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Hello Everyone!
I've been reading and applying quite a bit of new
information here, and I'm going to go for the "efficient"
design during the next building period, which will begin
in a few days actually! Becuase of that, I kind of wanted
to go over the system and make sure that I don't have
too many misconceptions about what's what. So here
goes...(Please correct me as I go :)
Starting at the wall socket: A commercial line filter,
with a high enough current rating for the system, is
placed in-line with the power cord going to the, (in my
case), neon transformers. The filter is placed in-line in
reverse, as its job now is to keep rf out of the power
lines, not to keep rf out of the coil system. Therefore,
for the commercial filter, the "load" side goes to my
wall-outlet, and the "line" side goes to my transformers.
As I will be drawing about 15 Amps, a 20 Amp filter
should work ok.
(Power-correction capacitor goes here. Confused on
the calculation of this...)
I will be using two 15 kV, 60 mA transformers with
primaries and secondaries in parallel. These transformers
must be properly phased. (How does one check that
again?) The phasing can be altered by reversing the
primary's line connection. This should give me about
1.8 kVA output. (15 kV * 120 mA)
Next is the safety gap. This is a gap wherein each
side of the gap is connected to the HV out of the neon
transformer. Between those two gap-sides is a
grounded post. The grounded post is grounded to the
dedicated rf ground. The gap is set so that the
grounded post is between the two gap-sides, and so
that there is barely corona at the neon transformer's
operating voltage. This safety gap will sink any rf that
happens to get back through the system to the neon
ttransformer. (Is it ok/desireable to use points on this
gap, as opposed to flat faces?)
Also, there should be rf-bypass caps across the
outputs of the neon transformer. There should be a
capacitance for each HV output, with one plate going to
the neon transformer, and the other plate to the
dedicated rf-ground. These capacitors should be low-Q
and lossy. (Like every capacitor I ever built! :) The
reactance of these capacitors should be _very_ high at
60 Hz, but _very_ low at the operating frequency of the
system.
Next, there should be rf chokes in series with the
neon's outputs and the primary discharge capacitor.
These should be made from toroid cores that can handle
the output of the power supply, and wound with heavy
wire. The reactance of the chokes should be
_very_ low at 60 Hz, and _very_ high at the system
operating frequency. This is the reverse of the bypass
caps. (Could TV flyback cores be substituted for the
ferrite or iron-powder toroid cores?)
In my system, to begin with, I will have the
single primary discharge capacitor across the neon's
outputs, rather than try to run the "balanced" circuit
right from the beginning. This capacitor should be very
high-Q, i.e., have a _very_ fast discharge rate. The
capacitor should be tested to make sure there are no
internal resonances at or near the system operating
frequency. If the capacitor is not high-Q, then peak
powers-per-unit-time can never be realized. High-Q
capacitors can be built from ldpe and aluminum
roof-flashing. The value of this capacitor is based on
the impedance-match of the power supply.
The spark-gap should switch and quench as fast as
possible, which means _very_ fast. For higher powers,
compressed-air gaps are very good. The gap should be
relatively massive in order to promote cooling and
reduce resistance to current flow. The compressed-air
gap allows faster switching while maintaining a shorter
gap. _Very_ high powers per-unit-time can be realized.
(Should other gaps be used in series with this gap?)
The primary coil should be a flat pancake or a saucer
shape. The diameter of this primary should be roughly
equal to the height of the secondary coil in order to
promote maximum flux-linkages throoughout the length
of the secondary coil. The primary should be made of
copper tubing, the larger the better. However, I will be
using #6 stranded, rubber-covered wire because I have
about 100' of it. I can always go to copper later :) I will
have about 12 taps per turn, equally spaced, and have
as many turns as possible.
The secondary will be wound on 6" lucite, 24" long.
(Will it still be necessary to coat the form with
polyurethane before winding?) The secondary will be
totally sealed so that there are no air-paths inside the
coil that will allow conduction of voltages to ground
through the inside of the tube. There will be no holes in
the tube, nor will the wire ever enter the tube. The
mininum-allowable wire gauge is #22, which is what I will
use. The bottom of the secondary will be connected to
the dedicated rf ground. The dedicated rf ground is a
5' x 1" copper pipe driven straight into the ground and
connected to the system with, (of course), #6 stranded,
rubber-covered wire. There will be many coats of
polyurethane on this coil. There will be enough coats
when I can no longer feel the individual turns of wire.
The secondary will be topped with a 20" across,
4" cross-section, toroid. The toroid serves several
functions. First, the toroid protects the secondary
windings. (How does that work again?) Second, the
toroid acts as a capacitance at the resonant frequency,
overriding the secondary's internal capacitance, allowing
more current flow. Third, the toroid inhibits discharge
from the secondary, allowing power to build to high
levels before sparking occurs. Finally, the toroid acts as
an electron (charge-wave) accelerator by not allowing
slow-down of the electrons (charge-wave) as they
leave the flux-propulsion area :) The toroid then is
acting as a huge attraction-potential, which aids
resonance, as relative speeds are maintained as
constants, (if not actual accelerations.)
The toroid should be raised high enough to not be
affected by the primary flux-paths, and also to reduce
the chances of arcs going to the power supply or
primary circuit. It's not a bad idea to put up spark-
guards to give the sparks a place to strike. These should
be connected to the dedicated rf ground.
If I left out anything please let me know. Also, if any
improvements in the above system can be suggested,
please do so. I really want this one to be the best ever!
Thanks!
Dan <klineda-at-univscvm.csd.scarolina.edu>