Re: Basic TS curcuit conflict

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <Mddeming-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 4/29/01 10:17:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes: 


>
> Hi All, 
>
> I Have a small coil I have been operating off various power sources. The 
> specs are: 
>
> 5 1/2" helical primarry, 12 turns of 12 AWG auto wire 
> 3/12 " secondary, 436 turns of 22 AWG anameled wire. 
>
> The circuit I have3 been using is from John Couture's book, and in it one 
> side of the transformer goes to one side of the tank cap, and the other 
> trans lead to the other side of the tank cap. One side of the cap goes to 
> the SG, and the other to one end of the primary.  The aligator clip side of 
> the primary goes to the other end of the SG. On other circuits out there, 
> like on Gary Lau's site, the trans leads both go to the spark gap, with the 
> tank caps going between one end of the SG and the primary. 
>
> What is the difference between these two set ups? I tried the way it is on 
> Garry's site, and it seems to work better, but I get tons of racing sparks. 
> I had previously been using a .038 tank cap,, and I went down to .021 .014, 
> still getting racing sparks. Very little backfire from the safety gap 
> however. After a few seconds, I blew a tank cap. 
>
> Is it just that the other circuit is way less efficient, and so I never had 
> the racing spark problems? Is hooking it up as on Gary's site harder on the 
> caps? 
>
> Jonathan Peakall 


Hi Jonathan 
IMO, Hooking it up with the cap across the transformer is harder on the 
transformer, although those who have not yet burned out a tranny won't 
believe it. The gap across the coil helps minimize HVHF because when the 
discharge starts, the gap presents a lower voltage HF across the transformer 
leads than having the full voltage of the cap across those leads. Both 
configurations WILL work. 

Matt D.