High Voltage Episode 8 How To Test Your Neon Sign Transformer

The Best Safety Glasses I've Ever Used - amzn.to/3oNSCYL
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Church of Tesla -

[@jimhelgeson]

Chris, I don't know why you got into NSTs, but I needed to know about them in that I have a small neon sign collection. Learned about GTO wire and wiring up and mounting the neon etc. Had a couple neon star lights (from a drive in theater) stop working and that is when I found you and how to test a high voltage transformer. I found the transformer to the stars had died and one of my extra transformers was also bad. Thanks for the clue on how to test these old monsters. Also, from your lesson on how to read the labels on the transformers, I see most of mine are from the 50's (Acme brand!). Jim

[@TechnoW1zard]

Great video! Covered lots of very important points. Looking forward to more.

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

Thank you! They're coming!

[@thebadhd5659]

thanks for your tutorials, you saved my life. for real

[@NickHorvath]

glad to see you getting into real content now. was getting tired of watching how to crimp and heat shrink. :) Looking forward to where you take this.

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

Robot videos are coming back soon, there will be more crimping and heatshrink, but those are important skills to master in the HV world as well.

[@riverrist]

As a noob, I am glad he shows how such basic things are properly done.

[@grantpeterson2524]

Hey there! Your videos have been immensely helpful. A brief question; why isn’t drawing arcs to ground considered a ground fault in this case? Doesn’t your house’s GFCI trigger if *any* current flows to ground? Maybe I am misunderstanding something. Thanks!

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

Hi there Grant! Good question! Typically you won't be able to run an NST on a GFI circuit for exactly that reason, they spaz out with things like this and trip. This is also why GFI NSTs are garbage for Tesla Coil use.

[@MrDuffman83]

Nice and interesting video

[@David-sw3on]

Wow You Are A Really Awesome & A Super-Safe Teacher! And This Makes you,Well ...Really Awesome lol. Thanks for All The Great Info👍😉🇨🇦

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

awwwwwwwwww thank you :) I'm sincerely glad you're enjoying the series!

[@pankajmazumder2860]

If i want 12KV output connecting both the end of wires to the ceramic output of the transformer, do i need to keep the ground open ?

[@robot5091]

This is awesome 😎

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

Glad you're enjoying them. :) There's a lot more episodes to go!

[@combycat]

Could you drive one with a ballast? or would it arc over and kill the secondary before any meaningful voltage could be made?

[@prestontingley8914]

I’d love to build a high quality small sgtc, but every 12kv nst I search up has gfi, and the ones without are very expensive. Looking forward to next video and hopefully some tips on where to look for them;)

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

You're going to be very happy with something I'm working on to solve that exact problem. :) Hang in there.

[@Smiltch]

(6000) + (-6000) = 0. The primary is single phase. Even a capacitor in risk of becoming a bomb can only theoretically phase shift 90 degrees.

[@thecyborg6718]

If you ground the test lead dont it cant destroy house apparatuses?

[@TipsyRavenSailing]

ordered new safety glasses thank you :)

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

You're welcome sir! Thank you for supporting the show!

[@michaelprice7601]

Will you be making a video about sourcing an NST? (I may have missed if you did 😬) I’ve been on the hunt for a while now (in New Zealand) but haven’t managed to find anything good. Any tips?

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

Not only am I making a video on it, I'm actually working on establishing a source for guys just like you :) Hang in there, it gets better! :)

[@michaelprice7601]

@@ChaoticGoodChris ohhhh boy, this sure does bring a smile to my face. I’m so happy to see HV content coming from you again, I used to watch videos of you guys in the lab with thumper and your Tesla coils and stuff and it was my dream to go to the geek group when I was older (unfortunately that won’t happen but oh well). Keep up the great videos :)

[@firefox1136]

Nice. But there are also NSTs with a SGFP (secondary ground fault protection) where if you do this it will shut down. Then you usually have to press a button on the side to leave that protection mode. (Also btw you didn't give us the link to the safety glasses).

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

Safety Glasses - amzn.to/3oNSCYL

[@firefox1136]

@@ChaoticGoodChris Thank you. I will buy some.

[@aidanbusby1723]

What if the nst starts to buzz very audibly?

[@Daerux2]

A question, if only one of the secondaries on the transformer works, is there some notable reason to not just use that side for 6kVAC? I'm thinking there wouldn't be an extreme risk of fire as long as the faulty secondary is without load.

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

We'll be talking about that soon, short answer, carbon tracking and fire.

[@Daerux2]

@@ChaoticGoodChris Saturday night at work. I hear ya.

[@arainadiaz9219]

Fence charger sounding in background?

[@grantparnes]

If I take your exact set up..............put some 10 ga wire on the lead you were getting the arc on...............strip the end of the wire back about 6 inches...............put it down a gopher hole and wait for the little bastard to come back and close the hole up................when he/she/them steps on the bare wire have I eliminated my gopher in that hole and I can move on to the next gopher mound? I can see this mounted on a dolly, with an inverter, car battery and even a solar panel for self contained mobil gopher control.

[@Storyideas81]

What causes the discoloration on the hot stick? After a few arcs the copper wire on the hot stick began to change color.

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

Oxidation/Corrosion

[@Tdotttttt]

How dangerous are these things if you accidentally touched the top of the box with wet hand? As much as love neon signs and wish they make a come back, the only thing thats scary is that they use such high voltage and I am worried if the manufacters might get sloppy and end up killing people with these transformers.

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

Depending on what you touched, nothing or a LOT of pain you won't soon forget (and the very real possibility of death). NSTs are certainly dangerous, but they're worlds safer than the mountains of MOTs that young people are playing with out there right now. I would much rather people be starting out with NSTs than MOTs.

[@allisonallen7279]

Can you do a video of showing how to remove GFCIs from newer NSTs

[@MichaelRBaron]

Please do not do this. There is no good reason to do this. I've seen too many grocery stores catch fire from non-ground fault transformers. If you need less voltage, use a smaller transformer.

[@lifeoftekki]

9:00 - 9:13 God damn i missed this so much !

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

You and me both :) It's good to be back doing what I love.

[@jeenkzk5919]

Yeah, my house was built in the 50s. Not a lot has been updated internally since then. Probably not a good idea to try this.

[@hamidbesharati3688]

How do you measure the output with a hv-probe? Where should you install the ground lead to?

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

Well, how does a HV probe work? Where do you think you should connect your ground lead?

[@hamidbesharati3688]

@@ChaoticGoodChris Ground terminal. But this way i dont get the output hv voltage, i just get the voltage from one side to the ground. I am using it as high voltage source for a project, and i need to record the high voltage applied voltage.

[@hamidbesharati3688]

@@ChaoticGoodChris another quastion, if i connect the ground clip of hv probe to ground terminal, wouldnt my oscilloscope get damaged, should i use a isolating transformer before auto transformer and then connect the auto transformer to neon sign transformer primary?

[@TomTomGo36]

now I want to hear thumper going of after electricity is like watter in a pipe..... man has it been since i heard that

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

It's coming, we have a lot of videos to get through before we bring out the BIG toys, but it's coming.

[@phild.1122]

Can the two outputs be shorted, does it make an arc?

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

Yes but don't do it too much as it drives the transformer to full load. Yes it will arc across the two output terminals.

[@PasiSavolainen]

So there are no charged components in the transformer? All poles are safe to touch as soon as the plug is pulled?

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

Well that's a Black Sheep In Scotland problem. So it's always best to ground out everything before you go sticking your hands in there. You never know what "Feature" someone has put in there and some transformers can have various types of stored charges in them and give you a poke for a short while after shutdown. But THIS transformer on my bench, is safe. I cannot speak for any other transformer.

[@PasiSavolainen]

@@ChaoticGoodChris So it gets a bit complicated as you can't ground out with the "now unplugged" ground

[@paradox9644]

Power factor correction capacitors are always a risk.

[@MichaelRBaron]

Always hit a terminal like that with the ground stick or the insulated screwdriver you like the least before touching it. It'll discharge any latent voltage, and show you it's dead. Core and coil transformers like that are generally dead as soon as you pull the plug. Electronic transformers will have plenty of voltage left for a few seconds due to all the caps and circuitry inside.

[@milledel]

Where's the link to the safety glasses? I need to protect my other eye.

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

It's in the description, and in this comment. amzn.to/3oNSCYL Tada.

[@monroerepublican5381]

When you read the output info off the label off the transformer, it gives a just a voltage number, while on the input it clearly states VAC. I thought that meant the output voltage was DC, rectified, for a neon sign. You seem to be stating that the output is AC just like the input. Why are the labels unclear about this?

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

Classic core and coil NSTs like this are all AC on both sides. They don't label them for it, because it's assumed.

[@sampojo]

@@ChaoticGoodChris TYVM!

[@frankluikart4122]

Chaotic good ? bet he played D&D growing up lol

[@SamSitar]

how does current limiting work?

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

There will be many videos talking about current limiting. Hang tight.

[@MrGil1977]

Thank you for your time dedicated to this instruction.

[@jamesconstantino4808]

Is that a 12kv AC or DC

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

Transformers make AC.

[@geterdnboy]

when are you going to get around to teaching how to do the math for a 15/30 nst bucket cap spark gap powdered tesla coil ???

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

Good question! It's coming soon, one piece at a time.

[@barrasin1]

i got one microwave transformer

[@stevewhite6252]

That robot arm is interesting to watch but its also distracting.

[@ChaoticGoodChris]

It was moving about 500% faster than it's supposed to. I have since chilled it out a bit.