Re: what happens if i use a marx cap arrangement on a TC?

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

Original poster: "Christopher Boden by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>

>Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
><RQBauzon-at-aol-dot-com>
>
>like i said, what happens if i use a marx cap arrangement on a TC instead 
>of
>using "the usual" arrangment?
>

Short answer:

Nothing happens, you get frustrated, increace the power, it burns, you cry.

Long answer and safety rant:



The Groucho Project that the Group is building is a small Marx bank (get 
it?). You have to understand the basics of how they operate.

A Marx bank is a high voltage, pulsed DC device. A bank of High voltage, 
pulse duty caps are charged while hard wired in paralell. When the voltage 
reaches a set level (controlled by the spacing of several spark gaps, with 
the bottom one often a triggered gap) the caps discharge in series. If you 
have a bank of 10 caps in a Marx array and each cap is 100,000 volts, you 
only need a 100,000 volt DC power supply to charge them. But when they 
discharge, in series, you get 1,000,000 volts.

FIZAT!

Then you start over, this takes a LOT of time compared to the TC world where 
chargeing takes 1/120th of a second.

A Tesla Coil is an AC device (ok ok ok I know, but let it go for this one 
ok?) and if you use DC rated caps in AC service you'd better have a bigger 
supplier than I do (and I have corporate sponsorship for my caps).

There is a possibility that you COULD use a Marx bank to power a single-shot 
coil, but it would be a LOT of work for a little effect. The Marx bank makes 
great arcs on it's own.


I STRONGLY, FIRECELY, RECCOMEND you spend a month reading before you pick up 
any HV gear. There is a website that has a TON of textbook type info on 
everything from the basics of electricity to Lux-Level theory and esoteric 
stuff that makes me feel REALLY dumb.

I can't find the link guys, what the URL on that site? It's a GREAT site and 
I reccomend it for ALL newbies, especially RQBauzon, from the questions I've 
seen you ask, there's gonna be a pool going on your life expectancy if you 
get a couple NST's, and I do NOT wanna see a new student get hurt, or 
killed. I'm the ultra-paranoid-safety-freak-of-science so that's how I see 
it. I put out 5 fire extinguishers for a Tesla Demo today, though we've 
NEVER had an unintentional fire. I'd rather have them there and not use 
them, then vice versa.

Have fun, and don't get dead.


Duck

Christopher A. Boden Geek#1
President / C.E.O. / Alpha Geek
The Geek Group
www.thegeekgroup-dot-org
Because the Geek shall inherit the Earth!



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