2500 Watt ZVS Induction Heater with Frequency Counter & Other Nice Updates

Here I show you several Upgrades to the system including a dedicated Frequency Counter and then test several materials for frequency response. I now feel that I haven a usable small Induction Heating System.

[@f.d.6675]

I like your pronunciation, it's easily understandable even for non-natives

[@bulldozer7656]

I'm waiting on my 2500 w unit, but this is exactly what I had in mind. Great build! Thank you

[@victoryfirst2878]

Thanks for all the information for us to use and understand too.

[@mattamiller]

Thank you for sharing your experimentation with this. I will be interested to see the final setup, and the coil designs affect on frequency. Also interested to see the utility of this with your power hammer or whatever other use cases you have for this.

[@tanner1985]

Congratulations for your hard work, and greetings from Italy!

[@clicktoxic4439]

was , wondering, what would be the necesary set up to proprely melt stainless steel, ur same crusible size ur using right now

[@frenchcreekvalley]

I have not yet attempted to melt any ferrous materials in a crucible.

[@vrvr6263]

All this dc voltage why? Then all this work to monitor frequency. I admit it’s a good thing to know just because but I’d be more worried about amp draw and that evp cool temp. I love your Chanel and you inspire me to build one too. I’m just gonna wait until you work the kinks out 😉

[@vrvr6263]

Ok the zvs driver is DC I see now

[@jonm4467]

I am still a little confused on how you connected a frequency counter to this zvs circuit. Is the positive and negative connected directly to the positive and negative of the zvs circuit?

[@frenchcreekvalley]

See 4:59 where I explain the little "antenna" that acts as a transformer secondary to catch the oscillations of the work coil. The sine wave signal goes to the Schmitt trigger board that is located underneath the frequency counter where it is turned into a square wave to feed the frequency counter itself. See 4:12, where I begin describing the whole counter thing in some detail

[@jonm4467]

@@frenchcreekvalley Ok I think I understand it a little better. Is this the same procedure of you were to connect the Ava to an oscilloscope? Would you still make the 40 turn coil in close proximity and connect that to the oscilloscope?

[@frenchcreekvalley]

@@jonm4467 Your suggestion for connecting an oscilloscope would work, but I usually connect the scope between any one gate and ground of the induction heater. You can also connect the scope across the work coil, but you MUST have the scope's ground isolated in most cases. I have a little battery powered scope that can be connected that way. For a more complete explanation of the frequency counter, see: spaco.org/Blacksmithing/ZVSInductionHeater/MakingAFrequencyCounterForNoisyAndSineWaveInputs.htm

[@caeiranir-dk4rw]

Hi, could you plz share schmitt trigger circuit?

[@frenchcreekvalley]

It is here: spaco.org/Blacksmithing/ZVSInductionHeater/MakingAFrequencyCounterForNoisyAndSineWaveInputs.htm

[@caeiranir-dk4rw]

@@frenchcreekvalley Thank you very much

[@caeiranir-dk4rw]

Hi, In schmitt trigger circuit antenna connect to GND and INPUT of circuit right? also capacitor is non polar right? Is wire size for antenna important?

[@frenchcreekvalley]

Yes, antenna connects across GND and INPUT. Yes, use non polarized capacitors. the voltage generated by the antenna is on the order of 1.75 to about 2.5 volts peak to peak. No, the wire size is not important. The wire that I used is solid wire of about 20 gauge because It had a lot of it. Solid wire stays coiled better than does stranded wire. You could use just about any size of insulated wire that you can find.

[@frenchcreekvalley]

@@caeiranir-dk4rw Sorru! My mistake. Should read 560pf. It is labeled "561". The actual value probably isn't all that important anyway. Maybe a little higher if the incoming signal is very noisy, In this application, we get a pretty nice sine wave.

[@tenlittleindians]

Will that melt any metals in those crucibles?

[@frenchcreekvalley]

It will indirectly melt non-ferrous metals such as copper, silver, gold and aluminum. I have melted 250 grams of copper to a good pouring temperature in about 7 minutes. What I mean by "indirectly", is that you must put the metal into graphite crucible. The graphite crucible heats up and, by conduction and radiation, heats the copper. I do not think it will melt steel in any useful way.

[@BoyanSilyavski]

can this thing heat knife blade to 850C?

[@frenchcreekvalley]

Yes it can.