UnintegratedCircuit
Part 1 - A Brief Foreword
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The Context
This project was designed from the outset as a gift to a close friend of mine at university for their 21st birthday. Throughout this, I shall endeavour to maintain their anonymity and, to this end, some of the images may be altered slightly - for example, images of the PCB design will have their name removed and any images of the finished article with their name present will likely be censored accordingly, if not redacted entirely.
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The Safety
This project was intended to be as safe as possible for the end-user (a.k.a. my friend) so whilst the enclosure is metallic and conductive, the PCB was well insulated through the use of numerous sticky pads. As with any tube-related project, high voltages are present which could be potentially lethal, especially to those with an underlying health condition. To combat this, the separation between the high-voltage and low-voltage sections was of great concern while designing both the final PCB and the PSU module.
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Despite all this protection for the end-user, the designer/assembler/tester of this project could be subject to these high voltages with minimal protection - at absolute best a layer of solder mask and a layer of dry skin. Once powered, all areas of the PCB should be treated as if they were high-voltage and care should be taken to discharge the output capacitor of the PSU module in a safe manner (i.e. a resistor from HVOUT to GND).
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