CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[jmetal88]

In my adventures in replacing the HV tripler in my Videobeam (since no directly compatible part is available) I've had to investigate some methods for splicing the HV lead. Curt's method that he made a page for on the site is effective for a permanent installation, but I kind of wanted something more serviceable. In my searching, I found this interesting connector set:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1Pair-High-Voltage-Wire-Connector-CO2-Laser-Power-Supply-Tube-Engraving-Accessor/32836106892.html

I was initially a little wary of trying it out because they've posted no voltage rating for the thing, but I looked into what it takes to run a "CO2 Engraving Laser" and it looks like a lot of the power supplies that use that style of connector are actually able to put out up to 35kV. My Videobeam isn't supposed to get above 30kV, so I thought it was worth a shot and ordered a set (they're certainly cheap enough anyway). They arrived yesterday, and I installed them today, and they seem to work fine. They seem to be optimized for TV-40 wire, as the rubber boots fit tight around the wire but the insulation easily slips through the solid connector body itself. Unfortunately, while I had the mating connector to the HV splitter with TV-40 wire on it, my tripler actually has TV-50 wire coming out of it, so I had to drill out one side of the connector to accept the thicker wire insulation. I'm thinking it will still be okay as there's essentially the same amount of insulation in the area I had to drill out, it's just that now more of it is wire insulation and less of it is connector insulation. I think as long as I keep the length of the connector insulation the same (so the overlap of wire insulation to connector insulation is the same distance), drilling it out a little should be okay.

So, what do you guys think? Anyone else ever use one of these connectors to splice an HV lead where necessary? I can't hear any arcing or discharge off the connector, so it's at least safe for short periods of time, but dare I leave the projector on longer and see if anything bad happens?

[CIR Engineering]