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Induction Heater-9

The document describes troubleshooting issues with an induction heater, specifically abnormal voltage and current waveforms. The author attempted various fixes, including replacing components and redoing the circuit board, but the problem persisted until they realized the high voltage wires were not properly twisted to cancel stray inductance. After correcting the wiring, the waveforms returned to normal, highlighting the importance of proper connections in maintaining performance.

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andriyani.sabiq
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7 views

Induction Heater-9

The document describes troubleshooting issues with an induction heater, specifically abnormal voltage and current waveforms. The author attempted various fixes, including replacing components and redoing the circuit board, but the problem persisted until they realized the high voltage wires were not properly twisted to cancel stray inductance. After correcting the wiring, the waveforms returned to normal, highlighting the importance of proper connections in maintaining performance.

Uploaded by

andriyani.sabiq
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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3/22/25, 9:54 PM Induction Heater

Oscilloscope Tracings III


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I have to share some bad waveforms I got one day. I hadn't used my heater all
summer and wanted to try it out before giving it to a friend. Below are the
voltage/current waveform. Underneath is a tracing of the gate drive signal and the
inverter voltage from another run. Notice how the current is no longer a nice
sinusoid. The negative current prematurely starts to rise and then go back down
before resuming its normal cycle.

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Here is another image. The waveform is different from above, but still bizarre and not a good sinusoid.

This is the inverter voltage (yellow) and gate drive (blue). Notice how the voltage heavily sags and the gate
signal is no longer a clean square wave.

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Here is another gate wave that is abnormal taken at a different time.

As you can see, I was getting strange waveforms and I did not know why.

At first I thought it was the mosfets so I swapped them out. When that failed to fix the problem I redid the
gate resistors and shielding. Then, I pulled out the inverter capacitors and replaced them. Still no good.
Frustrated, I took out the board and replaced the gate drive capacitors. When this failed I redid the entire
circuit board thinking I was getting some type of cross-talk or a failed component. I saved myself from

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buying another tank capacitor by connecting the coupling transformer to another LC tank. Again, I had the
same problem.

I thought I checked everything and I couldn't understand how the waveform had deteriorated. Sometimes,
the current appeared to go at twice the frequency of the inverter voltage. Then, I had a final thought. I
started looking at my high voltage DC supply. I must have reconnected the HV wires to the inverter early in
the summer. Notice in the picture how they are not together.

They should be together to cancel out any stray inductance as shown below.

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Amazingly, after days of racking my brain, this simple solution was all that was needed. I twisted the HV
wires close (as I had done in the past) and made sure they were close on my inverter board before splitting
to each of the HV rails. At the frequency I am driving my coil, stray inductance and capacitance on the HV
lines is significant and clearly affected my waveforms. Not only did this affect the LC tank, but it affected
the gate signal and the voltage supply signal to the circuitry, making things even worse. Hopefully, my
experience will make someone's life easier if these symptoms appear.

Below are the waveforms for the inverter voltage and current immediately after this repair. I have the
frequency deliberately higher than resonance to prevent reverse currents.

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Below is the gate signal after this repair.

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