RE: Hello, delurk and question

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

Original poster: "sundog by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <sundog-at-timeship-dot-net>

Hi All, Frank,

Yup!  I've had a good deal of problems with my IGN coils sparking to the
terminals with no load on it.  In TC use, it means you're pushing enough
current to charge the tank cap to full output voltage of the coil.  maybe a
larger tank cap would help (by loading the IGN coil down more), or
fabricating a better "nosecone" to go on the coil, similar to the HV bushing
on a pig or NST.  In reality, since a spark plug runs a comparatively tiny
gap, the spacing on a coil is adequate for it's intended purpose, but in TC
use, the tracking distance is easily jumped by the spark.


	Something you can do is grab a similar IGN coil and run them in
anti-parallel.  I've gotter a 1kw run out of my coils (120v-at-~8A) for 10-15
sec, but the coils got *very* hot, very fast.  At ~300w output, they ran
continiously for ~5 min before the cans grew warm.  The guts will be
considerably hotter, but the whole IGN coil lashup was small enough to dump
in the 'fridge for a bit to help cool them off.  With 2 coils in
anti-parallel, you've basically got a center-tapped tranny, and even without
the home-made insulators, mine showed little interest in the terminals of
the coils, preferring to arc to the center lugs (the negative terminals), or
to the other HV output. I used a 600w dimmer and 2 big AC run capacitors
wired in series for ~50-60 uf.  The bigger the runcap, the more current it
draws.

	And be careful, running them in anti-parallel gives you a *really* good
difference in potential between the 2.  It'll arc a goodly distance to reach
you, if you give it the chance :)

											Shad


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2001 9:17 AM
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject: Re: Hello, delurk and question
>
>
> Original poster: "Frank Van der Auwera by way of Terry Fritz
> <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <fvdauwer-at-uia.ua.ac.be>
>
>
> Hmm, thanks for trying to help, guys, but in my question ' >
> Anyone any
> idea as to how to avoid the primary being
> > destroyed by the extra sparking? ', i was talking about
> the IGNITION COIL doing occasional sparks from its housing
> to the terminals of its primary.
>
> so,
>
> >Put a strike ring around the top of the primary - the arc
> >will hit the ring and not the primary
> and
> > You probably talk about the secondary the tall coil with
> > many turn and if by "extra sparking" you talk of racing
> > spark ( small spark running on the side of the secondary )
> > put a little more space between the primary and the
> > secondary coils and check your tuning.
>
> are not applicable here, that would work if it was a tesla
> coil we were talking about, but as an ignition coil is a
> sealed unit, i can hardly change its conformation.
>
> I wonder WHY these sparks are appearing, BTW. As an IC has
> the 'ground' (metal body of the unit) connected to one side
> of its secondary, i suppose these sparks are a way of the
> high tension, if it cant arc between the two terminals of
> the secondary for some reason, to try to find a way to
> earth ground via the primary circuit , the dimmer and the
> 220 volts line. Not a good thing. Would earthing the body
> help? Do i need to add something to the circuit? Any help
> is welcome!
>
> Anyone who has played with this kind of circuit experienced
> these 'flyer' sparks to the primary terminals?
>
>
> Frank Van der Auwera.
>
> ------------------------------------------------
> mailto:fvdauwer-at-uia.ua.ac.be
> work http://lib.ua.ac.be/u/fvdauwer
> personal http://lib.ua.ac.be/u/fvdauwer/personal
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
>
>