Re: Solid State Invasion

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2001 9:38 AM
Subject: Solid State Invasion


> Original poster: "Gregory Hunter by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ghunter31014-at-yahoo-dot-com>
>
> We've all learned how useless the new breed of solid
> state neon sign power supplies are for coiling. Now
> Marc is showing us the insides of a solid state
> microwave oven. What's next? Switch mode pole pigs?
>
> Seriously, how common are the solid microwave ovens? I
> hope this isn't a new trend that's going to take over
> the industry. I'm guessing a ferrite core 20kHz MOT is
> pretty useless for the hobby.

au contraire...

That microwave essentially has a 20 kHz switchmode 1 kW HV power supply is
going to be pretty useful...  Resonant charging, triggered spark gap, DC
coil..

Free, free at last, from the tyranny of all that iron and copper necessary
to work at 50 or 60 Hz....  Wouldn't YOU like a 10 kW tesla coil that didn't
require a truck to move the power supply around?

Sure, it's a bit different than it was back in Tesla's day at two century
turns ago, but, inexpensive high powered HV switching supplies in consumer
gear can only benefit us. (look at the benefit to us from all those  low ESR
polypropylene capacitors.. intended for switching power supplies, I'll bet)
There will be some experimentation needed to figure out how best to modify
it for our nefarious deeds, but that's where the fun is.

Face it, rotary spark gap technology, per se, probably reached it's pinnacle
about 50 years ago.  It's worthwhile building them as works of art, fine
craftsmanship, elegance, and examples of good scrounging, but it's unlikely
that anyone is going to come up with any signficant (>20%) performance
improvements.