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Re: Designing safety from the beginning.

A deadman switch would be a great idea, if you can get one that can handle
the current. I'm designing one into my coil, since it'll be used in theater,
and therefore we have to have an incredible safety factor. You should have a
regular switch on the cabinet too, however--there's too much possibility of
the switch getting dropped and then stepped on. Putting it in the HV line
would be fairly insane, however. It adds a whole new area for failure, and
besides, good luck finding a deadman switch that can handle 15 kV. For your
HV cap discharge idea, you'd need to use a vacuum relay, since there are
essentially no high-voltage switches that operate in air, short of a spark
gap. As for gauges, basically, the more areas you can monitor, the better.
It makes it a lot easier to work with the coil and eliminate problems if you
know what's going on in its circuitry. The first thing to go after would be
a current meter, which would monitor the output current of your HV
transformer. Next, look for a HV voltmeter, which would read up to the
setting of your main system spark gap or safety gap, whichever is greater,
for the voltage across your HV xfmr.

           --Mr. Postman (Doug Brunner)
                <dabrunner-at-earthlink-dot-net>
-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Date: Wednesday, November 04, 1998 11:22 AM
Subject: Designing safety from the beginning.


>Original Poster: gojiro-at-juno-dot-com (Alexander Roston)
>
>I am getting ready to build my first Tesla Coil and am considering safety
>issues.  I have decided that before I begin looking for transformers,
>capacitors, etc., I should give some thought to safety and how the safety
>concerns should be reflected in the control panel I am designing.  With
>this in mind I have a few questions for the group.
>
>1.  Has anyone had any success in using a dead man's type switch as the
>main power switch for the coil.
>
>2.  Am I right in my assumption that my main power switch should be in
>the AC line leading to my transformer and not on one of the higher
>voltage lines?
>
>3.  Has anyone successfully and safely discharged the capacitor(s) using
>a switch on the control panel?
>
>4.  Would it be possible to design the main power switch so that in one
>position it would turn the power on and in the other it would drain the
>capicitors?  Would this work better with a three position switch?  (For a
>"null" position in the middle.) Would it be better to do this with two
>differently rated switches?
>
>5.  With regard to safety, are there any gauges, meter's, etc. which
>should be designed into the control box?
>
>Thanks,
>
>
>Alex
>
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