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Re: DC powered tesla coil (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 23:58:50 -0500
From: Bert Hickman <bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-com>
To: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: DC powered tesla coil (fwd)
Max,
You could charge your tank cap from a lower power DC source assuming you
use appropriately rated diodes and provide RF suppression circuity to
block RF from backfeeding and destroying the diodes. However, best coil
performance is also related to the break rate, since with faster break
rates streamers can "build" upon the hot channel created by previous
breaks since the air doesn't completely recover its insulating
properties between successive "bangs". Best performance typically comes
with break rates of 120 - 400 times/second. The peak energy/bang won't
change, but the overall power will change as you increase the break
rate, since the power is related to the energy/bang multiplied by the
number of breaks/second.
Unfortunately, the ballasts are really of little use for Tesla Coiling..
Safe coiling to you!
-- Bert --
Tesla List wrote:
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 22:22:23 +0200
> From: Max Di Tommaso <sistemi-at-mail.matav.hu>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: DC powered tesla coil
>
> Hi all,
> I just joined the list. As a beginner, I have my load of questions to
> ask to you expert coilers (I confess, haven't built a working one yet!).
>
> 1. I was wondering about charging the tank cap with DC voltage supplied
> by a neon transformer and a half or full-wave rectifier. This would
> allow charging larger caps with smaller transformer because the spark
> gap wouldn't fire 50 or 60 times per second but less frequently, let's
> say every second. I guess that the peak power delivered to the coil
> shouldn't be much different as it depends, IMO, on the peak voltage
> before the spark gap fires and not how often this occurs. Is that
> correct? Any other parameter unchanged, does the repetition rate of the
> tank cap discharge affect the quality (lenght, brightness, etc) of the
> streamers jumping out the toroid?
>
> 2. I happen to have some inductive ballast of the type used with
> fluorescent tubes. Can they have any use in coiling (perhaps as RF
> chokes)?
>
> Thanks to everyone for any opinion. (English is not my native language,
> so please excuse my mistakes).
>
> Ciao
>
> Max Di Tommaso