Re: Racing sparks, streamer growth, coupling, etc.

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 3/7/01 10:16:07 AM Pacific Standard Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
writes:

<< 
 > > I don't think that "racing sparks" are related directly to coupling.
 >  > When the coupling is increased, there is no significant change in the
 >  > maximum dv/dt of the voltage waveforms, compared to what would occur
 >  > close to the end of the energy transfer proccess with lower coupling.
 >  
 >  Why wouldn't the dv/dt be higher with more coupling? (having not done the
 >  calcualtions myself, I am lazy)... I would think more energy in the same
 >  time would imply more voltage at the Vpeak, so the dv/dt must be higher at
 >  any given time.
 >  
 >  I don't think the dv/dt is much higher with better coupling, just that the
 >  max voltage the top load can reach is higher.  
 
 Jim, Antonio, all,
  >>
Based on my experiences, the major contributor to racing sparks on the 
secondary is overcoupling.  Other contributors would be poor tuning and too 
much power for a given sized coil.  If the coil works fine at say 1kw input 
and you change to a 3 kw power supply, you may well get racing sparks.  It 
still should be possible to adjust the coupling for this coil to work at 3 kw 
but the coupling may end up very loose.

Ed Sonderman