Voltage mulitplier grounding

[MRMILSTAR]

I am getting close to the completion of my 14-stage CW voltage multiplier. I have one remaining question. Does anyone ground one side of the multiplier stack AC input? Would it serve any purpose? I am primarily going to just be drawing arcs so it will have current-limiting resistors. I plan on drawing arcs through use of a separate discharge tower that I've made. The discharge tower consists only of an aluminum toroid on top of a PVC tube. The discharge tower will be connected to one of the AC input terminals at the bottom of the CW stack.

The power source is two AC flybacks in parallel driven by a ZVS driver. I am concerned about damage to the ZVS driver and possibly to the SMPS DC power supply. It would be most convenient to not ground anything other than the SMPS.

[davekni]

I recommend grounding one side of the CW stack.  Even with discharges going to the other tower, there is still capacitance to ground (to space).  Voltage at the bottom of the stack will depend on the ratio of capacitance to space/ground at the top to capacitance to ground at the bottom.  Bottom capacitance will be higher, but you still may get 20-25% of top voltage at the bottom, which might damage flyback insulation.

[ElectroXa]

Hi !

I would definitely ground the multiplier on one side of the AC input 

(I would ground the diode side, to avoid DC pulses in flyback secondary, to "try" reducing back emf)

I would also ground this multiplier through a small 110- 220V transformer primary used as an inductor choke, to block the AC flyback from leaking, but pass the DC, both to ground
indeed, I noticed on my multiplier that most of the AC leaked, leading to bad output.
adding this choke greatly increased the output 

cheers

[MRMILSTAR]

Hi !

I would definitely ground the multiplier on one side of the AC input 

(I would ground the diode side, to avoid DC pulses in flyback secondary, to "try" reducing back emf)

I would also ground this multiplier through a small 110- 220V transformer primary used as an inductor choke, to block the AC flyback from leaking, but pass the DC, both to ground
indeed, I noticed on my multiplier that most of the AC leaked, leading to bad output.
adding this choke greatly increased the output 

cheers

Does the attached schematic show the placement of the small choke that you describe?

[ElectroXa]

I would rather put this choke to earth, and the discharge tower directly to the bottom of the multiplier, or else the choke will arc over due to voltage peak

I did that, and it works great 

Edit : I left the secondary open circuit

[MRMILSTAR]

I would rather put this choke to earth, and the discharge tower directly to the bottom of the multiplier, or else the choke will arc over due to voltage peak

I did that, and it works great 

Thanks. I'll try it that way.

[MRMILSTAR]

I would rather put this choke to earth, and the discharge tower directly to the bottom of the multiplier, or else the choke will arc over due to voltage peak

I did that, and it works great 

Did you short the secondary winding of the grounding transformer or leave it open?