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Re: Measuring coil performance



>Original Poster: "Malcolm Watts" <MALCOLM-at-directorate.wnp.ac.nz> 

>> Original Poster: Gary Lau  17-Sep-1998 1520 <lau-at-hdecad.ENET.dec-dot-com> 
>> I agree that it's unlikely that any two people measuring power input vs
>> spark output would arrive at the same measurements, due to the
>> complexities of the power measurement.  Wouldn't it be easier to use the
>> basic power supply parameters, i.e. a 15KV/60mA NST, as the basis for
>> comparison?  For small to medium current-limited power supplies, I think
>> this makes sense.  If one wishes to push it hard and use resonant
>> charging, then more power to you, make the most of what you have!  If two
>> coilers both use 15KV/60mA NST's and one uses resonant charging and gets
>> 60 inches and the other doesn't and only get 30 inches, then #1 wins.
>> Wasn't that the point of the original post that started this thread - How
>> much spark is possible from a given NST?

>That unfortunately is what a lot of people have doen to date and come 
>up with totally meaningless figures such as 500W/foot which is far 
>far removed from reality. I maintain that if E*BPS cannot be used 
>(and I would want to see a very good reason why), then there is no 
>satisfactory measure of primary power available. This I refuse to 
>believe. I have run systems from metered DC chargers which leave the 
>type of transformer completely out of the equation. Counting winners
>goes nowhere towards quantifying power input IMHO. Using DC chargers 
>I can accurately measure BPS using the scope and Ep also using the 
>scope. I will at some stage do this to the tune of 700W or so as I 
>have an offline flyback charger on the drawing board (trnaformer 
>already built).
>
>Malcolm

Hi Malcolm:

I think that I failed to make the point of my post clear.  What I was
suggesting was that it would be reasonable to strive simply for the
longest streamer from a given NST power supply, regardless of the actual
efficiency.  If two coils had identical NST power supplies, the one which
produced the longest sparks would be in my view the superior system.  It
made the best use of it's power supply.  I fully agree that E*BPS is a
reasonable gauge of input power, I'm just suggesting a different metric
of "goodness", and this should not be confused with efficiency.

Gary Lau
Waltham, MA USA