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Re: some questions about tc design

to: Victor

Use two commercial "surplus" RF filters back to back with a few MOV
varisters thrown in on the load side.  This does an adequate job of
filtering out interference.  A pair of "hash" chokes with heavy wire wound
on a PVC tube filled with 5/16 inch bolts x 5 inches long also helps out ---
one in series with the hot and one in series with the neutral (yes, RF
currents can flow through neutrals if they float a bit).

The flyback transformer will not provide a high current which is required by
current hungry capacitors in values above .01 MFD.  Most medium size coils
use .01 to .05 MFD caps with .02 MFD matching good to 120 mA driving
current --- usually a pair of 12 kV, 60 mA neon sign transformers (NST) in
parallel.

Use a 4.5:1 secondary coilform height/diameter ratio.  Use a flat spiral.  A
"test" setup can be fashioned by good old #12 AWG household wiring ---
sometimes electrical contractors have some scrap on a spool and they will
give it to you if it's 100 feet or less.

TC's don't power laser or railguns very good because they both require large
currents --- and direct current not HF AC.

Good luck

Dr.Resonance


-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Date: Saturday, August 07, 1999 4:53 AM
Subject: some questions about tc design


>Original Poster: "Victor McPhearsom" <vektor_-at-hotmail-dot-com>
>
>i was foolin around on the internet one day, and i came across a home
brewed
>tesla coil page. it immediately caught my fascination, and for the past few
>weeks i've been cruising the tesla coil webring, reading all the
information
>i possibly could, and i almost think i'm about ready to start designing my
>own coil.
>
>I worked alot around high voltage when i was in the navy (as an electronics
>technician), and finally i might be able to put some of that education to
>use ;). I'm going to start small, but i'd like to throw a few ideas, and
get
>some information, or some links.
>
>first up, before i even think about starting construction, i need to think
>about protecting my mains :). This is one area that i haven't been able to
>find a whole lot of information on, just a few ascii-sketches. does anyone
>have any circuit schematics for keep the RF away from the power supply? I'd
>like to find a few circuits that have been tested, and are known to work
>before i try designing my own (and find that i've just blown up every
>electrical appliance in the house).
>
>For the power transformer, i have several old computer monitors laying
>around. i was curious if anyone has/had hacked one up and use the flyback
>transformer inside as a supply.
>
>for the capacitor, i was thinking about going with a plate-style design
>(since i dont have a fish tank laying around). any recommendations on
>materials? right now it looks like heavy-duty ziplock storage bags,
aluminum
>foil, and a whole mess of mineral oil.
>
>i dont think my spark gap is going to be that fancy (for my first project
>anyways). possibly some of the 1" copper tubing i've got laying around, in
>series. when i manage to free up some funds (and i've got my first coil
>working), i wouldn't mind trying to replace the gap with a hv circuit
(maybe
>with a few power fets or something). i'd like to talk to anyone whos done
>this, mainly about aquiring the components. I doubt radio shack carries a
>ton of HV components :).
>
>I still have yet to design the primary/secondary. I'll do that this weekend
>(hopefully i can get my hands on some of that software to help me out). any
>thoughts on a good diameteter/length for a small coil project? i was
>thinking 4" dia and 16-18" long. dont have any materials for the primary
>laying around unfortunately, so it'll have to be store bought *sigh*.
>
>I'm not going for any kind of spark length on this one. if i can get the
>thing working, i'll be happy. once its working, i'll upgrade/redesign
>components as needed to get to an impressive spark length.
>
>anyways, nothing is down on paper yet (i plan on doing that this weekend).
>hopefully before the end of the month i'll be almost finished constructing
>the individual components, and on my way to putting them all together and
>tuning it. *joy*.
>
>any thoughts/ideas/useful links would be appreciated,although i've read
>about 1000 tesla pages (yes, about a thousand...i've been reading up for
>about the last week about 6-8 hours a day), and all of them provided a
>little more insight into construction, but most just had pictures (which
>make me drool at the thought of being able to do that myself ;)) and some
>stats on the persons coil.
>
>after i get this coil finished, i think i'm going to do some work on
>experimenting with uses for it (and getting it down as small as possible,
>eventually). the mad scientist inside of me is screaming that there must be
>thousands upon thousands of uses for a few megawatts of power ;).
>
>and so another eccentric soul joins the world of high voltage fun (god, my
>girlfriend is gonna freak out *insert insane cackling here*).
>sorry for the long post, but its usually not till i'm about this hit the
>"SEND" button before i look back and it says 'message size : 8k' and
realize
>i've written a small book :).
>
>btw...anyone use thier tesla coil to power various HV devices? rail guns,
>lasers, etc? just curious :).
>
>-Alex
>(alex-at-xecu-dot-net if you want to send an email to me)
>
>
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