Model Railroading Is Fun!

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

Original poster: "Christopher Boden by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>

On the cover of every issue of Model Railroading magazine is the motto, 
Model Railroading Is Fun!, this has been there as far back as I can 
remember, and was frequently shouted in the shop when my dad became 
frustrated trying to get something to work right, but couldn't. It was 
usually followed by a string of choice explatives.

Last night, after getting the coil operating to perfection with it's 12/180 
power supply, I had to screw things up.

Ok...total setup (for those of you who haven't followed the Sam project for 
the past 2 years.....)

12kV 180mA NST Farm (I have to get more NSTs)
15 turn .25" primary, .25" between turns.
6"x30" secondary, 22awg.
12"x~40" topload (I really should measure that thing....)
TCBOR style blown static gap.
All interconnects are 2AWG or so, NST lacings are 6AWG. All fine stranded 
copper.
Controlled through the new power cab I'm working on. 0-340VAC 30A cab.
Safety Gap
Caps are the 12kV MMC arrays. I was running 4 strings of 9 of our .1uF 2kV 
MMCs. I can go to a max of 12 strings if needed. 2 arrays of 6 strings each.



ok...we had 4 strings, 12/180, and everything was romping. Hurling arcs to 
light tubes and 55gal drums, and even the floor often enough I had to shield 
the MMC caps.

"Hey Ben....grab the pallet jack and go get the Pig."

I should have said "Hey Ben, grab that nail gun and empty a clip into my 
face." It would at least have been more productive.

I changed NOTHING in the circuit...NOTHING! except connecting the Pig, and 
when I fired it up, I got nothing out! The gap fires (and power arcs is I go 
over Notch-3 on the Inductive ballest)....but no output from the coil.

Ok.....hmmmmm well if I add more NST's I have to add more cap. With the pig 
I'd have to add a LOT of cap. So I go from 6 strings to 10. ok...this should 
work.........nope.....hmmmm

Ok....rebuild the gap, reset all the spacings, use more gaps.....cool

poo

ok....less gaps......retune retune retune.....

poo


At this point it was 2300, I'd been working on the coil since 1300, and I 
had to stop for a while to abuse the drums in my office to keep from taking 
a bat to the secondary.

No matter how much I tune this beast I can only get 1" whimp arcs from a 
breakout point. NOTHING works and I KNOW it should. I don't want to have to 
settle for the 12/180 supply when I've put so much work into this beautiful 
Pig. We put 30 hours into just PAINTING it! lol It works great for jacobs 
ladders...but won't power the coil for squat.

Ok....I know there's something incredibly basic I'm overlooking. A wire that 
needs to be changed....s gap setting...something...what is it.

I'll be over here in the corner kicking the cat if you need me.






duck




Christopher A. Boden Geek#1
President / C.E.O. / Alpha Geek
The Geek Group
www.thegeekgroup-dot-org
Because the Geek shall inherit the Earth!


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