Bleeder Resistor - help?

[Kai]

I have a little EL wire project going, which I was rambling on about my 'I wish I could's.

I have a CL-ELI IPTC 9V to 3Khz inverter from Coolight.com that I can power wire with.
'I wish I could' not have to disconnect power for some momentary(like less than 2sec) load changes. An acquaintance casually mentioned why not use a bleeder resistor wired across the inverter leads on the 3Khz side before taking them out to the load, allowing me to simply quickly switch loads without frying the inverter. This sounds like a brilliant idea....if I had any idea how to calculate what Ohm resistor I would need for this.

My experience with electronics is firmly on the 'V' side and not the 'Khz' side, anyone want to give me a hand? Thanks in advance.

 

[rootboy]

I have a little EL wire project going, which I was rambling on about my 'I wish I could's.

I have a CL-ELI IPTC 9V to 3Khz inverter from Coolight.com that I can power wire with.
'I wish I could' not have to disconnect power for some momentary(like less than 2sec) load changes. An acquaintance casually mentioned why not use a bleeder resistor wired across the inverter leads on the 3Khz side before taking them out to the load, allowing me to simply quickly switch loads without frying the inverter. This sounds like a brilliant idea....if I had any idea how to calculate what Ohm resistor I would need for this.

My experience with electronics is firmly on the 'V' side and not the 'Khz' side, anyone want to give me a hand? Thanks in advance.

I would start by contacting Coolight and asking them what the load on their inverters was. And then tell them why you needed to know, and see if they have a solution out there for it already.

As for switching the load on the inverter, look for a "make before break" (MBB) type of relay. This way you will be sure to have a load on the inverter before it opens up from the electric wire.

Enjoy!

 

[(*steve*)]

I've done a little research and it appears that (at least some) inverters for EL wire use the capacitance if the wire as part of the oscillator circuit.

It is possible that switching the capacitance out of the circuit causes a problem.

You *might* be able to resolve it by permanently placing a small capacitor of sufficient voltage rating across the output. I would be guessing that you'd need maybe 10nF (0.01uF).

Just a guess, but probably also cheap to try. Be generous with the voltage rating. I have no idea what the output waveform looks like.

 

[Kai]

Thanks for the replies!

Sadly rootboy, two emails to Coolight about that have gone unanswered, I have a feeling as most of what they sell is plug and 'play' that the only person who knows is some manufacturer in China, heh.

Thanks for the suggestion Steve, that sounds reasonable to me, I'll give it a try!

In case you were curious about the exact application...
http://tinyurl.com/3h5wquz

Building some steampunk guns off a nerf base and trying to retain the chamber rotation, so...momentary load switching

 

[rootboy]

Thanks for the replies!

Sadly rootboy, two emails to Coolight about that have gone unanswered, I have a feeling as most of what they sell is plug and 'play' that the only person who knows is some manufacturer in China, heh.

I should have guessed. I've been waiting for over a week for my stuff to ship from China. They didn't waste any time debiting my Paypal account, but shipping it is another story.

Thanks for the suggestion Steve, that sounds reasonable to me, I'll give it a try!

I would plug an oscope into it beforehand just to get an idea as to what the magnitudes were. And maybe add a small resistor in series and then get the voltage drop across that. That will tell you a lot about what your loading is.

In case you were curious about the exact application...
http://tinyurl.com/3h5wquz

Building some steampunk guns off a nerf base and trying to retain the chamber rotation, so...momentary load switching

Cool!