Re: Tank Cicuit Capacitor

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com>

In a message dated 7/26/01 1:45:19 PM Central Daylight Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
writes: 


>
> Hi All! 
>
> Does the capacitor in the tank circuit hold a charge once power is turned 
> off?  I've heard some say yes and some say no.  Isn't that by definition 
> what a capacitor does? 
>
> Mark Stolz 
> Houston, TX 
>


Mark, 

That would  depend on how your tank cap is wired into 
your Tesla system. The usual setup with the cap. in se- 
ries with the secondary output coil of the power tansfor- 
mer, the cap's charge will quickly bleed back thru the 
secondary winding of the power transformer and thus 
will not hold a charge for more than a second or so after 
the power is shut down. However, in DC Tesla systems 
or "equadrive" systems, the tank capacitor(s) are unable 
to bleed their charge back into the power transfromer and 
can therefore retain a very dangerous electrical charge 
after the power is shut off. So, the safest thing to do is 
to make it a habit to systematically discharge the tank 
capacitor(s) with a hot stick each time after shutting the 
power down before touching anything in the primary circuit. 
That way, you won't have to worry about getting an unplea- 
sant "surprise". 

Sparkin' in Memphis, 
David Rieben