A Variac is a single winding with a movable center tap. It offers NO isolation whatsoever. Use of an isolation transformer, even if you don't need one, would be an excellent idea. You may want to use a couple of isolation transformers, one for the monitor and one (or more) for other outputs. Another great use for the Variac is to supply reduced voltages for such thing as monitors from Nintendo games (100 volt Japanese standard). Some power supplies (like the switcher in Taito's Space Tactics) also use 100 volts. 5 amps is more than enough for most "classic" games. Some of the newer stuff where the seat or entire game moves around probably would need more. Max wrote:
Hello all... Just wanted to get thoughts on using a Variac... I wanted to get one for working on monitors. I would be using it to force linear power supply to run or hopefully to dial in different AC supply voltages for vector monitors.
Is is worth finding one with isolation or just run along with a regular isolation transformer? Would 5 amps cover most concievable applications for game work, they sure get expensive fast....
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