Re: Door knob caps

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

.005 uF is 5000 pF...

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Jason Petrou by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jasonp-at-btinternet-dot-com>
> 
> Hi Tracey,
> > OK   forgive the ignorance as I know this is a newbie question for
> > sure...I'm attempting the construction of my first coil and the particular
> > directions that I'm using call for 3 door knob caps wired in parallel for
> a
> > total capacitance of 1500 Pico farads.
> 1500pF (or 0.015uF) is about right, possibly a bit too high but Im sure that
> an averaged sized coil would have no problems with that.
> 
> >These are 15kv caps. In the
> Perfect.
> 
> > directions it says not to worry about the capacitance too much. My
> question
> > is this: How much can   I vary from that capacitance? I have found some
> 50pf
> > caps at 15kv. Can I use these caps? Do I need to add caps to get the
> > capacitance up around 400 pf? Or can I run less capacitance say around 200
> > pf?
> You really need more than about 500pF (0.005uF) to run any type of coil. The
> capacitance doesnt really matter (i.e. you can be 500pF out and nothing will
> happen) but you do need to get it close to the target capacitance. If you
> email; the specs of the coil you hope to build to the list then we can tell
> you exactly what capacitance we need.
> 
> All the best,
> Jason