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RE: strange variac problem



Original poster: "Pete Komen by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <pkomen-at-zianet-dot-com>

Greg,

I'm not sure that I have any answers, only questions.  Does the variac
maintain the 270V output under load?  Do you have an ammeter?  How much
current does the coil draw?  Does the variac brush make good contact with
the windings?  Are the windings clean where the brush contacts them?  I have
a used variac which required careful dismantling and cleaning before the
brush moved freely (the brush would not move up and down and so made very
light contact with the windings).  When tested with a multimeter, it read
good but acted up under load.

Regards,

Pete Komen
New Mexico, The Land of Enchantment

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2002 7:08 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: strange variac problem

Original poster: "Mr Gregory Peters by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <s371034-at-student.uq.edu.au>

I was running my small (15kV/90mA) coil yesterday. I hooked up my 10amp
variac, which I have tested with my multimeter and shown that it
smoothly varies the voltage from 1- 270v. However, even with the full
270v, I needed a very small gap to get reliable firing. I plugged the
coil straight into the 240v socket and was able to get reliable firing
with very wide gaps. What's going on? It's almost as if the variac is
sucking all the power. I could only get 1 foot sparks with the variac
hooked up but 4 foot sparks without.

Cheers,

Greg Peters
Department of Earth Sciences,
University of Queensland, Australia
Phone: 0402 841 677
http://www.geocities-dot-com/gregjpeters