Re: capacitor noob question

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Henry Hallam" <henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

This guy seems a bit suspect to me.
Camera flash capacitors are absolutely no good for Tesla coil use - even if 
you string the 40 or so in series for the right voltage rating, they're 
electrolytic types that are only suitable for DC.  They might well blow to 
bits if used in a TC tank circuit and certainly wouldn't work properly.
The automotive neon transformers I've seen tend to be pretty low current, 
high frequency output.  Perhaps usable but you'd need to rectify the output 
using fast diodes and use a DC Tesla coil design (note that even if you do 
this, it doesn't mean the tank circuit will be DC and you still can't use 
the camera flash capacitors).  Generally it's not worth using these 
solid-state transformers, especially ones with measly current.  Try to get 
a good old fashioned iron-cored mains-powered neon sign transformer.

Good luck

Henry Hallam

----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2005 3:20 PM
Subject: capacitor noob question


> Original poster: Devon Ferns <dferns@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> I'm about ready to build my first coil now.  I've talked with a guy that 
> has built a few coils before and he suggested using a neon transformer 
> that is used to power those neon lights underneath cars.  I'm not sure 
> what the voltage output of these are yet but say 10kV or something.
> He also suggested I go searching for a bunch of used disposable cameras to 
> get the capacitors out of them.  They are rated at around 350V or so with 50uF.
> This made me wonder about the voltage rating.  Is it fine to string say 29 
> or 30 of those together to get up to 10kV rating? How do you go about 
> setting up the capacitors?  I think that the capacitance of these isn't 
> exactly right for what I need anyways but I'm more concerned with the 
> voltage ratings.  If I hooked up 1 350V cap to 10kV wouldn't it just blow 
> to bits?
>
> The highest rated cap I could find was only 2.5kV at 2.2nF which for the 
> size of the coil I want to make is about what I need, but not the correct 
> voltage rating.
>
> Thanks
> Devon.