I'm building a boost converter that utilizes a 555 timer switching at 60 kHz at a 96% duty cycle which drives an IRF3205 MOSFET to power a hand wound inductor (calculated to have ~330 uH) with a 6A10 diode and a 400 V, 80 uF capacitor at 5 volts. My goal is to achieve 360 volts.
The problem I'm having is that the circuit consistently maxes out at around 80 volts and attempting to increase the voltage e.g increasing the inductance of the inductor by adding an iron rod, adding another inductor in series, increasing the duty cycle of the 555 timer and even increasing the voltage has no significant effect on the voltage. I can only lower the voltage using these methods.
I think it may be because of the diode limiting the current as replacing the 6A10 diode with a higher resistance one seems to decrease the voltage to ~60 and further attempts to mess with that also fail.
I do not have any more diodes that I can use and so I am wondering if it is current available to the inductors which is limiting the output before I buy any more diodes.