a little video, which I'll try to upload.
Now, I'd like to say that it all ended happily, but it didn't, 10 minutes or so later one of the snubbers started spraying smoke out like it was going out of fashion. So it's in bits again, I'm hoping this snubber has been the root of the original problem, so I'll try another in its place. Should know by Sunday afternoon ( I'm off up north tomorrow with work, back Friday evening, hopefully in time for the rugby.
All the best,
Huw

[minimutly]

Damnit, can't copy and pase with this useless tabet, bring back laptops.
Huw

[minimutly]

Well I had it working, test started three or four times, even started to believe.  It didn't last, blew my last thyristor, so chucked it under the bench and dragged another one, of a different type, that must have been there at least 10 years out.
That was three, maybe four weeks ago.
I spent a couple of nights working out the control wiring and fired it up.
Initially it filled the wkshop with smoke, from some previously overheated connections and the dc charging relay.
I fixed these one by one, and lo - it just sat there...
Anyway, some dc (low voltage) guesswork - I mean fault finding, showed the two positive supply regulators weren't giving anything out. Tracing the circuit by holding the Pcb up to the light, removing and testing the regulators drew a blank, so I cut some tracks to isolate various parts of the circuit.
Bear in mind every time I do this I have to remove the Pcb, do the soldering,refit and test, and it takes some time.
Fast forward to tonight , I'd pinned it down to a tantalum bead capacitor, which I replaced with something pretty close. Switched on and bugger all happened...
So back to the drawing board and work logically, which led me to the capacitor I'd just replaced, tested it, and sure enough it was duff.
Replaced it again ( but with a tested one this time) and damn it all, it worked, I had a dc supply.
Linked the start relay, and away it went, like a good un!
To say I'm a happy bunny is an understatement, it's only taken 3 months, which I should have spent on my trike. So now to mount this on the wall, wire it up and enjoy a long and happy relationship with my "new" inverter.
All the best from west wales

[triker_Chewie]

happy endings!
well done sir