Re: Herrick's...Entertainment Machine

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

Original poster: "Kennan C Herrick by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <kcha1-at-juno-dot-com>

[KCH's responses interspersed]

On Fri, 18 May 2001 16:35:41 -0600 "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
writes:
> Original poster: "R.E.Burnett by way of Terry Fritz 
> <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <R.E.Burnett-at-newcastle.ac.uk>
> 
> 
> Hi Ken, all,
> 
> Excellent photos of the SSTC.  I particularly liked KCH_tcg2.jpg 
> ;-))

Yeah, I couldn't resist doing that.  And although I'm not at all into
mysticism I couldn't resist the book-title, either.

> It is clear that Solid State coils have "come of age" when you can 
> get
> sparks like that.

Perhaps so; but as I wrote, perhaps they're not as lo-o-o-ng as some
would expect.
> 
> The sparks do appear very similar to those from a classic spark gap 
> type
> coil.  My SSTC seems to produce sparks which have less branches and 
> are
> more straight for some reason.

Is your excitation in bursts, or continuous?  If bursts, then the longer
the burst, the fatter & more branched the spark.

  Also my SSTC tends to flash over to 
> the
> primary if I force it to break out from a smooth toroid.  Your 
> single
> primary turn would seem to eliminate this flashover problem ???

It's 2 equivalent turns, actually, although I have operated it with 1 and
with 3.  And I suspect the problem has more to do with the voltage
difference between the two coils; my voltage difference is negligible--to
the bottom of the secondary, that is.
> 
> Thankyou for sharing these details with us.  I can see now how it 
> is
> difficult to re-configure the primary from the photo.  

Yes, although in a later manifestation, if any, I will cut the quantity
of (ID-type) connectors about in half and that will make it easier.

However, the entire
> setup appears quite neat and portable as it is.
> 
> Did you design and build the switching current-sources yourself ???  
> I am
> very much aware of the problem of just using a bridge rectifier to 
> charge
> the DC capacitors,  so I have been looking at a similar solution.

Yes, it's my own quick-and-dirty design; an expert could no doubt do a
lot better.
> 
> I look forward to the availability of your plans,  and will listen 
> out for
> future developments in this project.

I'll let you know.

> 
>                                         Big up the solid state 
> crew... ;-)

"Big up"?...is that a British-ism?
> 
>                                          -Richie Burnett,
>                                          (Newcastle, UK.)
> 
> > Original poster: "Kennan C Herrick by way of Terry Fritz
> <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <kcha1-at-juno-dot-com>
> > 
> > Finally I have .jpg images of my s.s. coil & am posting them to 
> > 
> > http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/ 
> > 
> > as KCH_tcg1.jpg and KCH_tcg2.jpg.

[snipped]
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