Re: how much power do you need?

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

Original poster: "Troy Peterson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <tpeterso-at-home-dot-com>

Hi Phillip,

> How big of a transformer/power source do you need to get nice arcs that
you
> can actually see during the day and are relatively thick. I don't mean in

Surprisinly little actually.

> having to be pitch black. My first coil was 12kv-at-60ma and at first i
didn't

Hmmm, 12 000 x 0.060 .... Thats 720 VA, My fist coil ran off of a single
OBIT, 10kv -at- 23ma, which is 230VA. It was a rather makeshift and small coil
but it produced intense streamers about 2-3 inches long. The arcs were
planely visible (though dim) under direct sunlight, and could light an
entire room up in the dark with an eerie purple-white-blue color on people's
faces, kinda like a blacklight.

> think it was working, until the sun started to set and i realized that
there
> actually were faint streamers coming off the top.

Probably not tuned correctly. Did you run the specs through a calculator
program (or hand calculate them) becore building it. Maybe if you give the
list some specifics on your coil they might be able to help you make that
720 VA xformer Scream. My current coil is powered by 4 obits which is only
920 VA, but it can throw good 18-20 inch arcs with 12 inch streames using
bottle caps. I did manage to get huge arcs (close to 36 inches I
guesstimage) using Glassmike caps, but they promptly blew up after a few
seconds... Good thing I shielded them in a wooden box - There were glass
fragments embedded deep in the wood.

> How do MOTs compare to NSTs for this purpose?
>
> thanks -

I've never tried MOTs, considering either that or a couple 15/60's for my
next coil. Maybe even a 5KVA pig if I can find one cheap. That is a little
ways down the road though because I am living in an apartment right now
while I attend collage - they don't like you throwing lightning around your
living room on the 23'rd floor. :) I would suggest you work a little bit
with your NST, if it is producing proper voltage it should have potential
(no pun intended).

L8ters.

Troy Peterson [VE7SOK]
tpeterso-at-home-dot-com