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Re: DC primary?



Original poster: Steve Ward <steve.ward@xxxxxxxxx>

Norman,

You care completely correct, there is no real need for an AC power
supply, DC works perfectly fine.  There is a drawback in some cases
with DC, as they often have large energy storage capacitors (for
filtering out the 120hz).  If the DC supply does have this filter cap,
you must use a large inductor on the output of the DC supply so that
when the spark gap fires, the DC filter cant dump into the spark gap
as well.  If using raw DC, then this is no concern.

I built a switch mode driven DC supply that operates at 100khz (that
is, its a 100khz 10kVAC transformer with a rectified output).  In this
case no filter caps were needed, and i could charge the tank cap
directly.  But, i soon lost interest in spark gap coils completely, so
my DC supply now charges up my quarter shrinker instead.

On 1/4/06, Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Original poster: norman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> I am new to Tesla coils (I design analog ICs), so please excuse me if my
> questions seem naive.  Looking at Tesla coil circuits, it seems that the
> primary coil could be powered by a high voltage direct current source rather
> than 60 Hz AC.  The "AC" for the Tesla coil seems to come from the spark gap
> and the L-C resonance, not the 60Hz. Is this correct? Is there any advantage
> to DC over AC?
>
> Also, I have seen two different ways to connect the 6kV transformer to the
> Tesla
> coil. One way has the transformer across the spark gap, and the other way has
> the
> transformer (in series with an RFC) across the CAP.  Is one way preferred?
>
> I plan to build a Tesla coil capable of throwing an 8 inch spark.
>
>
>
>