MOT low voltage rewind

MOT with second winding

A microwave oven transformer can be used for a powerful low voltage supply.
“Continue reading” for construction details of this modified low voltage transformer.

MOT secondary being removed.                            240 volts in at 0.83 volts per turn
Secondary of 11.8 V
Left photo shows removing the HV windings the hard way. Usually easiest to hacksaw off the winding flush then use a block of wood and hammer them out. Can’t be done easily with this vertical winding style however. Middle photo shows the 0.83 volts AC (RMS) for a single turn at the rated 240 V AC input. Right photo shows 13 turns being one side of a centre-tapped winding. This gives 11.8 V AC which will be 23.6 V AC which after the diode bridge rectifier will be 23.6 * (sqrt 2) = 33.6 volts. This will be reduced by the voltage drop of the rectifier to about 32 V DC peak.

                

Left photo shows the full 26 turns centre-tapped giving 22.86 V which is a little different to the 23.6 above due to slightly different input voltage. Right photo shows the addition of heavy gauge windings of 4 + 4 + 7 windings in series to give 12.72 V AC.
This allows the many AC voltage combinations from 3.3 V to 35 V. Arranging selection of these is now the consideration, along with a range of DC voltages at an appropriate cost i.e. nearly zero.

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