DC Reactor Setup - don't do this!

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

Original poster: "S & J Young by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <youngs-at-konnections-dot-net>

In previous posts I mentioned a DC charging reactor needs to have a lot of
inductance to run at low break rates.  I needed 80 Henry to go below 200
BPS, for example.

Since my RSG has an extra set of electrodes so it can act like a SPST
switch, I thought I would try using it that way with a DC resonant charging
setup, thusly:  Imagine the RSG has a charging gap and a discharging gap
which alternate as the rotor turns.  In the charging position, the DC supply
go through a reactor and de-Qing diode through the charging gap to the tank
cap.  The tank cap charges in a controlled manner due to the current
limiting of the reactor.  In the discharge position, the tank cap discharges
through the discharging gap into the primary.

The idea is that very low break rates can be used with no danger of power
arcing, and the reactor can be of reasonable size, say 10 Henry.  This
actually works quite well, and break rates can be as slow as you want - once
per hour if desired.

And now . . . for the rest of the story.  This is why I say don't bother
doing this.  As the RSG break rate is increased, the dwell time of the
charging gap gets shorter and shorter.  But the capacitor still takes the
same time to charge via the reactor.  The result is that the arc across the
charging gap starts to draw out longer as the RSG RPM goes up.  As RPM
increases, eventually the arc is drawn out long enough that the discharge
gap presentation occurs while there is still a charging gap arc.  ZAP!  The
DC supply now power arcs through both gaps.  In my setup, this happened at
about 175 BPS at full power.  Reducing the power doesn't gain much higher
BPS without power arcs.

So the method is fine if you enjoy wimpy gas burner style streamers, but a
total failure for the more interesting high BPS robust streamers.

--Steve