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Re:Nate's Probs: Information
Hello Terry,
>
>Great! blew a neon ;-) All great coilers blow neons when they are
>frustrated!! ;-))
Well, OK, If you say so! :)
>Actually that shows that a lot IS working.
>
>Safety gaps should have saved the neon but if it was old it time may have
>just come...
They probably were set a bit wide. I had just adjusted them apart after
they had been firing way too much.
I have been ohming around on the toroid, and just found one problem. I had
been connecting my secondary ground with an alligator clip to a galvanized
nail to which my 3/16" grounding copper wire was attached. THAT was a huge
source of resistance.
Also, one interesting thing: I am using real foil tape, (the stickiest stuff
I have ever run into besides TYVEK tape) and am testing different amounts of
resistance between seperate pieces on the toroid!
Most of the pieces have good continuity to the connection point on the
toroid, and the bottom of the secondary where the ground is connected. But
some of them have about 4-500 ohms of resistance.
Otherwise, though, I think I have pretty good continuity now.
One special thing: The way I have my secondary grounded is the wire I wound
it with comes through the bottom of the form through its mounting board, and
attaches with an alligator clip to the grounded copper wire. Is that OK?
>
>additive). This is starting so sound a lot like there is something really
>wrong with the primary cap. I assume the wires connecting the primary
>circuit are reasonably heavy and you have ohmed around in that circuit to
>be sure there are no high resistance connections. It does not take much
>resistance in the primary to kill a coil's performance. However, a bad
>connection should have flamed out...
My connection wires are probably all around 14-18 guage wire. They all have
alligator clips, and it seems to be good continuity all around the primary
circuit.
The capacitors I have running the coil are as follows:
I have two rolled caps each tested with an LCR to 0.011uF. They are both in
two inch PVC pipes, and are constructed with: four layers of 6 mil black
polyethylene sheeting, then a layer of Al foil. Then four more layers of
poly, then another of Al foil. The poly sheets are 12" by 36" and the Al is
8" by 32" so I have 2" clearence all around.
The other cap, I built to be 0.0053 uF. I never got it tested, but just
found out about a new resource that has an LCR I could probably use. It is
at the radio shop at my dad's power company's warehouse.
Anyway, it is a plate cap. It is made of the same black LDPE sheeting that
the rolled caps are. I built it to 5.3nF, but am not sure anymore how many
plates I have. They are all 3.5" by 7" (the foil plates) and I have 1.5"
clearance all around those. I think I have around 17 plates, but
unfortunately after I built it last spring I lost the notes that told me,
and then I forgot. (Shoot! havn't found the darn notes since.)
The oil they are all soaking in is high quality pole pig oil that was
obtained from the power company's transformer shop at the warehouse. I saw
the trannie oil tester apparatus used and with some impurities, it took an
average of 40,000V to arc through it with about a 1/16" spacing. I think
that's what it was anyway. Very interesting process though.
The reason they are all such thin caps is that I was under the impression
that polyethylene withstood 1200 volts per mil as a dielectric. That is the
rating provided in the table in The Tesla Coil Book for dielectrics, their
strenghts, constants, etc.
Now I understand that is probably a very high rating, and probably for HDPE,
not the sheeting i am using.
>You are really getting close to the problem. A 2 string 20 cap MMC (10nF)
>would cost about $35 with Panasonic caps and that is really the worst thing
>it could be at this point.
I have been wanting to build a MMC, but don't know where to get the caps.
What types of caps are these Panasonic ones, and where can I get them? I had
never seen an MMC for that cheap before! This seems like a viable option
now! wow!
>If things really get bad, we can see if there are any other coilers near
>your area that could come and check it all out. Sometime another set of
>eyes that have "seen it all before" can quickly figure things like this
>out.
I am located in Newport, Oregon, and would be delighted if any coiler out
there that was near me would contact me! e-mail me if you think that would
be possible.
Thanks very much, Terry. I think we are close now too!
Best regards,
Nathan
>Cheers,
>
> Terry
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