Re: coil won't "stay on"

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

Original poster: "Jason Petrou by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jasonp-at-btinternet-dot-com>

> I built a neat little coil powered by two <mailto:12kv-at-30ma>12kv-at-30ma
transco
> transformers, i have all the other components built to those
specifications. I
> just finished constructing a better torroid for it (it may be worth noting
that
> the topload is slightly larger than the old one, and it is closer to the
top of
> the secondary than the old one)and when i go to turn it on i'll get
perhaps two
> large arcs, and then it will just turn off. I've noticed a *click* sort of
> sound from the transformers that occurs just as the coil turns off. Is
there
> some sort of safety mechanism inside these that will cause this effect?
Ive never heard of a safety circuit in a transco tranny - only in the newer
franceformer types (the new 800 model). Is is possible that the click is a
small arc thats shorting out some turns?

> If i
> just leave off the secondary and topload completely i could pretty much
run it
> indefinately with no problems of that sort.
I wouldnt do that - almost all of the magnetic feild goes back into the
primary and the whole thing takes ages to ring down, and some of it goes
back into the tranny - its like firing a gauss gun without a load - really
bad idea!!!

> Oh yeah, another thing that's kinda
> different about my coil is rather than having a ground, i just directly
> connected the primary to secondary, because im lazy.
Shouldnt do what youre saying then - just get some secondary sparks.

> I also have another problem. Sometimes when my coil is running (Well
before it
> would just SHUT OFF), it would be shooting out 4 foot
> arcs/sparks/streamers/whatever and be nice and loud, then suddenly go
quiet and
> only spit out purple fuzz around the topload. This problem seems to be
> independent of the first, could it perhaps be tuning? or the height from
> topload to base - or base to secondary windings? What's puzzling is how it
will
> be running great and then suddenly give me whimpy output. It almost seems
like
> a wire comes loose or something.
An idea - maybee youre spark gaps overheating. If I dont cool mine properly
then the performance drops out the bottom after about 25 secs as if its
reaced its limit, then the arcs go tiny and dim.
    Another thing could be that your NST is saturating although this
shouldnt happen with a normal 12/30

Good luck
Jason