Re: DRSSTC Magnifier Mark 1

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz" <acmdq@xxxxxxxxxx>

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: Steve Ward <steve.ward@xxxxxxxxx>
> Hi Paul,
> I will try to answer your question from *my* perspective of what a
> magnifier actually is.  To the guys who are more familiar with the
> technology, feel free to correct me if im wrong!
> The way i see it, the 2-coil and 3-coil systems are just the same
> thing, except where you are putting the leakage inductance of your
> "resonator".  In a 2 coil system, the secondary winding consists of
> some L that is coupled and the rest is "leakage" and is left to
> resonate with the self C and toroid C.  In a magnifier, you are
> chopping up the secondary into 2 parts.  One part (the driver) is
> highly coupled to the primary, so most of the L there is coupled.  The
> 3rd coil is only coupled electrically (not magnetically) so all of its
> inductance is leakage L and resonates.  So all you are doing is moving
> a section of your secondary winding off axis.  So to actually answer
> the question, no, there is no free energy, and there is nothing that i
> can see that should make a magnifier more efficient than a 2 coil
> system.  I believe the over all coupling achieved turns out to be
> roughly the same once you figure that the 3rd coil isnt coupled at
> all.
> Dont take what ive written here as fact!  Im only going by my limited
> knowledge of things.
> I would really like to hear what others have to say in response to
> Pauls questions.

The basic idea of the magnifier is really this, and with the normal
structures used in magnifiers made for spark generation they operate
as you describe. The advantage is just the placing of the high-voltage
terminal away from the primary circuit.
Things get more complicated, and interesting, if the coupling and
other details are changed in order to obtain complete energy transfer
as fast as possible. The capacitance to ground at the transmission
line starts to affect significantly the behavior of the system, and
has to be taken into account. When this is done the result is what I
describe in http://www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/tesla/magnifier.html.
The equations there are for a capacitor-discharge system. A system
with a DRSSTC driver is also possible, but the optimal values are
different.

The "magnifier" name probably refers to the function of the third coil,
that really magnifies the voltage that would be obtained from the
driver, that is a classic Tesla coil, alone.

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz