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Re: Inactive coil
Hi Andy,
>Original Poster: "Andy Cleary" <gemware2-at-dreamscape-dot-com>
> I have completed the coil as mentioned earlier, but as of yet I have not
>seen it do anything special. I have tuned the safety gaps, and everything
>fires normally. I do not get any sort of output from the coil, however. I
>have increased the coupling in order to reduce the arcing, and it no longer
>sparks. My only problem now is that it does nothing. I have tried the tap
>in different places, I have tried it with and without a toroid, I have tried
>different transformers, etc. Is it possible that the secondary coil is the
>problem? Perhaps did it suffer damages from the arcing? It seems as though
>if it were a case of bad tuning then I would at lest get some kind of
>reaction on the toroid, no matter how small. I did drill a hole in the coil
>form and fed the wire into the pipe, then through smaller pipe to the
>toroid. would that be a problem? My primary coil is only 9 turns, could
>that be the problem? I have tried a different grounding wire and more. I
>do not understand what the problem is. The problems are normal for me, I
>have never had anything work on the first try.
Even if your coil is totally out of whack, tuning wise, you should still get a
minimum spark out of it, even if it is only 0.5-1". Here are my thoughts:
1.) The wire was corroded, you wrote. The wire can only corrode
if the insulation was flakeing or in some way damaged.
2.) This lack of insulation resulted in interturn arcing, further
aggrevating the problem.
3.) Interturn arcing has finally fully shorted out a few turns.
4.) These shorted turns will "suck up" all your secondary energy, thus
resulting in no or very, very low output. The wires creating the
shorted turns will get quite hot and eventually lead to former
destruction. If you have quite a few of these turns, the wire
may not get hot, simply because the power is disappated over
many "RF resistors" (the shorted turns).
Why not try the following: wind another (quickly) coil and place it in
the center of the primary. It doesnīt need many turns and doesnīt have
to be neat. The tuning isnīt important at this stage either (decrease your
"C" to get the primary Fres up higher). If you get any kind of spark output,
your primary tank circuit is working. This, in turn, means your secondary
needs a rebuild. If another coiler lives near you, ask if you can use his
secondary coil for the test (this will save you time winding a test coil).
Sorry for the bad news, but its all a learning experience.
Coiler greets from germany,
Reinhard