Re: Sync gap test 1

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Barton B. Anderson" <tesla123-at-pacbell-dot-net> 

Hi Ed,

The post regarding racing sparks. I asked the question, but I don't believe the
verdict is out on that one. It will be intersting to see if coupling change
helps. Don't forget to recheck the tuning since you increased the cap value
quite
a bit.

good luck
Bart

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com
>
> Well, I had a bit of a set back last night.  I tried my 3.0" coil with the
> new rotary sync gap and a larger than resonant cap, going up from .008 ufd to
> .032 ufd.  Two electrodes were removed from the rotor so I would now have 120
> bps (3600 rpm motor and two electrodes).  The gap spacing is set to about
> .030" and it fires through 4 gaps total each time it fires.  I spun the gap
> up to speed and then started cranking up the variac that controls power to
> the neon sign transformers.  I had to turn the variac up quite a ways (maybe
> 70 to 80%) before I got any sparks.  Then I had them everywhere.  Both safety
> gaps fired (set to about .30")  I had sparks in the primary, from the primary
> to the strike rail and from the primary to the secondary.  I tried about
> three motor positions (phase control of the gap) and it didn't get much
> better.
>
> John Freau, I can see how you get such long sparks from your system.  Going
> down to a low break rate and using a very large cap puts a whole lot of power
> into the system.  More than I was ready for I guess.  This morning I removed
> the secondary, used a scotch brite pad to remove as much of the black at each
> spot as possible and coated each spot with several coats of clear finger nail
> polish.
>
> We just had a discussion recently about racing sparks on the secondary.  I
> wasn't part of the discussion, but If I remember correctly, racing sparks are
> caused by improper tuning and sparks breaking out low in the secondary are
> caused by overcoupling.  With this in mind, I will raise the secondary up by
> .75", that is all the spacers that I have cut right now.  Then I will
> reinstall the static gap and see if my secondary still works ok.  Then I will
> disconnect one of the transformers so I have only 12 kv at 30 ma.  Now switch
> back to the .032 ufd cap and get the tuning spot on.  Then finally reinstall
> the new rotary sync gap and try it again.
>
> Comments?
>
> Ed Sonderman