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Re: [TCML] Odd VTTC Streamer Behavior



Phillip
I ran into a problem like this and it was associated with the tank capacitor starting to fail. If I increased the voltage after about 95volts the streamers got smaller and "snarpy". I wasn't running a staccato controller so like John F. said something was going bad.

While not a good idea, in complete frustration, I cranked up the variac and waited for something to fail. I exploded a mica transmitting cap. Nasty mess. If you are running an MMC, after a run see if they are getting warm. All it takes is one bad cap in an MMC. If your coil was running great, then it started to run not so great and you didn't change a thing, you likely have a failing component or poor connection somewhere. In my case it was the tank cap.
Yours could be different. Good Luck
John

John W. Gudenas, Ph.D.
Professor of Computer Science


On Oct 20, 2008, at 9:28 PM, Phillip Slawinski wrote:

I ran it for quite a while today, and I think I made some progress towards getting back to where it used to be. It's hitting 31.5", and it's making a
thudding sound while doing so.  It does this while running just shy of
105V. If I push it up to 115V or higher the sparks start to make a cracking sound in addition the the thudding. It's also at this point that the sparks
start to branch and become shorter.

I tried lowering grid resistance and it only results in shorter sparks, and only marginally at that. I'm a little wary to lower the resistance since the accident that marked the end of the good performance I was getting from the coil. I kept turning down the resistance until the secondary flashed through the silicone sealant and ruined my grid coil. Of course, this was
an extreme case, and foolish at that.

I did move the grid coil down to increase the coupling a little and that
seemed to help.

On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 21:03, <futuret@xxxxxxx> wrote:

The throaty popping sound may be a "bad" sound meaning
the coil is not running just right.  Some component may be
failing.  Or the staccato controller timing may have changed
in some way.  The solid thud sound is good, other types
of sounds can be bad.  Is it a raspy sound?  If so that's
a sure sign something isn't right.  Maybe from the high
power operation of the tubes, they became damaged.
Or arcing may have been occuring in the tubes which
can make a popping sound.  You can try reducing the
grid resistance to see if it helps.  That tends to keep
the voltages in the tube lower and may help.  But it
will make the tubes run hotter of course.  But it may
be helpful just as a quick test to get an idea of what's
happening.

John


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