It was a long road with many mistakes but here is a YouTube link to the successful outcome:
https://youtu.be/JepgpnIiBls
My secondary has over 25 coats of a flat poly applied over the space of two weeks. It was also wrapped with 2 layers of kapton tape carefully applied to avoid bubbles. Next came 2 layers of electrical tape all over the coil followed by 5 wraps of the same electrical tape where I wound the primary. The primary was not the supplied wire but rather another that has a 600V insulation rating. It took all of this to finally achieve a secondary that can take about 1/2 power and not show some minor arcing.
This only came after several sets of IGBTs and a couple of high voltage rectifiers. The manual is really misleading when it comes to coating the secondary. Three coats is a laughable suggestion. Unless the poly used was quite different from mine, that is hardly a start. Using the two kinds of tape seemed to help as well. Spacing the primary a bit away from the secondary with extensive wraps of electrical tape could not hurt.
Finally, I have to say that the board design itself leaves something to be desired. It is a well make board but the solder pads are just too small and this results in some joints not being optimal. In a couple of places it is far too easy to have a bridge. Finally, you must be certain the IGBTs don't touch. They are spaced only about 1 mm apart on the heat sink when the pins to the board line up well. Use great care that they don't touch when you finally tighten them down. Buy plenty of the 4A fuses, you will go through those quickly if your experience is at all like mine. This circuit and the heat sink are on the ragged edge of failure at any moment. A cute if not very reliable project.
Good luck and if you have suggestions for me or others, I hope you will include them.
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Success with a Tiny Tesla--finally
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Re: Success with a Tiny Tesla--finally
Was there any secret to your success in not blowing the IGBTs and fuses? I coated my secondary with a pour-on epoxy which ended any arcing whatsoever but I am consistently blowing fuses and Q1.
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