A problem related to a spark gap

[gusts]

Hi to everyone!

There is a power supply of a xenon short-arc lamp and two stepper motor drivers standing on my desk. At the start-up the power supply generates about 30 kV spark to ignite the lamp. In recent days I started to observe strange behaviour of my motors. One of them started to move in an uncontrolled manner occasionally. Never observed something like that before. My question - could it be true that the spark could damage the drivers? I know that the motors can move without any obvious reason when the spark jumps and the drivers are connected to PC via USB. The screen of the computer also flashes together with the spark gap.

Thanks and best regards
gusts

 

[barry]

A high voltage spark will generate a large electromagnetic field. I don't know if this spark could actually damage your driver (would depend on the characteristics of the arc, it's proximity, etc.) but it can DEFINITELY affect nearby circuitry, just like when you have a static discharge from your finger, you'll hear a crackle on your radio.

 

[jiripolivka]

As the problem only started, I would check the spark-gap wiring and grounding. The HV transformer an spark-gap ground and metal cover should be well connected to ground. Check also the main lamp circuit, if the wires do not run close to the control cabling .

 

[chuckey]

Do the motor actually control the arc length? It could be that the arc is getting unstable, due to melted points/build up of oxide and the motor is trying to compensate for the change of arc current.
Frank