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Re: Capacitor Help



Original poster: "Barton B. Anderson" <bartb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Malcolm,

Tesla list wrote:

Original poster: "MalcolmTesla" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Thanks.  I got the strike ring make tonight too
http://www.v8-ranger.com/temp/tesla/19.jpg
I wasn't sure if I was supposed to connect one end of it to earth or not?

When using a strike ring, wire it to RF ground which is separate from your mains house ground. I use copper pipe hammered into the ground for RF ground. The bottom secondary is also attached to RF ground.

And I made my capacitor bank or MMC as I believe it's called.  I also put 10
Meg 1/2 watt resistors across each cap as suggested.
http://www.v8-ranger.com/temp/tesla/20.jpg
http://www.v8-ranger.com/temp/tesla/21.jpg

The MMC looks like .05uF total if using the 0.15 CD caps. Realize that the cap bank is set at only 12kV. I hear some build their MMC's to the transformers Vp, but yours is barely at an rms rating. It may be wise to up the rating to at least Vp. My MMC is derated to 36kV which is higher than others have built their MMC's to. I kind of built it bullet proof, but others have done well just at a Vp rating. Others may have comments there.

Still need to make the safety gap across the MMC and wire up the HV stuff.
Oh and winding the secondary and building  my torid are the last two major
things.

Do I adjust the safety gap across the MMC slightly larger than what ever my
spark gap gets set at?  1/8" or 1/4" wider, maybe?

I put my safety gap across my sparkgap. This allows the safety gap to act just like the sparkgap and the energy is felt across the inductance, unlike a cap, where a sudden discharge across a cap can be damaging to the cap because the discharge is felt across the cap (as opposed to across the primary inductance).

The safety gap should be adjusted to where the transformer will not fire across it (it's there to protect the transformer, and if adjusted too wide, it then serves no purpose, and the cap discharge can damage the transformer secondary windings from excessive voltage, especially on NST's). Once installed into the system and running, you may have to do some "slight" adjustments. If you find your safety gap has to be adjusted oddly wide; stop. There may be something wrong and you don't want to put the transformer at further risk. This topic will likely come up again once your up and running.

Take care,
Bart