Re: First Light

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "J. Aaron Holmes" <jaholmes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hey there, Alex:  I like to look of your coil.  Nicely
put together!

I wonder if your streamer length issues might be
gap-related?  70mA is plenty of current.  You probably
want a real good air blast across the gaps.  I've
never built an RQ-style gap before, but it's never
occurred to me that they'd really quench all that well
at higher powers; an air blast from one end is just
going to push the arcs along the tubes rather than
force them to stretch and snap.  I forget who did it,
but somebody on the list built an RQ-style gap with
big slots cut in the sides so that the air was forced
to blast out the sides across the broad faces of the
tubes (where they face each other).  That seems like a
much better design if you're expecting active
quenching.  Otherwise, I'd tend to think your airflow
is just cooling the gap and not really blowing the arc
out.  This will be fine and good at real low powers,
but with 70mA you're probably going to want more
blowing-out-type action.

Regards,
Aaron, N7OE

--- Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Original poster: "Alex July"
> <julez06@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Well this is my first tesla coil (that works), it
> has two 10,000v
> transformers in parralel producing 70ma total. the
> capacitors are 0.03
> maxwells. The sparkgap is an RQ type. It is tuned ar
> turn 7.5 of 10,
> there are 1200 turns on the secondary of 26awg wire
> and a 5" minor 18"
> major diameter aluminium ducting toroid. however I
> cant seem to get
> any streamers longer than about 15" there are lots
> of sparks but they
> are short. Never the less i can feel another coming
> on... You can see
> it here:
> http://s164.photobucket.com/albums/u17/mi_july/
>
>
>
>
>