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Re: How should we measure coil efficiency


From: 	FutureT-at-aol-dot-com[SMTP:FutureT-at-aol-dot-com]
Sent: 	Tuesday, July 22, 1997 2:58 AM
To: 	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: 	Re: How should we measure coil efficiency

In a message dated 97-07-22 06:31:59 EDT, you write:
>snip
<<     Forget the transformer type I say and forget transformer losses 
> in the gap. I know that this makes wallplug figures meaningless but 
> let's face it, they are largely meaningless anyway. If we are to 
> extract any meaningful figure of merit for different coils we simply 
> have to know as accurately as possible just how much power is going 
> into the primary. Failure to do this in the past has led to rules of 
> thumb for power vs length that have been counterclaimed one after the 
> other by actual working coil designs.

Malcolm,

It seems like you're saying that we need to "separate" the different
parts of our TCs for measurement purposes, otherwise we won't know
the efficiency of each section...the greater efficiency of let's say the 
power supply in a TC may be compensating for the lower efficiency of
the RF section in a particular coil...or the opposite may happen in a
different coil, so we won't know where our efficiency or lack thereof
actually lies.  Well, I agree, we should know which sections of our coils
are efficient or inefficient and how much...my original suggestion of 
using only power in vs. spark length ignores the question of the  
relative efficiency of various coil sections.  But I'm not sure why you 
suggest that transformer losses are unimportant?  Suppose we find
(for example) that a high break rate makes the RF section of the TC
more efficient, but makes the power supply less efficient, since this
affects overall efficiency, don't we want to know about the power supply
losses?  It seems to me that we must monitor the efficiency of each
TC section.   Am I missing some point here?  

>      I am not interested in how far a coil can throw sparks to a 
> ground rod with a 100mph gale blowing around it. I am interested in 
> how far it can demonstrably reach (even just 10% of runtime) and 
> connect under favourable conditions. One of the magical qualities of 
> Tesla Coils is the ability "to reach out where no induction coil can 
> go". Let's use that quality and impress the hell out of the 
> neighbours.

Nicely said!  Comments welcomed,

John Freau


>     BTW, congratulations to Bert Pool for his latest magnifier 
> experiments. 
 
> What do others think?
> Malcolm
  >>