Re: DC powered tesla coil (fwd)

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: DC powered tesla coil (fwd)
From: Tesla List <mod1-at-pupman-dot-com>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 22:06:41 -0600 (MDT)
Approved: mod1-at-pupman-dot-com



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 22:15:29 -0700
From: lod-at-pacbell-dot-net
To: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Re: DC powered tesla coil (fwd)

Max Di Tommaso wrote:

> 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?

The rep rate is crucial.  Although you could charge slower with DC,
the ions the the arc will go away in several milliseconds.  If the
coil can fire several hundred times per second, the old ions will 
help to extend the striking range of the new ones, giving much more
bang for the buck.

The DC vs AC question has more to do with your power draw, the type 
of mains available, and the power factor that wish to sock to the 
power company.
-- 


-GL
www.lod-dot-org