Re: Racing sparks study, was A couple cruddy coil pics

[Tesla729-at-xxxxxx (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-xxxxxxxxxx>)]

In a message dated 11/20/00 6:50:51 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:


<<  Racing Sparks overcoupled = bottom to top direction? 
 Racing Sparks out-of-tune = top to bottom direction? 
 
 Is this true for other coils out there or just coincidence? >>
  
Hi Bart, all,

You know, this is an interesting observation and I'll have to admit
this thought has never crossed my mind. I guess it would really 
make sense, though. If it's overcoupled, the sparks would natural-
ly want to jump from the primary to the secondary, hence the bot-
tom-to-top racing sparks. If it's running out of tune, especially too
high on the frequency, then the  voltage max resonant point would
be somewhere down the secondary coil below the top winding and
would therefore tend to breakout in the form of racing sparks from
the voltage max resonant point. This would tend to explain the racing
sparks breaking out from the upper part of the secondary shooting
downward. I'll try to keep this in mind next time I'm plagued with rac-
ing sparks when tuning up a new coil for the first time.

Keeping 'em Sparkin' in Memphis,
David Rieben