Re: Gap turn off at zero current and TVI

["Malcolm Watts" <malcolm.watts-at-wnp.ac.nz> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

Hi Richie, all,
                Musing on this a little further:

> Original Poster: "R.E.Burnett" <R.E.Burnett-at-newcastle.ac.uk> 

<snip> 
> Connecting a snubber across the gap or the primary winding (maybe both)
> is an interesting idea.  I have quite a few poly caps and bits from
> MMC's around but need to get some good HV resistors.  I tried
> connecting various caps across the gap or across the primary coil but
> they did not seem to make much difference.  (The resonant frequency did
> drop slightly when connected across the coil.)  This should have a
> similar sort of effect as using a ribbon primary,  Gary ?
> 
> I was dissapointed that I could not "shift" the VHF bursts to a less
> anoying frequency by adding capacitance.  I must try adding some
> resistance to make an RC network as this should actually absorb some of
> the energy better.  Some PSpice sims make this look very promising.  It
> may indeed give better quenching !

No doubt inductance in the snubbing path would have to be made ultra-
low to enable fast action.

    A further idea (which might be too slow acting): a trick used in 
xenon flashguns to conserve capacitor energy if the flash needs to be 
cut short is to suddenly connect a capacitor across the tube while it 
is conducting to momentarily drag the voltage across the tube to a 
lower than sustaining value to allow the gas to de-ionize. I wonder 
whether it might be possible to adopt this principle for quenching 
spark gaps? I imagine it would be easier to implement for a DC 
charging system which presents a single polarity across the gap prior 
to firing.

? ?
Malcolm