Re: sparks running down secondary - why?

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

Original poster: "Bill Vanyo by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <vanyo-at-echoes-dot-net>

I've now loosened the coupling beyond what I think what most would
recommend: the minimum distance from start of inner turn of primary to
the secondary is about 1&1/4", and the bottom turn of the secondary is
about 1&5/8" above the top of the primary.  I still get an occasional
racing spark down the secondary (again, depending on gap setting), but
it's much better now.

I've also got the best performance yet - didn't measure them, but there
were multiple long, sinuous, branching streamers - very bright, sharp
and well defined, and this in a good breeze (the wind never seems to let
up).  I have the primary tapped at about 7 3/8 turns, which is more than
I expected (I didn't calculate yet).  I calculated 5.88 turns for my
smaller toroid, and didn't think the bigger toroid would make that big a
difference (I'm using just the bigger toroid, not both together).

Another thing: my topload is about 3.5" above the top turn of my
secondary.  I might try lowering it to see if that supresses the racing
sparks.

I'd love to find someplace indoors to run it.

Thanks to all for the tip about the coupling.

	- Bill V.

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>
> 
> In a message dated 5/28/01 4:15:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> writes:
> 
> Bill,
> 
> I see that you stopped the racing sparks by narrowing the spark
> gap spacing.  This works because you are reducing the tank
> cap charge or bang size.  Larger bang sizes tend to create
> racing sparks for a given coupling.  Racing sparks can be stopped
> by reducing the bang size as you have done, or by loosening the
> coupling.  When the safety gap fires, that can sometimes
> promote racing sparks too.  The use of a larger toroid can also
> promote racing sparks, because the energy builds up higher
> before it breaks out.
> 
> John Freau