Build Your Own Low-Voltage Transformer, Part 2

The first part of this article showed you how to build a low-voltage power source using parts that may already be in your junk box. We conclude here with tips on using your new tool and keeping things safe.

DAN SWENSON

Last month, we dealt with the construction of a low-voltage transformer (Photo A).1 This tool can supply low voltage AC excitation to unknown iron-core power transformers to help identify and characterize them. The low-voltage approach is intended to reduce the likeliness and severity of electric shock. As mentioned last month, safety and liability are your own responsibilities. You are the responsible party, no one else. This concluding article will offer an old safety procedure to reduce risk, and a few examples of how to use this tool. Continuity Testers I advocate using continuity testers. These simple devices can rapidly discover shorts and open circuits, and you do not have to read any numbers. Simple continuity tests can also help reveal unsafe or defective transformers. Healthy transformers should exhibit a continuous…

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CQ Amateur Radio (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 2023

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