Low voltage sparkgaps for ignition coil driver...

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Low voltage sparkgaps for ignition coil driver...
From: "Sam Barros" <sambarros-at-hotmail-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <terryf-at-verinet-dot-com>)
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 17:02:47 -0700
Approved: terryf-at-verinet-dot-com

   Hello, everybody,

 This might well turn up to be completely useless, but I just thought I 
might let you know:

 My double ignition coil system used (still does) a standard neon light 
(one of those that come in thin, long bulbs, measuring 1cm X 3mm or so, 
with two electrodes inside). The bulb was REALLY small, and it broke 
down at 80V. Breaking down it would cause an SCR to conduct and 
discharge the big caps on the Ignition coil.
 Anyway, the bulb breaks down at 80 volts, and can sustain break rates 
of one fire every few seconds up to several hundred BPS without getting 
hot (at low power levels). It might have some problems I am unaware off 
(such as the problems with the argon gap), but I can tell you one thing: 
for the application I used it, it worked great!
 Maybe a larger version of this could work on real Tesla Coils, but my 
idea is to use this to trigger those "difficult" gaps, like 600V or so, 
that don’t fire reliably in air.
 Any thoughts on this???


 Sam Barros

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