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Re: [TCML] Voltage Question



The 'before streamers' bit is all important of course. Once streamers form I would expect the peak voltage to drop because of the extra loading from spark to spark.

Ed

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz wrote:

On 16:59, Charles Van Neste wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I have been trying to quantify the Tesla coil I recently made and I've had some issues trying to calculate the voltage of the top terminal (I think it is normally called the Top load - but I think that is a terrible description). Anyway, measuring the E field is straight forward. I typically put mini-grabber clips on a pole and elevate it to the same
height of the top terminal.  The clips are connected to a coax cable
which goes to a grounded oscilloscope - making sure this E-field "probe" is far enough away not to disturb the system. Of course the E field is not the actual voltage of the top terminal. The only way I've been able to estimate it is to slowly turn the input voltage up until streamers form at the top (then I know the top terminal voltage is near 30kV - since that is the breakdown voltage in air, again this still assumes a gap of 1cm and the top terminal is with respect to ground so the voltage may be much higher than 30kV)

This can be wrong by an order of magnitude. 30 kV would cause breakdown in air in a sphere with 1 cm of radius, not on a large toroid.

. You can't bring a probe near the terminal or you change everything. I need to know the top voltage so I can get an accurate measurement of the voltage gain of the system (from input to output - output being the top terminal). I would think there is a way to calculate the voltage by taking measurements of the E-field (since voltage should be related to the electric field)? How do you guys figure out your top terminal voltage?

Connect a signal generator between the top terminal and ground with known amplitude, as large as possible, and frequency close to the resonance frequency of the secondary coil. See then what the oscilloscope measures. You have then the ratio between actual terminal voltage and the measurement, that shall be the same with the coil in operation, before streamers form at least.

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz

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