[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

RE: TC Operation 2nd Question



Original poster: Thomas <tom-at-pwrcom-dot-com.au> 

 > Original poster: "Emmett Secrest" <secrest2032-at-msn-dot-com>

-snip-

 >I have several
 > ideas of things
 > I need to do to improve performance and would like
 > confirmation I am on the
 > correct path.  I feel at this point that increasing the
 > overall spark gap
 > distance might improve performance. Also, I believe that once
 > I get the MMC
 > bank built and installed that it will perform much better than the
 > saltwater cap I am now using.  The only other thing I can
 > think of is I
 > need to improve the coupling between the primary and
 > secondary.  At present
 > I have 2.5" between them with the flat primary hitting about
 > 2" up from the
 > bottom winding on the secondary.  I look forward to reading your
 > suggestions for improving my first endeavor into Tesla coils
 > and to seeing
 > streamers without a nail for a breakout point.
 >
 > Emmett
 >

Make sure you do not open the gap too wide, it will stress the NST and
primary capacitors, possibly destroying them.

I measured the gap setting at which my NST would just stop firing (without
the primary circuit connected) and that is my absolute maximum setting.

MMCs will have less loss than bottle caps. A design tool is here:

http://home.datacomm.ch/k.schraner/MMCcalc2xls.zip

Be very careful about over coupling the primary and secondary, you will get
racing sparks up and down the secondary frying it.

Use JAVATC to calculate your present coupling:

http://www.classictesla-dot-com/java/javatc.html

A good value is somewhere between 0.13 and 0.22, see the help file for more
info:

http://www.classictesla-dot-com/java/script/k.html