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Re: Hmmmm...(was CDE 942c20p15k Group buy)



Original poster: Edward Wingate <ewing7-at-rochester.rr-dot-com> 

Tesla list wrote:
 >
 > Original poster: Mark Broker <mbroker-at-thegeekgroup-dot-org>
 >
 > By directly shorting a charged pulse-duty capacitor, severe stresses are
 > imposed as tens of thousands of instantaneous amperes are flowing.  If you
 > feel absolutely compelled to place a safety gap across the capacitor, you
 > should also place a high voltage power resistor in series with the gap.  To
 > do otherwise could have equally detrimental effects on your caps as
 > overvoltage.

Mark,

Not quite true. Just ONE voltage spike of sufficient amplitude will take
out a pulse cap! A safety gap firing a few times isn't likely to cause
any damage to a properly speced and built pulse cap. At least that's
been my experience and I've been running directly wired safety gaps
across the caps on my coils since 1991 without causing any damage. Of
course, if the coil is tuned properly, the safety gaps never fire
anyway. If the gap does fire in operation, you stop and find out what's
wrong. Equally detrimental? I don't think so.

Ed Wingate RATCB