I am a former member of VHS. I haven’t been in a long time.
Recently I have been working to create a new kind of 3-phase-to-DC power converter. I have already designed a version of the control circuit, and have built a version of it. I don’t know where I’ll be able to test the full thing when it’s complete, as I don’t have access to 3-phase power at home.
Firstly, does VHS have 3-phase power?
If so, would VHS have a use for a 3-phase-to-DC power supply?
I’m asking this because I would like to have an application to configure it to when I build the first one. I would also rather have it somewhere delivering power to something than just sitting in my closet. Therefore, if VHS has a use-case for a 3-phase-to-DC power supply, I would like to make one for this.
Hi Liam, thanks for the offer. To test your converter I would suggest looking into a more formal electronics lab environment at UBC, BCIT, or SFU. VHS isn’t equipped for such purposes. All the best with your project!
What do you mean? To test that it achieves it’s basic functionality, I would just need a 3-phase power source and an oscilloscope. I have an oscilloscope at home but not 3-phase power. What else do you think I would want to do that I can’t do at VHS?
While I’m sure you’ve spent a lot of time on this circuit design, plugging a newly designed home-made power converter into high voltage power is also an unacceptable risk to VHS members and VHS property imo. Good luck with your testing!
Oh. I wasn’t planning on plugging it into anything very high-voltage. I was thinking of just plugging it into the mains power, which would be something from 120 to 240 volts AC. I would then use some off-the-shelf transformers to step the voltage down to a lower level, depending on what’s being powered. The secondary side of the transformers would feed into my custom circuit.
The kind of thing I’d be doing during testing isn’t much different from what I’ve seen others do back when I was a member. I’ve definitely seen people plug things in in-front of them with live wires exposed. Of course, I would never leave anything there plugged-in with exposed wires. I wouldn’t even leave it there enclosed without approval. If you are really concerned about this, I may enclose the transformers inside a case before plugging in the thing. If that’s still not enough, I may be willing to pay a trusted member a small sum to supervise the test.
However, if there really is a place at UBC where I would be allowed to do this, I may look into that too.
Also look into Variable Frequency Drives. They are often used to power three phase motors from single phase sources, and may be able to help you out in your testing.