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Description of a new Coil
The folowing may be of interest to others like me who may never own a pig
For the past couple of years I have been trying to figure out how to
maximize a Tesla coil for a given size neon driver xformer. I have a
psuedo lotus program that designed this coil:
Secondary :14" diameter open acrylic frame, 30" high, wound with 240
turns of #16 guage machine tool wire, 8 turns to the inch. 1/4 wave
operating frequency: 279 khz.
Primary: 4 turns, 19" diameter, solenoid wound, .375" copper tubing
spaced .25" apart. Expected resonance using a .021 uf capacitor to be
about 275 khz.
Actual measured secondary parameters: free air resonance 397 khz. With a
6" x 28" toroid, resonance is 286 khz.
Actual measured primary resonant frequency with gap shorted and using a
.021 uf cap: 272 khz
The unit is driven with a 15kv 120 ma neon. The break is a synchronous
1800 rpm rotary with .25" electrodes. there are 4 stationary contacts and
4 rotating contacts giving 1 firing for each half cycle through 4 gaps.
The firing point is adjustable.
First firing was a lashup on the floor using #10 guage wire. As a
starting point for all my coils I place the bottom of the secondary even
with the top of the primary. Ground was only a water pipe (really not too
bad since I'm 25' from the water. With this setup I'm getting 48"
discharges and have to move outside.
This is the best I have ever done on a first pass. Obviously there is
some tuning to be done but it appears that the program is on the money.
I would hope that this coil is capable of 72" discharges. Will make
further reports in the future after I get outside and get a good ground.
Skip Greiner