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Re: [TCML] mmc cap protection by spark-gaps-any ideas?
FIFTYGUY@xxxxxxx wrote:
Folks-
Speaking of grounding hooks, shorting sticks, etc., I've never noticed
one in any pic of a Tesla Coil. Anybody want to post some pics of how they do
it?
Mine's in storage, but I used a piece of 1/2" pvc pipe with an end cap
on it. A standard 1/4" eyebolt which was opened up is the actual hook,
and the wire just has a 1/4" lug on one end and a big clip on the other.
Note well that a safety grounding rod is different than a cap discharge
stick. The latter has a high wattage resistor of a few hundred ohms in
series to limit the discharge current to something around 10-20 amps, so
you don't get a big "bang" or hammer the capacitor with voltage reversal.
The ground wire on either of these doesn't need to be particuarly large,
since it's not designed to carry much current (i.e. whatever the short
circuit current of your power transformer is).
A while back Terry Fritz gave a link to a site with nice illustrated
safety instructions for dealing with big caps, but the link no longer works.
Anybody have a link to the applicable ANSI, NFPA, IEEE, etc. standards
for the safe discharge and handling of high energy capacitors?
There aren't any that I'm aware of.
There's NEC rules that say that a cap bank has to bleed down to less
than 50V in some length of time, but that's not applicable here.
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