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Re: Pri./Sec. Tuning



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

Tesla list wrote:

Original poster: "Mike Knowlton" <amdx@xxxxxxxxxxx>
I have been reading this group for about six weeks now and
see confusing info on pri./sec. tuning. ( to me anyway)
My understanding is you have a secondary coil with toroid (tophat) that is resonant at a fundumental frequency.
Then you wind a Primary, and wire it with capacitors in parallel, then adjust a tap on the primary until the primary is resonant at the same frequency as your secondary.

Correct.

(I understand this is performed with the secondary in place.)

No. When the two systems are coupled, two resonances appear. Tuning with the two coils in place is best performed with transient excitation. See http://www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/tesla/tuner.gif. By the way, I would not consider other method...

My confusion is sometimes I see people say tune your primary lower or higher. Shouldn't they ring at the same frequency?

The primary system is usually tuned to a slightly smaller frequency, because when streamers are present at the secondary terminal, the secondary capacitance is increased, decreasing the secondary resonance frequency.

Also as a tuning method, could you lightly couple a scope probe to the circuit and drive the primary with a signal generator, then watch for double peaks, then adjust the primary inductance (or capacitance) until you have a single peak.

You will always see two peaks, due to the "frequency splitting" phenomenon.

P.S. I aquired an 8.5" x 42" clear plastic tube today, I think it's my start to building a TC !
"clear plastic"? How do I find out what type of plastic this is?
It has a 1/4" wall thickness.

Probably acrylic.

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz