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Re: capacitor noob question

Original poster: BunnyKiller <bunikllr@xxxxxxx>

Hey Devon...

if your friend has built coils before he should tell you the proper way to build them... :) the small neon power supplies used in auto application are way to weak and will be difficult to work with... as far as caps, the ones in the cameras are DC rated and wont work with Tesla coils... T-Coils need AC caps since there is an AC waveform produced when the gap connects.

A Neon Sign Transformer used for the Big signs is a good start.... the caps need to be AC rated and by wiring them in series ( like batteries in a flash light end to end) it increases the voltage level the caps can handle...BUT the farad rating drops rapidly. When wired in paralell the voltage sstays the same and the farads increase in value.

and yes   you put 10KV on a 350 cap its  toast...   wear safety glasses...

Scot D



Tesla list wrote:

Original poster: Devon Ferns <dferns@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

I'm about ready to build my first coil now. I've talked with a guy that has built a few coils before and he suggested using a neon transformer that is used to power those neon lights underneath cars.
I'm not sure what the voltage output of these are yet but say 10kV or something.
He also suggested I go searching for a bunch of used disposable cameras to get the capacitors out of them. They are rated at around 350V or so with 50uF.
This made me wonder about the voltage rating. Is it fine to string say 29 or 30 of those together to get up to 10kV rating? How do you go about setting up the capacitors? I think that the capacitance of these isn't exactly right for what I need anyways but I'm more concerned with the voltage ratings. If I hooked up 1 350V cap to 10kV wouldn't it just blow to bits?

The highest rated cap I could find was only 2.5kV at 2.2nF which for the size of the coil I want to make is about what I need, but not the correct voltage rating.

Thanks
Devon.