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Re: MMC take2
Tesla List wrote:
> Original Poster: "christopher boden" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>
>
> Alright as I understand it someone recently took a whole bunch of
> little caps and hooked them together for TC duty. They called it the
> MMC (Another obscure acronym?) i think.
> I have a resource for a whole herd of brand new computer grade caps.
> The values are 1399mFd -at- 450 VDC, how many do I need? I can probably
> get a couple hundred. Any ideas?
>
MMC is Multi-Mini Cap, as in a capacitor made from many smaller
(commercial) capacitors. The safest procedure for finding the number of
capacitors is to check out the manufacturer's data sheets, and derate the
caps for the frequency of AC your tank circuit will resonate at. Then
see how many caps in series you'll need for that, find the equivalence of
that string of caps using the standard formulas, and then calculate how
many strings you'll need to achieve the required capacitance, using the
standard formulas (math.txt). Play with the numbers a little to get
everything right.
Those caps have a pretty hefty capacitance for this kind of work, though,
and I don't think they'll be able to handle the intense labor involved in
the capacitor sweatshop that is the Tesla Coil. Be sure to check out
what kinds of AC frequencies these things are meant to handle, as well as
the magnitude of the current that they're built to deal with. Taking
chances with this stuff caan be frustrating,dangerous, and even (gasp)
costly, especially in such a new area.
Playing the conservative yet again, I'd suggest that you use a cap
designed for "pulse applications," but hey, who knows what you might
discover.
Good luck,
Adam