Peterae:
Although I no longer recommend the ringing choke method in order to generate the high required voltage for the avalanche burst, you can try that. You may need to try a different choke, 200 Ohm DCR, like the one I posted a picture of early on.
I am leaning more towards a gated diac circuit, with the voltage kept close to the avalanche threshold, like rev4 circuit, but I have not had time to try it.
Latchup is normal when you get to a certain current level, so rather than trying to push the frequency and hence required current, I would think the gated burst method might work better and not heat the SCR, which contributes to latchup.
Latchup also tells you that you have good tight coupling between your primary and secondary, hence not enough leakage inductance that would be required to "ring" the triac to the off state by reversing the voltage across it, thus resetting it for the next pulse.
Some inductance external to the pulse transformer primary would probably help, how much I cannot say at this time.
Does latchup occur when you try to push too much current?
More voltage will get you closer to avalanche, but don't use a high pulse repetition rate.
The last snowstorm here brought down trees and power lines. I'm still cleaning up my property, lots of downed tree limbs and widowmakers still hanging high, so may be a while before I hit the bench again.
Be patient, the rain is coming and I may get some bench time.
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