You might want to put the Variac under load and check what your wall socket voltage is providing before and after. You might just be losing some voltage through your house/bench wiring. I stuck a AC display in-line to my bench and found at 11A load my wiring was dropping the voltage by 8VAC. Will be replacing the extension cord shortly with a better AWG. Nice to see the insides of the Variac.

@AnotherMaker

Жыл бұрын

That's actually a really good idea. I will absolutely be checking this. My office is a distance behind my house powered by what is most likely undersized wire for the distance.

Nice to see that Circuit Specialists is still around. I used to get my home PCB etching supplies from them, back when that was still a thing. LOL

I have killed like 4 of those from Circuit Specialists. Eventually gave up them and got a Staco 3PN2210B

That Hantek meter is awesome!!! I think that Voltage drift over 30min seems nominal to me. Havent heard the name MKme Lab in a while as well :-) Build quality looks solid

@AnotherMaker

Жыл бұрын

Mkme lab is still going strong. Making some really good content. Yeah. The hantek is big and chunky, but it makes a really nice data logger. I really like being able to sit at my desk and see what's going on across the room.

20A Variable Autotransformer - 0-130VAC - Dual Digital Display - TDGC3-2D Variac should do a vid!

@AnotherMaker

Жыл бұрын

I have a new one coming in on Wed that has the dual display with current.

The main differences between the cheap import I got and this one is the meter and the outlet. Still disappointed by the "strain relief" schmoo on the incoming power cable.

@AnotherMaker

Жыл бұрын

Yeah. One of those meters might be a nice mod to make for yours. Seems like it's not quite a necessity but definitely makes it simpler to use. I did see people complaining about voltage swings of +/- 10VAC on some models. Glad this one seems stable.

I started building a variac like a year ago found one big ass transformer (i think its rated 800w, also pretty old as it has lots of bakelite) lying in trash in a junkyard, paid $20 but never completed it cause i wanted it to be really pretty and couldnt find two identical analog meters so its collectinf dust right not missing only a knob switch and a voltmeter

@AnotherMaker

Жыл бұрын

It's funny, I was just thinking it would be fun to build one. I have no idea what I would do with it, but still could be a fun experiment.

The graduations on the top are actually percent :) Happy making!

@AnotherMaker

Жыл бұрын

Is it really? It's labeled 0-130v and the top is labeled 0-130. Weird.

@MkmeOrg

Жыл бұрын

@@AnotherMaker Yup it got me too. Put your DVOM on it and set to 120- not 120 volts is it :) The autotransformer is made so it can go quite a bit above nominal on the output.

@AnotherMaker

Жыл бұрын

@@MkmeOrg That's really awesome. I have an auto transformer now too

That's a big boy. I have a 3amp and matching isolation transformer. I'm modding mine into the same enclosure as my isolation. The wiring I'm not sure of

@AnotherMaker

Жыл бұрын

Hey thanks so much! Having isolation would be awesome. The longer I've had this thing the more uses I've found for it.

@jstro-hobbytech

Жыл бұрын

@AnotherMaker I have a 1000kva isolation transformer you could have but it weighs more than an anvil haha

Nice to see a digital meter that's wired to display 0V, some are just 2 wire meters that cut out below about 30v Here's a tip, when testing things that need low voltage AC, it's easy for the voltage to drift, or to set it accurately, which is important when voltages are criticval Get a 12 or 24v transformer that can supply as much current as you're likely to use and plug that into the variac, then you'll have better control, thoough you'll need a meter on the transformer output ;) I have a couple of variacs in a cabinet with voltage and current meters.

@AnotherMaker

Жыл бұрын

Yeah. Now that you mention that, I've seen that with other panel meters. That's a really good tip on the transformer. I may dig one out and play with that. Thank you.

@alexstone691

Жыл бұрын

Any hope of finding digital meter like that on ali? All are 2 wires and work from 40V and upwards i think

It's floating too so the inputs should be protected. Oh nm you're not scoping it

@AnotherMaker

Жыл бұрын

There's so much to learn from those project kits and you're totally right about the battery.

@jstro-hobbytech

Жыл бұрын

@AnotherMaker see the new arduino giga. Two different arm cores in an stm32 package. One has a 2d rendering pipeline for displays .....or sprites even. I can't pay that much for a microcontroller. Maybe you can get one in to review. I'll help pay. I bailed on that robot arm project and I'm stuck with a bunch of stuff I don't need haha. 2 teensy 4.1 and other stuff from the pjrc site plus a hundred dollars worth of bearings amongst other things. If they have no will to better the place I'm not gon a since around 600 more when I've already donated well over 3k worth of stuff