Re: First Light- Bad Results!

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

Original poster: "Jake Draper by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <cybermecium2-at-home-dot-com>

I added a soda can as a topload and I remade the primary with some bare wire
and upped it to 7 turns and I can get about 1 inch sparks off a breakout point
now.
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: <mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>Tesla list
Date: Thursday, June 14, 2001 06:15:02 PM
To: <mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: First Light- Bad Results!
 
Original poster: "Jason Petrou by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<jasonp-at-btinternet-dot-com>

Hi Jake,

You've got a couple of problems to start off with. Firstly a topload is
really a MUST to get any sort of spark discharge. Even if it's a wad of
aluminium foil its better than nothing. Seconsdly I'd put an RF ground on
it - just to be safe. Thirdly, coax cable is about the worst you can use for
a primary. If you use the whole thing, you get immense losses, like up to
80% of the magnetic flux goes to waste. Use some solid core copper wire,
maybee from a lighting wire or something, or maybee just the centre core
from the coax cable. Also make sure that you've got no crossed turns on the
pri. or anything like that.

'Good judgement comes with experience. Experience comes from bad judgement'

Good luck
Jason
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2001 3:12 PM
Subject: First Light- Bad Results!


> Original poster: "Jake Draper by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<cybermecium2-at-home-dot-com>
>
> Hi, I'm the 13 year old on the list and just finished my first Tesla coil
> today. I turned it on and got bad results, about 1cm hair-thin sparks off
the
> top wire. Here are the specifications for this coil:
>
> Power Source: 12V ignition coil
> Primary Capacitor: 2 Salt water beer bottle caps
> Primary Coil: 4 turns of TV Coax Cable
> Secondary Coil: ~1000 turns (forgot how many) on a 2"x8" plastic
form.
> Spark Gap: 2 bolts on metal L brackets, adjustable from 3 inches to
> touching
> Ground: I didn't connect it to RF ground, I just drew sparks from the
> bottom of the seconday to the top.
> Topload: None, just a wire sticking out.
>
> So what should I do to make this coil run at it's full potential BESIDES
> getting an NST?
>
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