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Neon murder
Subject: Neon murder
Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 23:23:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: ADatesman-at-aol-dot-com
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
I am developing a reputation in the transformer community as a murderer,
unfortunately, since I'm about to kill my third neon before ever
completing a
coil. More than once (yes, sadly) I connected my 15,000 V/30 mA
transformers
without checking to see that the current they drew ( I = wCV) exceeded
the 30
mA limit. I can understand how those burned out.
But today I burned out half of a very nice TransCo unit, and I'm not
certain how. I had it directly connected to a rotary spark gap, running
flat
out to check if any of the electrodes were missing. Now, in hindsight
this
sounds bad, but I can't see that it's worse than using the NST for a
Jacob's
Ladder. Am I wrong?
Deepening the mystery, however, is this (and I'm sure this is an easy
question, given the experience on the list.) A 15,000 V:120 V
transformer
which puts out 30 mA should ideally require 3.75 A input, but because
obviously no transformer is ideal, the TransCo is rated 4.12 A input.
Doesn't this mean that it requires 4.12 A input to output 30 mA? I ask
this
because I put a 4 Amp fuse in the input line, thinking to limit the
output at
something less than 30 mA. I thought that this was smart, but either
there
is some other method of burning out other than exceeding the current
limit,
the RSG allows very large intermittent currents too short in duration to
blow
the fuse, or I need to think about this much harder.
As an aside, the burned side can still generate a really small spark
when
grounded to the case. Is it truly burned out, or is this maybe a case
of the
carbon arcing I've read about (that can be fixed by baking in the
oven)? I
can dream!
Thanks for the help. Aaron Datesman