!!~!Re: Question about ballasting and VA

• To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
• Subject: !!~!Re: Question about ballasting and VA
• From: "Barton B. Anderson" <tesla123-at-pacbell-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
• Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2000 21:19:30 -0700
• Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
• Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

> Original Poster: FutureT-at-aol-dot-com

Hi John,

Comments below:

> Bart,
>
> I found too that my ballast behaved more like a current limiter
> in my old pig powered coil with the async gap.  My 120 bps sync gap
> (potential xfrmer powered TC's) require very precise ballasting.  If I turn
> the ballast tap knob one click either higher or lower, the coil will often
> give no spark output at all, or just an extremely feeble spark.  This is
> because I run the coil in resonant charging mode at 120 bps, which
> gives excellent power factor by the way.  I don't remember if the
> ballast positon was was quite so critical at 240 bps.

Interesting. I find it strange that the variac acts this way, but only
because I
haven't experienced this effect with my setup. But, it's obvious it is my
coil, my
power, my variac combo, etc... that hasn't let me experience this type of
ballast
control behavier which you and several others have. As you know John, my
coil is
pretty good size and can process some power. I know I haven't come near to the
potential the coil can obtain - and it has partiallly to do with previous
current
limitations. The gap firing will behave irratically if I increase current
without
increasing spark length. The gap conduction process I would say is one of
my most
revealing sources of "sweet spot" behavier. When the gap is processing each
bang
smoothly vs. irratically, it makes a real difference. I too am running a
sync gap,
but still, I haven't hit that resonance behavier. Will see this year. I've
got a
lot more capability here at this new house. I'm expecting 120 to 140 inch
streamers this year. That's the goal anyway "without" modifying my coil. I will
also note the G10 tungsten rotary improved my gap efficiency tremendously.
Like I
never expected it to. I was only able to run it a few times before the big
move,
but those few times were the difference between night and day. One never
realizes
how much loss there is at the gap until one improves it - then wow!

Bart

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