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Tesla Coil Project

 * Original msg to: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com


To Ed Sonderman;

I have poured over the three photos you sent me. Every time I
look at them I can't help but think, " Man, what a geat system! "

All of the system components look flawless. But after about the
tenth time looking very closely at the pictures, and carefully
mapping out the wiring diagram you used, I did find areas that
the wiring could be improved. Most photos that people send me all
but scream: "HELP!". This is definately not the case here.

The photo that shows the 60 cycle HV Buss board with HV RF bypass
capacitors and chokes; also shows the main system spark gap
sitting right next to it. I would put more distance between the
HV buss board and the tank circuit proper. Where you have the
tank circuit wired right through the buss board HV terminals, I
would separate these components/circuits by some feet.

Here is how I would lay out your components:

Set the primary/secondary up on a plastic milk crate or other
high Q plastic stand-off insulator to remove the floor effect
from the system (this will sharpen your tune). Then move the tank
circuit capacitors and the main system spark gap as close as
possible ( 3 feet or so ) to the primary/secondary. Shield these
components with strike shields as necessary.

Then beef up the wiring between the tank circuit components; use
strap connectors or tripled up cable as you have done; but make
the connections/wiring as short as possible, with as few twists
and turns as possible. Twists and turns add off-axis inductance
to the tank circuit which adds "mush" to the tune.

Move the HV buss board back a few more feet to make the RF -/- 60
cycle separation more distinct. Moving the inductance from the RF
chokes further away from the primary coil helps in achieving a
nice sharp tune in the tank circuit. Use about five feet, or
more, of HV rated wire to connect the buss board to the tank
circuit. With the HV rated wire you don't have to worry about
snaking the HV across four feet or more of bare floor. I like the
solid polyethylene core from RG-213 coax to make the run from the
HV filter/buss board to the tank circuit.

I did notice that the RF chokes are properly placed on the buss
board so that they are off axis from the primary coil. There is
no need to realign these chokes. They look plenty large too
(and very well wound/constructed like everything else on this
system). I don't think you need larger ones, these will handle 
2 kVA and your RF choking requirements without a problem.

As I said before, and I will say again: You should be very, very
proud of this system. I wish everybody in the Tesla group here on
the internet could see these photos: the work you have done is
fabulous. Maybe we could get these photos scanned into a GIF
format so we can pass them along? These photos are very
informative.

Richard Quick


... If all else fails... Throw another megavolt across it!
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12