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Caps

> dwp> 1) AC voltage should divide equally IF the caps are equal.  
> dwp> Usually caps are +/- 10% so even equal caps aren't.

>I guess I must be the exception to this rule. I measure my capacitors,
>each and every time I hook them up to fire. This goes twice for home-
>made capacitors which have a tendency to drift in value. This drift is
>especially notable during break in (where a 10% drift is normal in the 
>first three days), and after both; hard runs, or prolonged dormancy.
	I was speaking of commercial tolerances.  Operating stress, esp at
	hipower is likely to mean more thermal, more drift.  And skipping
	series operation makes this point less critical, tho still critical
	for tuning...

> > 2) Especially in cases like this, a safety gap across _each_ is 
> > a good idea. Nothing elaborate, just some bits of wire far enough 
> > apart to not normally arc over. (IMO, safety gaps across everything 
> > with voltage across it are not a bad idea, saving "rapid disassembly" 
> > if the power gets to the wrong place....) 

>Now we are talking. This is a first rate idea, and I agree 100%. I will
>add my own little complexity... Put a grounded center tap between the
>two hot electrodes of the safety gaps across the capacitors, and if things
>go "high order" (pure entropy), the available energy for destruction of 
>valuable components will be partly dumped, not just returned to the other
>side of an already stressed capacitor dielectric. This is both safe,
>effective, and high Q; as opposed to using megaohm resistors across 
>pulsing caps.
	I think of this as an "anchor gap, do i not?  I would think it could get
	"complicated, with caps in series, as each one willbe a different
	voltage off ground (or whatever reference is being empoloyed).  The
	setting of the grounded point could get compleicated.  I'd have to
	ponder...