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Re: First Light for me :-)



Hi Neal,
            Congrats on your first sparks. It sounds as if a serious 
effort is needed to tune your coil properly. Safety gap firing is an 
indication of poor tuning and/or coupling.  Also, adjust coupling if 
racing sparks occur or as best tune point is approached. Your coil 
should peak at some combination of settings.

Regards,
Malcolm
  
> Original Poster: "Neal Whitaker" <NDWhitaker-at-Worldnet.att-dot-net> 
> 
> Hey guys and gals,
> 
> I got my first light over the weekend.  Oh what a wonderful sight!  I
> don't think I have ever seen something so pretty.  I got arcs to a
> ground rod from a surface breakout point of about 5.5"{139.7mm}.  Yea I
> know that's nothing but hey for my first coil and first time ever seeing
> one actual firing I was real impressed.  The specs are below and yea I
> have some problems with the design (gotta start somewhere).
> 
> My main problem is the safety gap.  I can't get it to stop firing. At
> approx. 40 volts & up of input power it fires about once every two to
> three seconds.  I originally had the gap set so it would fire at 130V
> coming into the NST alone but not at 120V.  I got agitated with the
> safety and started opening it up ( I know this is dumb but at the time I
> figured I had NST's to burn).  I am currently at 1/4" (6.35mm) from each
> leg to the ground bolt.  This seems like way to much.  Any ideas would
> be appreciated on how to get it to stop firing.  I know I need to get a
> protection circuit in there but I had to fire it up.  So far the NST's
> are OK but I would prefer not to kill them if I can help it.

<snip>