RE: MOT-powered coil questions

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

Original poster: "Dwight Harm by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dwighth-at-traxsoft-dot-com>

Gregory,
Thanks to you & everyone for all the good advice.  You're understanding of
our situation is quite right, and it makes sense that a low-voltage,
high-current gap would be much harder to quench.  We'll take a little time &
figure out if we want to go 4-MOT, or 2-MOT with a voltage doubler.  Your
webpages have a wealth of info on that!  Good thing we saved the diodes from
the MO's!

Dwight & Greg.
(Yes, my son's name is Gregory, too!)

 > -----Original Message-----
 > From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
 > Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 6:13 PM
 > To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
 > Subject: Re: MOT-powered coil questions
 >
 >
 > Original poster: "Gregory Hunter by way of Terry Fritz
 > <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ghunter31014-at-yahoo-dot-com>
 >
 > OK Dwight,
 >
 > I stand corrected. Apparently, the lower limit for
 > spark gap tesla coil supply voltage has yet to be
 > established. Perhaps someday under the guidance of
 > this sage group, you can dispense with the transformer
 > altogether, and fire a coil directly from 120vac wall
 > current. However, I'm going to go out on a limb here
 > and assume that you are not interested in micro- or
 > flea-power coiling for your first effort, nor are you
 > interested in sub-kilovolt spark gap research. If I
 > correctly understood your initial query to the list, I
 > believe you are interested in building a practical,
 > MOT-based Tesla coil, and that you are seeking useful
 > advice to that end. If this is so, then based on my
 > limited experience, I suggest that 4kvac from a pair
 > of MOTs is a tough way for a novice to start out.
 > Quenching a low voltage/high current arc presents
 > difficult design challenges that most newbies would do
 > better to avoid. Raising the voltage a bit with a
 > level shifter, or by simply using 4 MOTs instead of 2,
 > sidesteps many problems and greatly simplifies spark
 > gap design. If you'd like to hear more of my
 > half-baked ideas on MOT power supply design for tesla
 > coiling, please refer to my various primers on the
 > subject.
 >
 > http://hot-streamer-dot-com/greg/MOT_chat.htm
 > http://hot-streamer-dot-com/greg/MOTDOC.htm
 > http://hot-streamer-dot-com/greg/4pack.htm
 >
...