Re: [TCML] LED Strobe Sync Idea

[futuret@xxxxxxx]

Jeff,

I don't understand how Kinraide's rotary motor speed was changed by
swiveling the base.  This sounds more to me like a mechanical phase 
adjuster
for optimizing the phase for a synchronous motor rotary gap.  Or perhaps
swiveling the based somehow varied the number of electrodes that
were presented?  That would have the effect of varying the motor
speed (in the sense that the break-rate would vary), but without
actually affecting the actual motor speed.  Regarding the adjustment
of where the break occured along the 60Hz AC sine wave, that too
could only apply to a synchronous gap, since the firings points keep
changing in an async rotary.  But I may be mis-understanding your
description.  Was Kinraide's rotary coil also powered by a kicking
coil and somehow phased to it's operation?

Another way that I interpret your description is based on the
idea that a gap will fire over a longer distance once the arc is
established.  The gap must be set closer to start the firing.
Then once the firing begins, the gap can be widened, thereby
increasing the firing voltage.  This method can be used for a static
gap.  Is this one of the methods that you're refering to?

John


-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Behary <electrotherapy@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Mon, 25 Aug 2008 9:23 pm
Subject: RE: [TCML] LED Strobe Sync Idea



John,

It is interesting that in some of the early TC's, a few rare examples 
made extra
provisions to allow the caps to fully charge before discharging - or to 
at least
allow this adjustment if the operator knew what they were doing.  To 
find
physical examples of these circuits is hard - a lot of times, when 
machines were
mass-produced this feature was left out - probably thought of as 
"unnecessary"
[at the expense of efficiency] if the unit would spark at all without 
them.

To give an example, many of the early units were "kicking coils".  
Simple
electromagnet, interrupter or rotary break/condenser/Tesla Coil.  Most 
did the
simple circuit of a make-and-break to charge the cap and discharge it 
into the
Tesla Coil.  A few though, had a combination of an interrupted circuit 
(to
charge the cap) and a spark gap (or modified secondary interrupter) to 
discharge
the cap into the Tesla Coil (but only when fully charged).  There was 
some form
of mechanical manipulation of contacts or gaps to give an extra moment 
of time
to allow the cap to reach a full charge before discharging!

In one of Kinraide's rotary breaks, the entire assembly of the break 
mechanism
(which was fully-adjustable in itself) was located on a base that could 
be
loosen and swiveled 360 degrees while the coil was in operation.  In 
this way,
you could control the speed of the motor to control the break rate, and 
rotate
the base (that held the contacts which were opened or closed with the 
motor) to
adjust where in the circuit the break was made or broken at that speed.

With some of the early lower frequency coils (50 kHz) where .25 or .50 
mfd caps
were used (at 1 or 2kV), this little timing mechanism may have done 
wonders for
the output of the coil.
Now that the repro coils are built, I think next will be the creation 
of these
interrupters to see what happens, and if there are any improvements or
differences in how the coils operate...

Jeff
> There's a misconception out there that the gap should fire at the> 
peak of the
incoming AC waveform but that's not correct. Instead> the gap should 
fire when
the cap has a full charge. This usually> occurs about 90 degrees away 
from the
peak of the incoming> AC waveform, but it can vary with the particular 
NST and
cap> value. The final adjustment has to be done by trial and error,> 
(unless a
remote phase adjuster is used).> Some sort of ball-park pre-adjustment 
may be
helpful. Not only> does the adjustment need to be done while the coil 
is
running> (or by trial and error), but it needs to be done at full 
power.> The
correct setting for a low power, will be different than> the correct 
setting for
high power (due to non-linear NST> characteristics I suppose).
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