Re: Newbie with a few questions...

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Barton B. Anderson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <tesla123-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Hi Mike,

I must have missed the first post or two (not sure what power source or
values your using), but I put your
coil specs into JavaTC and ended up in a tuning range of 5.5 to 5.7 turns
on the primary using your 0.008
to 0.009uF guestimate. I know your primary is 8 turns, but not sure where
your tuning at. Trial and error
tuning will work just fine and can help approximate your cap size. My gut
feeling is that your coil will
be a bit finicky in the tuning arena (because a small change in inductance
causes a large change in
frequency).

Again, not sure of the power and therefore I can't say what a sparklength
should be. With sw caps, make
sure there isn't carona eminating. A lot of power can leak there.

Regarding toroid size with your 2" coil. I personally like to keep the tube
width (cord) slightly smaller
than the secondary diameter. This keeps the secondary's radius of curvature
smaller than the toroids to
help prevent possible problems with sparks exiting the top of the secondary
windings. Given the right
conditions (top load height, voltage, etc) this may occur. This is a little
something Tesla mentioned in
one of his later patents (although for slightly different reasons).

Sorry I missed previous post. I've been in computer hell with yet another
pc crash (managed to get it
fixed tonight but my harddrive is dying fast).

Take care,
Bart A.

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Gary Abusive by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <gary_abusive-at-hotmail-dot-com>
>
> >Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>
> >
> >Hi Mike,
> >
> >Sounds like the tuning is way way off.
>
> Well, I'm by no means done messing with the tuning. But I'll give you
> the specs and hopefully you can tell me if I've done something terribly
> wrong. :)
>
> Secondary is 2" PVC with a 10" winding length of 28 gauge magnet wire.
> Wound with no spacing, using Bart Anderson's Java TC designer and
> assuming thin ins. and .0005" between winds I get 662 turns.
> ( +/- who knows? )
> The toroid is 8.5" with a 3" cord. ( I believe it might be too big as I
> get better breakout with an empty can of Coors Light screwed on the top)
> I won't be able to measure my primary cap until next week. I estimate
> right now it's set somewhere between .008-.009 uF, but I have them (lame
> SW beer bottles types) set up so I can reduce the capacitance easily by
> raising them out of the outer electrolyte.
> Primary is 8 turns of .25" copper tubing, inner diameter is 4", .5"
> center to center spacing, outside diameter is about 1'.
> The spark gap is a scaled down Gary Lau type sucker gap, (currently
> without a sucker) and has brass electrodes adjustable from about .1-.5"
> All connections are fairly solid and the wire I used is 18 gauge silver-
> coated, and rated for 30KVDC. I am hoping this isn't too thin?
>
> >Sorry for all the questions but they are needed to determine the
> > >frequencies.
>
> Not at all, thanks again for all your help.
>
> with regards,
> _Mike
>
> >Cheers,
> >
> >       Terry
>
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