RE: Tuning troubles

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Mccauley, Daniel H by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <daniel.h.mccauley-at-lmco-dot-com>

Heres what you have to do.
Take a paper clip or other sharp piece of wire and tape to your toroid.
Make the point stick out
perpindicular to the toroid.  Not crucial or anything, but it ensures a nice
sharp break-out point.
Try your test again.  You should start seeing corona and arcs coming from
the break-out point.

The problem you may be encountering is that you are reaching the necessary
voltage (at 30% power) for a streamer to
break-out from your toroid.  This is especially true for large toroids.  The
break-out point will definitly fix this.

If you still don't see any corona, arcs (or only small ones), your tuning
may be off a bit.

The Captain




 > I am a new coiler and recently constructed a fair-sized TC.
 > Today I turned it
 > on with a variac at 30% power. Although the spark gap was
 > firing there were
 > no streamers, and I decided to stop at this point.
 >                                                             I have two
 > questions ; should I turn the voltage up and hope for
 > results, and what are
 > the variables that I should tinker with in the tuning
 > process. Also, what
 > should I look for as far as the output of the coil. ( In
 > terms of tuning
 > effect.)
 >            Thanks in advance!
 >                                                     Robert Hanford
 >
 >