[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [TCML] Silent Spark Gap
I've had some luck with simply placing tungsten electrodes inside a mostly
sealed PVC tube. Simply drill pressure relief holes at various places and
ensure you have good enough heat sinking. It works fine for low power coils
(<300W) but would not work so well on higher power ones. Thermionic emission
from the electrodes does become a quenching problem for longer run times
though.
I have also successfully used a 1B22 spark gap tube for very low voltage
SGTCs. These are a bit harder to find as they have a large quantity of
radium inside and are quite radioactive, but you can series them up to get
the voltage standoff needed. The firing voltage is 2.7kV.
Here is the data on the tube: http://www.tubecollector.org/1b22.htm
-Sig
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Phillips
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 3:08 PM
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List
Subject: Re: [TCML] Silent Spark Gap
You've never mentioned how large your 'small' TC really is. My small
one produces 4" streamers and uses a 2.5 kV, 20 mA NST and a Victoreen
spark gap originally mentioned here many years ago. All but the coil
itself is built into an 8" box and I'd have to open it to see the
actualy nomenclature on the gap but it's of a class which has a lot of
discussion here maybe 10 years ago. Gap noise is noticeable but only if
you listen for it but the streamers of course make noise which some [I'm
one] find entertaining. I once used three of these gaps in series on a
coil with a 60 mA 9 kV NST and an 0.015 ufd capacitor and they worked
reasonably well [maybe 20" streamers compared to 28 with an open air
gap] but got way too hot.
I also have a WW1 surplus AMRAD '1/2 kW' quenched gap which does a very
nice quiet job with my coil powered by a 12 kV, 60 mA transformer but
there the noise from the streamers is almost as loud as that from a
multi-section pipe gap, although the streamer noise don't have the
extreme high frequency components that the gap noise does.
Ed
Is there anyway to build an enclosure around the spark gap in a small SGTC
in order to muffle the noise as much as possible?
_______________________________________________
Tesla mailing list
Tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
_______________________________________________
Tesla mailing list
Tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
_______________________________________________
Tesla mailing list
Tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla