Sync gap test 1

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com 

Well, I had a bit of a set back last night.  I tried my 3.0" coil with the 
new rotary sync gap and a larger than resonant cap, going up from .008 ufd to 
.032 ufd.  Two electrodes were removed from the rotor so I would now have 120 
bps (3600 rpm motor and two electrodes).  The gap spacing is set to about 
.030" and it fires through 4 gaps total each time it fires.  I spun the gap 
up to speed and then started cranking up the variac that controls power to 
the neon sign transformers.  I had to turn the variac up quite a ways (maybe 
70 to 80%) before I got any sparks.  Then I had them everywhere.  Both safety 
gaps fired (set to about .30")  I had sparks in the primary, from the primary 
to the strike rail and from the primary to the secondary.  I tried about 
three motor positions (phase control of the gap) and it didn't get much 
better.

John Freau, I can see how you get such long sparks from your system.  Going 
down to a low break rate and using a very large cap puts a whole lot of power 
into the system.  More than I was ready for I guess.  This morning I removed 
the secondary, used a scotch brite pad to remove as much of the black at each 
spot as possible and coated each spot with several coats of clear finger nail 
polish.

We just had a discussion recently about racing sparks on the secondary.  I 
wasn't part of the discussion, but If I remember correctly, racing sparks are 
caused by improper tuning and sparks breaking out low in the secondary are 
caused by overcoupling.  With this in mind, I will raise the secondary up by 
.75", that is all the spacers that I have cut right now.  Then I will 
reinstall the static gap and see if my secondary still works ok.  Then I will 
disconnect one of the transformers so I have only 12 kv at 30 ma.  Now switch 
back to the .032 ufd cap and get the tuning spot on.  Then finally reinstall 
the new rotary sync gap and try it again.

Comments?

Ed Sonderman