Re: Success - Was in agony.

["Barton B. Anderson" <tesla123-at-pacbell-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

Hi Garry, 

Just one comment here. It would probably help you a great deal to "know" the
actual value of your cap. So, obviously you need to measure it. If you don't
have a capacitance meter, then take the cap stack to Radio Shack or similar and
have them measure it for you. I bet they would get a kick out of measuring it,
especially after you tell them what your doing with it. 

Just a thought, 
Bart 

Tesla list wrote: 
>
> Original poster: "Garry F." <garryfre-at-pacbell-dot-net> 
>
> Well, Located two 12/30 nst's. I tested one, and it worked. I put it in the 
> tesla coil and found by reducing the amount of plates in the caps, I could
> gain 
> more output. 
>
> It's close enough to normal that I know, I am going to get it to work. I put
> a 
> safety gap - a rather narrow one (Better safer than sorry) and am not feeling
>
> in such a hurry. 
>
> I figure I better get some moves or something else to make sure I don't fry 
> another. 
>
> One thing I could use help is about the number of plates I need to make a LTR
>
> cap. 
>
> I won't go into detail about my calculations because I don't really know why
> I 
> am not getting the results I expect. Let me just instead describe what I
> know. 
>
> The NST is 12/30 I calculate the impedance at 400,000. 
>
> The cap is a plate stack cap with 12 mm polyethelene sheeting between the 
> plates. Not soaked in oil yet, I got to get some but disregarding this, the 
> area of overlap is 26 square inches per plate. What do you think I should
> have 
> in plates for a LTR cap. I tried to calculate it but the results I get don't 
> make sense. The value is .066 for a resonanat cap but I don't know if this is
>
> PF or UF or what. I figure I might want about 80ish for each cap. 
>
> What do you think I should shoot for and how many plates do you think I need?
>
>
> I am sorry to bug you folks and asking this but I think I need some straight 
> figures that I can work with and compare and figure out where I went wrong in
>
> my calculations. 
>
> It's kind of like a lot of things I have tried in my life, I have often had
> to 
> be shown the correct answer so I could work back and understand before I
> could 
> make any progress. 
>
> It reminds me of when I was with my grandparents. My grandad staunchly
> refused 
> to show me a "Gold Spot" for years despite my steady failure in even finding
> a 
> single flake in all the years of panning. Finally one day he broke down and 
> showed me a gold spot and I was able to look at it and get a sense of what to
>
> look for and ever since, I was able to find my own gold spots. In fact, I
> found 
> one of the richest gold spots ever found on the river by anyone. One ole 
> Misourri panner said he had been all over the states and never ever saw so
> much 
> gold per pan as he saw at that place. 
>
> I guess I need a similar jump start with the coil. 
>
> Well, gnight and thanks for any answers. I will read and re-read Brent's book
>
> till I understand it. It's just a matter of time. It's kind of hard for me as
> I 
> tend to transpose numbers pretty badly. Not as bad as a lot of people but 
> enough to make me unsure of my calculations no matter how many times I get
> the 
> same answer.