3 Phase Power

I've been thinking about 3 phase power for the shop today. Last night I saw a nice 3 phase plasma cutter on Craigslist, but like most normal people I don't have three phase power in the shop. As it is going to be a while before I get back to the electric car project, I've been thinking I can use the inverter to make a phase converter. It will basically be a variable frequency drive with a single phase input and a fixed 60 hz output. I think I have everything I need except a couple of contactors, relays to get from the sanguino output to the coil input on the contactors, and some power resistors to use as precharge load. More thoughts to follow.

Setup of controller

 
Here is a photo of the mounted Sanguino, IGBT's, one of two PWM cards, a breadboard and a 12 volt power supply.
I screwed up one of the PWM cards by installing transistors the wrong way, and then desoldering badly and messing up a trace. Arg.

OK, now tell us what the hell they are.

Dear Dr. Dawg,

Sorry for posting something a little obscure. IGBT's or Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors, are fast acting high power semiconductor switches. The units I have are capable of switching 200 amps at 1200 Volts at a significantly high switching rate. This is what makes it possible to use pulse width modulation to turn the switches off and on really fast to generate a variable alternating current output from a dc source, like a big battery pack.

And if anyone knows how to use the timers directly on a Sanguino, please send me a note.