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Re: GNATS meeting, and harmony/synergy

Subject: 
        Re: GNATS meeting, and harmony/synergy
  Date: 
        Mon, 17 Mar 1997 18:34:34 -0500 (EST)
  From: 
        richard hull <rhull-at-richmond.infi-dot-net>
    To: 
        Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>


At 12:12 AM 3/17/97 -0600, you wrote:
>Subject: 
>        GNATS meeting, and harmony/synergy
>  Date: 
>        Sun, 16 Mar 1997 22:09:47 -0700 (MST)
>  From: 
>        Chip Atkinson <chip-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>
>    To: 
>        tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com
>
>
>Greetings all,
>
>Wow!  I can finally write something about my day's activities, rather
>than
>list stuff or something I did ages ago!
>
>Today I had a little meeting of GNATS (Greater Niwot Area Tesla
>Society).
>Jeff Detweiler from the list and Bill Williams, another TC enthusiast,
>visited for a little TC action.  
>
>As you may remember, a while back I popped my rolled 0.0177uF cap for my
>4" coil. I then switched to my 0.025 CP cap for a run or two, but then
>stopped using it because the garage was too cold.  
>
>Today we were trying to get the 4" coil running with the 0.025uF cap.
>While the coil seemed to be somewhat in tune, I was getting big flaming
>power arcs on the rotary gap that were about 2" long.  This was odd and
>I
>tried to quench the arcs by putting in another gap.  I put in my air
>blast
>gap, and ran it at about 40 psi.  This should quench a forest fire, but
>in
>my case did very little.  I dinked around with the spacing of various
>gap parts, the rotary and the air blast.  The best setting allowed me to
>produce fairly decent streamers, but there was something still obviously
>wrong.  The 4" coil just did not sound correct, and wouldn't run
>smoothly.
>I also noticed that there were _no_ sparks up and down the length of the
>secondary, which indicated to me that it was tuned at the proper
>frequency
>and not at some odd harmonic.
>
>Frustrated and puzzled, Jeff and I pondered what the heck could be going
>on, and came up with no real answer. (Bill had left by then).
>
>Since I had the 6" coil that I wound this winter (remember the cracking
>of
>the coated coil in the cold?), I let Jeff talk me into trying it, so he
>and I went about setting the thing up.  We used a small 12x3 toroid for
>ease of tuning, and then went to the large toroid.  Interestingly, the
>6"
>coil with the small toroid required no tune adjustment from the 4" coil
>with the large toroid.  The results were amazing.  The flaming was gone
>from the rotary gap and everything seemed to work very well.  The only
>difference was the secondary coil.  The primary, wiring, and capacitor
>were the same as on the 4" coil.
>
>After thinking about it a small amount, it appears that the 0.025 cap is
>just too big for the 4" coil setup, but is just right for the 6" coil.
>Although I do believe that I had the 4" coil tuned properly, it was very
>interesting that the larger capacitor produced a much rougher operation.
>
>Any ideas or suggestions?  
>
>Chip
>
>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> Chip Atkinson 
> http://bhs.broo.k12.wv.us/homepage/chip/info.htm
> --- Tighten it 'till it strips and back off half a turn ---
>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>
>
Chip,

Very wierd indeed!  As the only change was the secondary,  We must
assume
the secondary or its coupling were at fault.  What fault that is, may
have
to be investigated.  It sounds like the coupling was way high on the 4"
or
it was in some way loading up the primary system. 

 The opposite could even be the case.  If you run a coil without a
secondary, you can get a lot of flaming due to too little of the energy
being taken up and it just winds up back in the primary coil, causing
flaming.

Interesting observation.


Richard Hull, TCBOR