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Thanks for all the good info posted for my question. Lucent thank you for the examples and the links. There were a couple of cool apps for my iPad that I D/L last night to help me along with learning electronics. Plus I bought the Make: Electronics book and the two kits that go along with it. That looks like it will be fun to go through and learn along the way.
I got the mod built. Not too shabby if I say so myself. I'm currently using leads that I made that are stiffer than what I'd like. Don't have any old DMM meters lying around but I suppose I could go to HF and buy a cheapo DMM and use it's leads. We'll see.
Here is a pic of my very first mod. Not sure why it's not showing correctly. Will come back to that. I can see what everyone means by it startling you the first few times when the arc happens. Took me 3-4 times before I quit jerking the weld apart. I have 360uF via three separate caps from some Fuji cameras i had to buy. All the possible locations for the freebies have started sending them in to be processed.
I got the mod built. Not too shabby if I say so myself. I'm currently using leads that I made that are stiffer than what I'd like. Don't have any old DMM meters lying around but I suppose I could go to HF and buy a cheapo DMM and use it's leads. We'll see.
Here is a pic of my very first mod. Not sure why it's not showing correctly. Will come back to that. I can see what everyone means by it startling you the first few times when the arc happens. Took me 3-4 times before I quit jerking the weld apart. I have 360uF via three separate caps from some Fuji cameras i had to buy. All the possible locations for the freebies have started sending them in to be processed.
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I built my gsa arc welder last night. Although I'm handy and have a little experience soldering, I have hardly any electronics knowledge and could never have otherwise undertaken such a project. I love my welder and how much easier it is to fit my wick and coil in CE2 ceramics - no more knotted joints! There are many ECF members who contributed to this project who I greatly appreciate. Thank you gsa for starting this thread, for your contributions, and for your published instructions. I'm grateful that you chose to put it in the public domain and I appreciate your design choices to keep it simple.
Hey guys, I just got all the parts and materials to make one of these. I put it all to together and can only get 26.4 volts. All my connections are good. (I went over them half a dozen times) Battery is fully charged. I keep turning the potentiometer and it only goes up to 26 volts, if I turn the other way it goes down.
Does anyone think I have a bad converter? When I adjust the voltage the meter reads it going up and down .01 volts about a half of turn, is that normal?
Thanks for any help...
Does anyone think I have a bad converter? When I adjust the voltage the meter reads it going up and down .01 volts about a half of turn, is that normal?
Thanks for any help...
I was surprised at how many turns it requires to significantly increase the voltage, but mine maxes out at 37.5v.
I would remove the pot (if you are comfortable doing that) and measure it's resistance - I would think that the converter is working ok, but the pot is off tolerance.
I have had a similar problem with some of these boards that I got a bulk order on. Seems the specs listed where just copied from another site and they are not really designed to get past 27 volts on all five of them. It may be they are older stock and are lacking some of the improvements made to the layout. I ordered them from a company I have never used before and will not be ordering them again.
I ordered my LM2577 from here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160997315770&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160
I would stay away from the LM2577 from Amazon. Says it's output is 4-35v, but appears to output up to 50v. Built a gsa welder around it and it will not weld wire at 35v. Half my welds fall apart at 49v. 
I would stay away from the LM2577 from Amazon. Says it's output is 4-35v, but appears to output up to 50v. Built a gsa welder around it and it will not weld wire at 35v. Half my welds fall apart at 49v.
What size cap are you using on the output? A larger value would give you more of a charge...
I'm using a 1000uf 50v cap from digikey. I know very little about small electronics, but was thinking that 50v output was stressing the cap getting so close to its limit.
So the one firestorm linked at ebay is good?
I ordered one to replace my existing one.
The capacitor I'm using is the one from the tutorial list of parts.
Like I said before the highest my voltage will go (atm) is 27. The wires weld together, but they aren't very stable.
I ordered one to replace my existing one.
The capacitor I'm using is the one from the tutorial list of parts.
Like I said before the highest my voltage will go (atm) is 27. The wires weld together, but they aren't very stable.
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It works for me. It goes up to 37.5v and I've used it to make a bunch of coils at 35v. Sometimes I don't get a good join and I need to try again and line it up better, but overall it works really well and I no longer need to twist wire.
Really not that much of a problem, as long as you don't go over 50V- but I would suggest a larger (1500µF or better) if you are having a problem with good welds. You will get a higher amount of charge (current). You can regulate that charge by how long you hold the charge button.
So hoping to get some help from you guys. I got a Zapper and have been having some trouble getting a good weld/join. It seems that my first weld to the resistance wire works great. But then when I switch sides and try to weld my 2nd no res wire it won't join. I've tried various lengths of holding the power from 1-6 seconds. Does certain wire work better than others? I've tried both 30 and 32 gauge nickel and am about to throw in the towel. Any help would be much appreciated!
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