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Re: [TCML] BIG solid state



On 6/18/11 12:16 PM, Greg Leyh wrote:

From: Steve Ward<steve.ward@xxxxxxxxx>


For years I had resisted the notion that a larger toroid improves spark
length, since Conservation of Energy clearly dictates that a larger
toroid must necessarily lower the output voltage. However, live arc
msmts on Electrum in 1998 revealed the strong presence of large, fast
transients, possibly indicating an arc growth mechanism analogous to
dart leaders. In this light, a local, low impedance reservoir of charge
might be very important indeed. In the end, the larger toroid did in
fact improve the arc performance.



That is what I think. The spark growth mechanisms described in B&R would need such a reservoir with low inductance to be able to feed charge when it's needed.

Ever since I saw enormously long (drawn) sparks with relatively low voltage (60 kV or so) at the Deutsches Museum, I realized that huge secondary voltages aren't a precondition for long sparks. yes, if you want that fast "snap" kind of spark, but that's only going to come from something like a Marx.




There really weren't any big technological hurdles in the building of
this
DRSSTC, though I have been working extensively with this topology for the
last 6-7 years or so, this was merely the next step up in size (the
details
of the electronics are pretty well understood by now). With no specific
project schedule, i pondered the quad primary drive for about the last 2
years, which in my opinion is the only "new" thing going on here, and
even
that seemed too easy once it was actually implemented. De-bugging took
just
a few hours.

The main thing preventing it from happening for so long was really just a
lack of man-power. The scale of things was just beyond what i could do by
myself in the garage. Getting people together to work on projects is
always
harder than it should be, especially when there is no deadline involved.

Steve


Coil logistics seem to scale roughly with the volume of the secondary;
perhaps someone should come up with a scaling law for that. -GL


yes indeed..

There's a big difference between a "tabletop" scale where you can throw it in the back of the car, schlep it on a cart in one trip, etc.

And then, the basic "gotta make multiple trips, but you can still do it by yourself"

And then the, "need multiple people to put it up, manhandle the transformers, etc." but still able to be done without machinery

And finally, "needs a crane, cherry picker, or clever mechanical stuff"


The bigger it gets, the harder it is to "just fool with it for an hour", because it's a multi hour setup and teardown time.


Somewhere in the middle of this list, it moves from the "practical to work in your driveway" to "need to find a place to leave it set up"

10-15 years ago, I was working on a design for a large semi portable Marx. While I had access to a forklift, it was still tricky. I was using those big plastic fruit bins (MacroBin is the tradename) as a building block at first.

The idea was to have something trailerable that could be erected and be 30 odd feet tall and do several hundred kJ. I had some experience with tower trailers for amateur radio, but that's a very different sort of thing.. those you can tilt and telescope.

Something like that might still work for a big portable TC.


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