Re: Still mystified by odd TC behavior, what gives?

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

Original poster: "Jason Petrou by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jasonp-at-btinternet-dot-com>

Hi there (comments below)

I think the main problem may be tuning. You need to tune your coil to about
the 4 1/2 turn to get anywhere near the correct resonance.

The other problem is that the cap value is quite large for the coil - i
think that more like 0.01uF would be better. Id connect the caps in series
to half the capacitance if I were you

If there is an electric firey smell or the cap seems to be ruptured then the
dielectric could have gone in the cap, and it may be internally arcing. A
good way to measure this is to charge the cap up then discharge it thru the
SG - if both of the caps spark the same then they are ok.

In all honesty I think that your main problem though is the tuning - if the
gap sounds as mean as it does, then the primary must be badly tuned. If you
work out what it was, repost a message to say how you sorted it - i would be
interested to find out!

Regards,
Jason

> I recently got a Resonant Research Inc. .025 (actually tests to .023)
> tank cap. When I try to use it, with either transformer or even with
> both ganged up in parallel, I get no output from the secondary,
> regardless of how I tune the primary or set the SG. I can draw a wimpy
> spark to a ground rod, but that's it. The gap fires fine over a range of
> settings. As soon as I add another cap in series to the .023 and lower
> the capacitance, it fires up. Yet the gap isn't acting as I have seen in
> the past with too large a tank cap, which has always resulted in erratic
> SG performance.
>
> The only thing I can think of is that the "sweet spot" is really small,
> and as I only have taps on each turn on the large primary I haven't hit
> it right. Is it possible for the tuning to be so sensitive that one gets
> no output unless really close? The gap sounds mean and hot, but is it
> possible that the .025 cap is damaged? It seems unlikely considering the
> fury of the gap.
>
> If you can help, you're my Hero!
>
> TIA,
>
> Jonathan Peakall (The other OTHER Jonathan)
>
>
>
>