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garage door openers...



>>>
After seeing the scans of your coil in action, I would like to know if you 
have electric garage door openers?  I ask this because I have two 
remote openers in my garage (where I will eventually be displaced to 
when I start hitting the walls in the basement), and I was wondering 
what precautions I can take to keep from frying them?
<<<
Well...
Here's what happened when my garage door opener got an indirect hit:

I was firing up the coil during the daytime with the windows blocked so
I could see the sparks well.  After a while, I decided that the ozone was
a little thick and that I would like to see the what the sparks looked like
in broad daylight.  I opened up the garage and fired the coil up.  The 
spark jumped to the metal cross brace at the top of the door, which then
jumped to the lifting arm, and then the opener.  The opener freaked out and 
tried to open the already open door.  Since it was at the limit of its travel,
it jammed the slider into the body of the opener and then started humming 
loudly from the bound up motor.  I was able to get the thing unplugged 
quickly enough that there was no damage.  Once the power was cycled and 
the opener (and I) cooled down, there appered to be no damage.  I only had
to replace the light bulb.  I have never before or since had any trouble
with the opener freaking out or doing anything unusual at all.

In the future, I think I will make some sort of arrangement with bare copper
wires and aligator clips to provide a strike rail below the opener.  I think
that if I use the RF ground to ground the strike rail, I'll be OK.

The other precautionary action that I took was to lower the coil itself.
I had it up on a stool that was fairly high (3' or so).  Now it is on a bucket
that is about 2' high.  This also has made a difference.  The problem that it
created now is that the components of coil are within striking range.

In summary, I will be getting out the hardware cloth (screen mesh) and making
a bunch of shields for everything.

Chip