[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: coil pictures and observations

Hi Stan,

At 11:24 PM 7/26/99 -0400, you wrote:
>I have posted some pics of my new coil on my web page at
>http://tesla.better-dot-org/sgd.  It's the first coil that I have done
>completely from scratch from beginning to end.  I doubled up the wire
>connections from the cap through the primary and my spark length
>increased noticably.  Has anyone done power-AWG vs spark length
>comparisons (ie at what point do the returns of thicker wire start to
>diminish given a certain power level)?  Or is there some general
>rule-of-thumb formula one can use?

When the primary wiring gets to be about as big as the primary inductor
diameter (1/4 inch in this case), you have pretty much gotten to the best
size.  At that point the copper tubing is the limiting factor.  However,
the gap is probably the big factor right now.

>
>I also noticed that if I run my coil for more than about 45 seconds
>continuously, the spark length drops off dramatically to almost
>nothing.  The longer I let it sit before refiring, the longer the
>spark.  I'm assuming that this is due to the poor quenching of my
>two-bolt gap?

I suspect that the bolt ends are getting red hot and they are firing far
short of the maximum voltage.  Try blowing on it with a fan and see if the
run times are dramatically lengthened.  Maybe this is related to the
problems Nick Field is having with falling output too...

Cheers,

	Terry



>
>-Stan, the man, with tons of questions :)
>