Discussion, test results

To: richard.quick-at-slug-dot-org
Subject: Discussion, test results
From: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com
Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 19:08:38 -0400
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Richard,

Thanks for your recent responses.


 ES> Limited to about 10,000V I get 10A of primary current and    
 ES> about 20" discharges.  Since I'm now supplying about 150ma
 ES> of current to the coil primary circuit I would expect to get 
 ES> much better performance than I had with the two 12kv 30 ma   
 ES> neons.  Do you have any ideas?

You said: 

"My numbers come up about the same as yours. You are feeding the
primary of the pig about 160 volts -at- 10A = ~1.5 kVA actual into
the tank circuit. I would expect 3+ feet of discharge at this
power level. Thoughts: 

Is the rotary gap running too fast or two slow? Gap speed can
really alter the power processing performance of the system. 

The capacitor is not able to process all of this power across the
dielectric. This capacitor (.02 ufd) will only process about 75ma
across the dielectric. Increase the capacitor value, or increase
the voltage. (I know, I know, I have been there :-)

Input voltage is probably too low, and combined with the
inductive delay of the welder, the initial power up may not have
the voltage and current to get the gaps up and firing reliably.
Remember that it takes nearly a full second from the time the
gaps fire, to the time the current is able to pass though all of
the copper and various cores, to show up in the tank circuit
proper. The inductive delay plus low operating voltage is likely
part of the problem."

In this recent test, I did not have the welder in the circuit.  Only 7,000W
of resistive load.  I still do not know why the 2 12kv 30ma neons perform
better.  I only get 10A of primary current.  Do I need to get another 5,000
or 10,000 watts of resistive load and use it all in parallel?  I will have
oven elements all over the basement.  How about trying the pig with no
ballast?  Will this rip my electrodes off?  If I'm ever going to input 5kva,
I need to get the primary current up to 20 or 30 amps.

Still no word on my commercial capacitor.

When I said I get occasional pops from the rotary, it is accompanied by
flashes - like it must be a discharge of some sort.  I don't see any
construction problem with the rotary that would be causing this.  What
exactly is a kickback in the gap?  What causes it and how do I prevent it?

BTW, My friends son that is doing a research paper on ball lightning is
coming over tomorrow night with an experiment to see if we can make some.
 This kid is sharp - he aced the math portion of his SATs.

Thanks,  Ed Sonderman