Transformer wire gauges

Posted by: lonerzzz on 03/02/2014

I would like to know if it is possible to set the gauges of wire that can be used in the transformer design and used in optimization. I can only find the setting for the limit on the smallest gauge. I find that if I am creating a new design, it would be very helpful to reuse the same gauges of wire as in previous, similar designs to get better economies of scale in wire purchases between designs. For most designs, the gauge difference beetween two designs is 1 or 2 sizes off, but as soon as the gauge is changed, there seems no further way to optimize or check for transformer compatibility with the specified wire. The shielding is also uneditable to change the gauge at all.

If the wire were in the component tabs, that would be useful.

Thanks,

Jason

Comments

Jason,

Correct me if I am wrong.

1. You want the flexibility to change the wire gauge for the transformer to obtain a better fit/economy?

--> This can be achieved by navigating through Active Design --> Edit Design --> Winding Construction --> (select the winding). You can now manually overwrite the wire gauge/filar.

2. As for the shield winding, you can not manually overwrite the wire gauge as this is dependent on the primary winding.

Thanks for the response.

What I am actually looking for is the ability to specify the set of transformer wire gauges that get used in much the same way as the other components are. I am using the manual technique that you mentioned right now but that encounters two problems:

1) The shield winding does not match the primary winding that was optimized for so that gauge of wire still needs to be purchased and used in addition to the desired gauge - this is actually worse than using the optimized design

2) The design is not optimized considering the gauge and I am not sure how much of an effect it has.

Does this clarify the difference?

Thanks,

Jason

Jason,

Transformer construction is based on a certain set of rules. While optimizing a design, these set of rules are followed. Although you can limit the minimum AWG, there is no way you can specify the wire gauges to be used for optimization purposes. The only way for you to control the design of the transformer is by manually changing the filar/gauge of the wire as per your requirement. As for the shields, PIExpert does not permit the user to modify the way the shields are implemented in the same way as the other windings. The shield construction is based on a lot of factors, therefore, when you use the optimize tool, the shield design ensures an optimal solution; when you change the design parameters, the shields will be redisgned for optimal performance.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the clarification.

That said, I think it would be a useful feature for the program to set the available wire gauges in the component library to allow for optimization within specific sizes. It would benefit both in trying to manage economies of scale in wire purchases and for anyone trying to build a transformer for prototyping where they don't have the full set of wire gauges. I understand that the shield winding is more complex.

Thanks,

Jason