Re: Grounding Strategies

["Barton B. Anderson" <tesla123-at-pacbell-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

Hi David, 

An accidental strike to your body on your coil would prove fatal regardless. I
know line frequency currents can be posed onto the streamers and one of these
strikes could be fatal even on low current coils, but connecting one side of
the transformer to RF ground is not going to cause this. I don't think it's a
good idea to connect RF ground to the transformer terminal (case yes, terminal
no). RF currents will find their way back to the transformer and cause
transients, heating, and a possible breakdown on the secondary side. 

Bart 
>
> Original poster: Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com 
>
> Hi all, 
>
> I have read a few web pages regarding the RF grounding of the componenets 
> of a Tesla system and I am a little confused. I have read that you should ne-
>
> ver ground one side of the power xfmr to the RF ground because an accident- 
> al streamer strike to your body would/could connect your body with the high 
> currents of the primary circuit and possibly prove fatal. I'm not so sure I 
> be- 
> lieve this, as I have been running my large system in this manner, which is 
> powered by a 10 kVA pole pig and yields bright, loud streamers up to 10 ft. 
> long. I am no stuntman and I have no intentions of letting any of those 
> stream- 
> ers hit me in the first place! I think just turning out 10 ft. sparks is 
> impressive 
> enough without having to take the sparks thru my body. Anyway, I thought I 
> would place that thought out there and see what kind of response I get, as I 
> am quite interested in getting other's opinions on this matter. 
>
> Keep 'um Sparkin' 
> and ABS (Always Be Safe) 
> David