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Re: Got a neon-What now?
At 10:22 PM 11/20/96 -0700, you wrote:
>>From brad.alheim-at-the-spa-dot-comWed Nov 20 22:20:06 1996
>Date: Thu, 21 Nov 96 00:11:15
>From: brad.alheim-at-the-spa-dot-com
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: Got a neon-What now?
>
>
>Hi All!
>
>Been reading most all posts for about a year, but I haven't had time to
>build a coil or gather parts. I designed an electronic control for my
>Brother-In-Law's massive animated Christmas light display, and that put
>me in good standing to liberate a neon transformer that he isn't using
>in his display. It is a 15kV 30 mA, nice and massive, with good
>quality insulators and it looks real good (and it works!)
>I've made some tube coils before, and some "Ford T" coils, but haven't
>done anything with a Neon. I've been reading most of the posts
>trying to absorb as much as possible in order to design my own coil, but
>reason finally took over and I've decided to "copy" a proven design
>before fiddlin' around trying to get creative-
>
>I'm looking for a sort of "cookbook" coil that could be used with the
>15kV 30mA neon and would be optimized for that- when I'm ready for a
>pig, I'll build a new coil.
>
>I'm on a very limited budget- can't order any fine "store bought" caps,
>or buy any massive quantities of PE sheet to roll one, and my scrounging
>has not turned up anything remotely usable in the .01uF range. Has anyone
>had any good results with salt water caps in a neon coil? (I'm sure that
>this isn't part of the "optimum" recipe!) I've got some pretty good
>RF bypass caps, primary RF chokes, assorted PVC tubing, wire, primary
>tubing, stuff for gaps, etc., so this is the only part in need.
>
>By Brother-In-Law also has a 9kV 120 mA transformer that I can probably
>also snarf up (he REALLY owes me!), would the higher current/lower
>voltage be better? I "guessed" that with a static gap, 15kV would more
>consistantly fire, and with the size of the 15kV neon being much larger
>(and heavier) than the 9kV it looked like it could transform more watts
>intermittently. I will probably end up trying both, but what is really
>the better voltage to use? Does the gapped core in the neon (and
>resulting current limiting) render my assumption on judging the potential
>intermittent wattage a silly one? Is that current limited value the
>data plate current? (in this case 30mA)
>
>I apologize for the long post, but my excitement has really taken over
>after hefting that neon out of the trunk of my car, I can almost smell
>the ozone now (or is it burning tar that I smell!)
>
>Thanks for your help,
>
>Brad Alheim
>... ...From beautiful Chicopee, People's Republic of Taxachusetts, U.S.A.
>___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
>
>
Brad, I've used 9 kv, 12 kv, and 15 kv neons. I have found the 9 kv neons
to be more robust in Tesla coil work. I have never had a 15 kv neon last
for more than a few minutes of operation :( A second advantage to using a
lower voltage tranformer is that you can use lower voltage (i.e., cheaper)
capacitors. I have paralleled several 9 kv neons and have video taped 60
inch sparks. If I were you, I'd give back the 15 kv and grab the 9 kv 120
ma transformer! BTW, 120 ma neons are somewhat rare, the biggest I've ever
had is 60 ma.
Bert Pool