Re: Sync gap test

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "sundog" <sundog-at-timeship-dot-net> 

Hi All, Ed,

 Welcome to the wonderful world of SRSG's!   You went about phasing
it very well, and I'm happy to hear you're using a saftey gap.  A
flourescent light and 2 pieces of tape on the disc can help you
determine where the electrode is at the peak of the AC cycle.  I
once thought that it had to be "exact", but to tell you the truth,
it's pretty flexible within the "sweet spot".  Running more
capacitance will help, as it'll pull the natural breakrate down
(takes longer to charge up).  If you can, go LTR on it, and drop to
120 bps.  I saw the biggest increases doing this.  Keep in mind
you'll tune further in with more capacitance, increasing the surge
current.  Tends to heat the caps up faster, I've found.
  And despite what most "non coilers" think, a well-running 120bps
sync gap is music to *my* ears.  Though my earplugs of course ;)
  Not getting any longer sparks may be due to the small size of
your tank cap.  A smaller cap hits it's peak voltage very quickly,
and on a static gap, runs a pretty high breakrate.  I bet adding
more capacitance will help a lot.  I found my 1000bps gap ran well
on just 4nf on a 9/60, whereas 12nf on the high breakrate suffered
horrible performance, the gap not firing every presentation, etc.

                              Hope my $.02 helps!
                                                Sundog


-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Date: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 9:09 PM
Subject: Sync gap test


>Original poster: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com
>
>Well, I fired up my new sync rotary gap last night on my 3.0"
coil.  I did
>change the electrode gap spacing to .025".  It took me 20 to 30
minutes of
>trial and error to get the motor phase angle set correctly.  I
basically set
>a safety gap to about .20" and connected it directly across the
rotary.  Then
>adjusted the motor phase angle to find the highest setting on the
variac
>(voltage to the neon transformers) without firing the safety gap.
This was
>also the place where the sync rotary fired the smoothest.  Then I
opened up
>the safety gap to about .30" and am able to run at full power with
only
>occasional firing of the safety gap.  The coil now makes much more
noise than
>it did before with the static gap.  Very musical and steady.  This
is the
>first sync rotary I have ever heard in operation.  My wife says
"very grating
>on my nerves, your are driving me crazy".  This is me in the
basement and her
>upstairs.
>
>The overall performance of the coil, measured by maximum spark
length, has
>not improved.  It was 26" before and last night I measured 25".  I
did
>re-arrange some primary wiring and it might need to be re tuned.
I thought
>the performance might improve but was not sure.  This new sync gap
is running
>4 electrodes at 3600 rpm for a break rate of 240 bps.  The coil is
powered by
>two 12 kv 30 ma transformers in parallel.  26" spark length seems
to be quite
>poor performance compared to other results I have read about on
this list.  I
>do have a 3,000 ohm resistor in series with each transformer leg
to protect
>the transformers.  I know I am giving up some performance there.
Tonight I
>will try increasing the primary tank capacitance from .0086 ufd to
.0128 ufd
>which should put me right close to the resonance point for the 60
hz primary.
>
>Ed Sonderman
>
>
>
>