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Tesla Coil Power Factor
Terry -
I believe your results with the power factor tests of your coil are an
excellent example of how the PF test can show how well your coil is
performing. The higher the PF the better the coil is working. A perfect
performance would be close to 100% PF. At this stage there would be very
little reactive power returning to the source (electric utility co).
For example, with your coil you obtained the following:
.285 PF - gap not firing - large amount of reactive power returning to
source.
.49 PF - gap firing - less reactive power returning to source.
,675 PF - gap firing and output sparks - much less reactive power
returning to source.
Estimated .80 plus PF ? - gap firing - controlled output sparks - very
little reactive power returning to source.
You may want to try the estimated .80 PF test using horizontal continuous
sparks from the toroid to a ground point that is connected to the secondary
coil ground. This test might also take some adjustments of the operating
gap and the tuning/coupling.
I checked out your imp.003.jpg etc waveforms but had trouble interpreting
them. However, they are excellent photos and were easily printed out. I
would like to see the top waveform as the primary coil voltage and the
bottom waveform as the secondary coil voltage. This should show the pri
waveform as a dampened wave going to almost zero indicating all the energy
is being transferred to the sec coil.
The sec waveform would show the rising waveform as the energy is
transferred. At the peak the wave would collapse when the output spark
occurs. There would then be little or no energy left to feed back to the
primary and then to the source.
I believe the PF test and the waveforms could tell you exactly how your
coil is performing. You could then make changes and determine if they
improved the performance. I have never heard of any coiler who has
coordinated these tests.
Comments welcomed.
John Couture
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