Re: beer bottle cap question

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: beer bottle cap question
From: Jan Florian Wagner <jwagner-at-cc.hut.fi> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 05:34:02 -0700
Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme


> What's the easiest/cheapest way to measure the capacitance and voltage
> ratings of my beer bottle caps?

1. - Use a cheap or expensive DMM that has capacitance measurement. ;o)
   - use a signal generator and a oscilloscope to measure how much
     the signal is damped, then calculate the capacitance
   - make an estimate, 1 bottle = 800pF
   - connect the bottle caps to a selfmade LC oscillator, measure
     frequency, then calculate capacitance

2. - Hook up one bottle to your primary, slowly turn up the voltage on the
mains side of your transformer (with variac, high-power potentiometer,
etc), and check setting before corona starts to form. Then measure input
voltage, mutliply by tranformer ratio, halfe the value. Done. ;o)


  Jan