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Re: Bigger secondary = longer streamers? (was Re: Anybody answering this? (Pr...
In a message dated 11/13/98 8:48:07 AM Pacific Standard Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
writes:
<<
Ed,
Yes, you are correct about my present situation. Maybe I can put my
questions like this:
If I keep the same tank supply, same primary capacitor, but I use a, say,
6" secondary, bigger toroid, bigger primary to keep the TC still tuned,
will I get longer streamers?
It seems to me that I need current only to properly charge quickly the
primary capacitor, but primary voltage is directly related to secondary
voltage i.e. to streamer length (forgetting about the effect of increasing
BPS). Am I right?
>>
Marco,
I would guess that you will get longer sparks just by building a larger
diameter secondary, yes.
The maximum secondary voltage achieved is certainly directly affected by your
transformer voltage. The output voltage is equal to the gap voltage times the
square root of the value of the tank capacitor divided by the capacitance of
the secondary. In theory, the larger the tank capacitor and smaller the
secondary capacitance, the larger the output voltage. In reality, it depends
on a lot of things - like good spark gap design with good quenching, size and
radius of the toroid (this is critical to get maximum performance), geometry
(design and construction methods of the system), power supply voltage and
current capability, etc.
Ed Sonderman