Re: performance/tuning question

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

Hi John, (comment below), 

Tesla list wrote: 
>
> Original poster: FutureT-at-aol-dot-com 
>
> In a message dated 7/25/00 7:47:26 PM Pacific Daylight Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>
> writes: 
>
> > John, this is done all the time. If you go to a larger cap, you will 
> increase 
> >  the energy at the cap as long as you have a sufficient supply to charge
> the 
> >  cap. With larger caps and supply, comes more power consumed, and
> typically, 
> >  longer arc lengths. Although, the system may not be as efficient as the 
> >  previous, it should give longer arc lengths. The sparks will become whiter
>
> > with 
> >  more energy and power and usually thicker. You may need to increase the
> top 
> >  load size as well. 
> > 
> >  Bart 
>
> Bart, 
>
> I think John is using an NST powered system, so no extra power 
> will become available as the cap size is increased.  If John were 
> to add additional NST's, or use a larger more powerful transformer, 
> then yes, the sparks would get longer and brighter as the cap size 
> is increased. 
>
> Cheers, 
> John Freau




True, but I indicated (and Ed Sonderman in his post) that a sufficient supply
is needed to charge the cap to the same voltage (maybe I was a little vague on
that part). A 20nF cap at a 20kV charge at gap conduction will have less cap
energy than a 60nF cap at the same charge at gap conduction. More energy at gap
conduction should increase overall spark length, however, in order to acheive
the 20kV charge on the larger cap will require more charging current to the
circuit. With more energy there are probably higher losses at the gap, so the
amounnt of spark length increase one will achieve will vary from system to
system. Also, just like tuning, one may want to increase or decrease the toroid
size if the change in energy per break is increased enough. 

Without increasing the charging current, I doubt there would be any spark
length increase, and possibly a decrease in some instances. It depends on the
cap size and supply to charge to the same voltage. 

Take care, 
Bart