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Re: Power arcing on a rotary(?)
Tesla List wrote:
>
> >From chip-at-poodle.pupman-dot-comSun Nov 10 22:30:57 1996
> Date: Sun, 10 Nov 1996 22:30:43 -0700 (MST)
> From: Chip Atkinson <chip-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>
> To: Tesla List <tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>
> Subject: Power arcing on a rotary(?)
>
> Greetings,
>
> Jon Bazemore, a fellow list subscriber, came up to my house today to see
> my coil. One of the things that I thought I would try with him was to
> put a static gap in series with my rotary I had the static gap tapped at
> two 0.030" gaps, as well as the rotary with about 0.060" on each side,
> giving a total of 0.060" (approximately) for the static gap, and 0.120
> between the stationary and moving electrodes on the rotary, for a grand
> total of 0.180" (approximately).
>
> Normally, the gap fires with a snappy sound and no elongation of the arc
> between the moving and stationary electrodes. This time, with the static
> gap in series, I got a 2" long stretched out arc around the
> circumference. Not surprisingly the spark output diminished drastically.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> One other thing to note -- the series gap wasn't truly in series with the
> rotary, it was on the other side of the primary inductor.
>
> - RG --at---SG--||--
> |_________________|
>
> (RG: Rotary gap, SG: stationary gap, ||: cap, -at-: primary inductor)
>
> Chip
>
Chip -
It might be that the larger gap distance forces the capacitor to a
higher voltage, which is enough to give you your power-arcing. A small
gap distance reduces the firing voltage, but with a rotary, that's not
a big deal, as a small gap distance reduces (in my thinking) gap losses
and such.
On my coil, my rotary fires quite nicely until I crank up the voltage.
I can see the after-effects on the gap - the gap fires early as the
higher voltage jumps the distance *before* the electrodes are in
perfect alignment.
- Brent (my two cents worth)