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Re: control circuitry (fwd)



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

Hi Greg.

You'll never kill a variac with voltage spikes coming back from a Tesla coil, 
filter or no filter. Overcurrent is usually the mode of failure with them, 
when too much current is drawn through too small a gauge of wire and things 
melt. I might add though, the brush in your variac will go before the wire 
does.

I might eat my words, but I have run variacs for years with no filtering, and 
so have my friends. They're indestructible voltage-spike wise.

It is always a good idea to filter the line before it goes into anything 
(except a fuse or breaker of course...). I seriously doubt that you're ever 
going to put that "theoretical 50kV of spikes" back into the mains, although 
it is possible with larger coils. Line filters are generally added to Tesla 
coils to reduce annoying RF interference that is conducted through the mains 
wiring......

I'm going to scope the mains one day while I'm running a big TC and see what 
it looks like.

Later,

Justin Hays
KC5PNP
Email: pyrotrons-at-aol-dot-com
Website: www.hvguy-dot-com