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RE: [TCML] first light



Hi Clive,

I think your problem is that you are using a solenoid (tube-shaped) primary, instead of a flat spiral primary.  You need to keep the primary far away from all but the very bottom of the secondary to avoid the arcing that you observed.  While it may seem that the more intimate proximity of your primary to the secondary would result in a higher efficiency, it does not.  Too much coupling is bad, and that's why flat primaries are typically used

A larger primary is probably not a good thing.  The least losses in a primary occur when the shortest length of conductor is used.  So a closely wound flat spiral primary is what you should target.

Also, as you suspect, your capacitor value is far below what would be optimum for your NST.  You could go as high as 10 nF.  Any increase to that point would be helpful, but of course you'd need to alter your primary to stay in tune.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA

> -----Original Message-----
> From: tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
> Behalf Of Clive Hansen
> Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 12:05 AM
> To: Tesla Coil Mailing List
> Subject: [TCML] first light
>
> Greetings All,
>     This evening, I just powered up my new coil for the first time.
> Three burned caps later, I had 3-6 inch streamers dancing on the top
> load. I have pictures of the coil on my site here:
> http://clivetech.thruhere.net (only works from 6:30 to 21:30 PST and the
> pictures during operation are poor at best). The secondary is quite long
> (thanks Miles) however, my primary is very short. It only reaches 5
> inches up the secondary. I have a larger primary, however, it is very
> large in diameter and there is about 3 inches of room on all sides of
> the secondary when it is in this primary. Would switching these
> primaries have a large increase on performance? Additionally, when I add
> my topload, a toroid made from heating duct, I can see a faint arc
> between turns on the side of the secondary about 4 inches from the top
> of the primary. There are no streamers at the top when this occurs. Is
> this a flaw in the insulation? Can it be repaired? Finally, my cap is
> only 1nf as this is the only one I currently have. My power supply is
> 15kv@450va. Could this small cap also be a cause of the poor performance?
>
> Thanks to all for their advice,
> Clive
>
> --
> Clive Hansen
> http://clivetech.thruhere.net
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tesla mailing list
> Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
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