[TCML] Ignition coil etc

[Derek]

Brian,
    I have an Ignition coil design, actually a twin ignition coil 
powered from a 12V supply of about 3A. Documented at  
http://www.extremeelectronics.co.uk/coils/it/

    As a portable coil its great and (RF burns excluded) pretty safe. 
Regarding the performance I'm afraid its not really so good, but at only 
~50W of input power you can't expect much. Of course with a 24V supply 
and bigger batteries or more ignition coils you could increase the input 
power, but the coil soon becomes heavy and non portable, so there is a 
trade off.

    To get the 4-5' streamer lengths I do run at 10-20 BPS again this is 
due to the low power, max volts takes some time in charging. The small 
rotary is required here to keep down the corona losses associated with a 
small static gap.


    For a true portable system with much better sparks I have a pair of 
portable DRSSTC's both battery powered, these are documented at Sprite 
-> http://www.extremeelectronics.co.uk/coils/sprite/ and Joan -> 
http://www.extremeelectronics.co.uk/coils/joan/

Joan is the most efficient and running from 10 x NIMH AA cells and will 
give about 1' of arc to air in 1 second bursts.

    The only down side to the DRSSTC is its complexity compared with the 
ignition coil solution.

    Derek


Brian Hall wrote:
>  
>
> I have run an ignition coil, and got some nice sparks, by hooking it to 4 lantern batteries and a relay - thus its completely portable, no need for 120/140v AC wall outlet.  I built it based on the plans available here  http://primeline-america.com/science/    - shame that he advertizes it as a 'tesla coil' when we know an ignition coil is oil filled, not truly an 'air-core' transformer.  But the plans are described nicely along with the shopping list, diagrams are easy to follow.
>
>
> Someone has posted plans for an ignition coil driven tesla coil  http://www.rmcybernetics.com/projects/DIY_Devices/homemade_tesla_coil.htm   has anyone ever tried this?  Any thoughts on its efficiency/practicalness for TC design?   Unhooking from the wall socket is the big plus I see here.   If run out in a field, all the usual grounding in place, then no worries about it backfiring into your home wiring in the wall.
>
>
> heck, maybe even rig one up to the top of your car and drive around on Halloween Night, portable lightning show!
>
>
> ---------------------------------- 
> Brian Hall 
>
>
>
>  
>   
>> Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 12:02:02 -0700
>> Subject: Re: [TCML] Ignition coil etc
>> From: henry at pericynthion.org
>> To: tesla at pupman.com
>>
>> I don't think that will work too well. You might even damage the
>> ignition coil, and you won't realise its full HV potential. Ignition
>> coils should be driven with something closer to a square wave rather
>> than the sinusoidal output you'll get from your transformer. The
>> sharp falling edge on the driver waveform is needed to get the proper
>> inductive 'kick'.
>>
>> Try a dimmer switch circuit: http://wiki.4hv.org/index.php/Ignition_Coil
>>
>> Henry
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 10:58 AM, Rhys Sage <rhys_sage at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>     
>>> I've just got myself a nice new ignition coil and a 16v AC 1000ma plugin transformer. Is there anything I should put between the coil and the transformer to protect either or both when I wire it up and plug it all into the wall? Is there liable to be a backlash from the coil when I unplug the transformer? Should I put a switch in between transformer and coil?
>>>
>>> I have no idea how high voltage the coil is. It's a new coil for a Mustang. Quite nice and small - made in China and no other markings on it. The box says MasterPro E70 and the UPC is 84126602575.
>>>
>>> I figure it's a lower voltage coil so a higher voltage input should be fine.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>       
>>
>> -- 
>> Henry Hallam
>>
>> Sent from my Laptop
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>>     
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