Especialy the low energy spikes will be hard to find any info about, because they don't cause imediate failure so it would be difficult to asess what would be the most common but already harmful energy and voltage level.But I think something well within Joes generators range.
You're going to have to define and quantify 'low energy' and fully specify the circuit characteristics and other test conditions for any further discussion to have meaning. I wouldn't call the jqsTM transients 'low energy'.
I've been meaning to respond to your comment. I suspect many people share your thoughts which is partly why some relate them to safety and AC mains testing.
I want to be clear that when I talk about my transients being low energy, I am making a relative comparison with the 61010 standards that I had loosely based them from. Again, the standards call for a hybrid, or combo generator. They specify an open circuit voltage wave form with a 1.2us rise and 50us FWHH (1.2/50). Consider that I have a faster rise and a longer delay. This all came from my initial testing of the very first $50 meters. I started out with a much narrower transient and worked my way up. I also started out using much lower energy levels. The initial levels were so low, I couldn't damage a meter. By the time I started to test the $50 meters, I think I had settled on a 50us full width (not FWHH) at 10J. When I decided to design a programmable generator, I doubled the energy to roughly 20J and settled on the 100us FWHH. I also decided on a peak of 6kV where the Amprobe AM510 had been damaged during the $50 shootout.
It may seem like my transients far exceed the standards, after they take twice as long to decay and have the same source impedance. Makes sense until considering the current.
The following was just the first TVS from Digikey.
https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/NextGen%20Components%20PDFs/SM12.pdf Notice the text "Peak Pulse Power per (8/20μs): 350 Watts" That 8/20us defines the short circuit current waveform called out in the 61010 standard. There are two waveforms, hence the name combo or hybrid generator.
I use a 2 ohm source, so if I have a 1kV peak, the current will be 1kV/2 or 500A. Where the combo generator has a 20us Full Width Half Height, mine may only have a ns.
No, it's not that narrow but 20J isn't much. I made a recent video showing what the current looked like through a meter. Not much happened as expected.
So maybe this will help a few of you understand. Consider the attached data taken with my scope. The scope's settings were kept the same throughout the test. Channel 1 (gold) is looking at the voltage. Channel 2 (pink) is the current.
Tran1 starts with an open circuit. Note that there is no current draw and the voltage is a bit shy of a kV (using my home made 100x probes again). At 20us / div, half way up measures roughly 100us across. No surprise.
Tran2, I have added a small load. The peak voltage is still roughly the same but we can see some current flowing. Notice now that the voltage FWHH is roughly 30us.
Tran3, I have increased the load and we can see the peak voltage has dropped. Where did the voltage go?? It's dropped across the generator's internal 2 ohm source! Notice that the current's FWHH is now only 10us or so. Remember, the standard called for 20us with a short. I'm sure a few of you can guess the effects of further increasing the load.
Again, the goal was never to make these meters explode like you will find in Fluke's test lab videos. That should have been obvious by simply comparing the physical size of their 19" rack mounted Haefely compared with my tiny desktop setup. Normally the meters will not break down and all that energy is dissipated in the generator's internal coupling network. The 20J may be overkill but all you safety experts posting here already know where that number came from. I wanted at much as possible but still work with a minimal risk.
You may not agree but hopefully you at least now have some understanding why I will continue to call my transients low energy.
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Rough reading in a few places.