six 40A - 600 Volt stud diodes

[willib]

I fabricated this three phase bridge rectifier today

i think it looks cool

The upper copper is positive, and the bottom copper is minus

and they are joined in the middle with small machine bolts and nuts

this is it temporary mounted on the minigenII

i drilled both plates at the same time





I think the wind will keep it cool





They are 40A 600V stud diodes

i have it held on with magnets at the moment, but eventually i will bolt it to the side of the minigen, also i have to make three wires with ring terminals on each end

[Nando]

Willb:

If the current is greater than about 8 amps you will have heating problems, even if the copper plates are tightly connected to the a metallic body,

If the current is an average of 20 amps, the cooper needs to be around 1/8 thick with good clamping to a metallic heat sink of around 100 square inches of surface, preferable finned.

How are you insulating the ( + ) plus and ( - ) minus terminal from the lack cylinder body, is the black cylinder non-metallic ?.

Nando

[TomW]

Nando;

I think the "black cylinder" is a plastic 5 gallon pail / bucket so non conductive.

Cheers.

TomW

[willib]

thanks for your advice , considering the old diodes i was using ,which i got from pc monitors





these new ones should do fine

CurrentvsRPM_12V_batt.jpg

[willib]

Yes thanks Tom , the pail is plastic so no concern of shorting out

i wasnt finished with my reply to nando when i clicked POST by mistake

anyway during this test of the minigenII ( see graph) the old diodes ( the smallest ones) did get hot

but with summer on the way i'm not expecting sustained 11 Amps anytime soon

[willib]

At $3.50 each i think they were a good deal