Re: Very strange problem, please help

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

Original poster: "Jason Johnson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <hvjjohnson13-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Well, your capacitor is right near resonance for your transformer. It could
be that once your gaps heat up they make it easier for breakdown to occur,
and then your breakrate goes way up, putting more power through your coil.
This should be able to happen because w/ a resonant sized cap, the ratings
on the transformer don't mean anyhting and it can start sucking power like
you wouldn't believe. Get an analog amp meter, put it on the LV side of your
NST and see how far the current draw goes up as the sparks are growing.
Conditions like this are not favorable for your components, but as long as
you have properly set saftey gaps it shouldn't kill anything (note: I've
never owned an NST, and I don't plan on owning one, so talk to somebody else
w/ an NST that knows if yours could die, I've hear they can rather fragile).

<< Jason R. Johnson >>
G-3 #1129
The Geek Group
http://www.thegeekgroup-dot-org/


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2001 5:25 AM
Subject: Very strange problem, please help


> Original poster: "David Kronstein by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <david_kronstein-at-telus-dot-net>
>
> I took out my coil after not using it for a long time, and I decided to
use
> only 4 gaps out of 10 for now, so I put a CD on top, and I turn it on. I'm
> getting sparks about ten inches, but after a few seconds, the arcs start
> getting longer, and longer, and longer, until about 12 seconds later there
> about 30 inches long, so I turn it off, and go searching for something
else to
> put on, and I find a tin can, so I put that on top, and turn it on.  Again
I
> start out with 10 inch arcs, and they grow, over about 15 seconds, to
about 36
> inches long, so long they started striking the fluorescent light above,
also
> the capacitor safety gap starts firing about once a second, so I shut
down.
>
> Transformer is a 15/60 neon, cap is a 0.01uf 20 KVAC Plastic Capacitors,
> primary is tapped at 12.6 T, using quarter inch pipe spaced at 1/2 inch
centre
> to centre, secondary is 1000 T #24 wire on 4 inch PVC toroid is 4 inch TD
by
> 17"OD, spark gap is a cylinder gap, built on a 6 inch PVC pipe, electrodes
are
> 1.5 inch copper pipe couplings, spaced at 0.03(Most of the gaps are larger
than
> this, maybe ~0.04)with ten gaps, cap safety gap is made of 2 stove bolts,
heads
> facing together, with a gap of a little less then 1/2 an inch.
>
> Any idea what's causing this? Please help.
> Also, is the cap rated high enough?
>
>
>
>