RE: Primary Currents (was LTR question, high voltage wire.)

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <couturejh-at-telocity-dot-com>


Bart, Jim, All -

Too small a wire for the primary and secondary circuits does limit the TC
output. I show graphs for recommended primary and secondary wire sizes in
the Tesla Coil Design Manual. These graphs are based on empirical equations
that appear to work satisfactorily. The equations are based on the estimated
currents flowing in these circuits during operation. The currents were
calculated by the JHCTES Ver 2.3 program. To my knowledge no one has ever
made such graphs so there is no way to make comparisons.

John Couture

-------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2001 12:06 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: LTR question, high voltage wire.


Original poster: "Barton B. Anderson by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <tesla123-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Hi Jim, All,

Just to add here regarding high current components and wire. I had an
experience today at work trying to
kill a polyswitch which has been burning up in the field. I used 18awg
through a 60A pulse solenoid and 2
car battery's for 24v as a high current supply. Couldn't kill it. Found I
could only draw 25 amps. I
doubled up on the wire, and presto - I fried 3 of them quickly (battery
connection arc caused a high
enough voltage/current pulse to carbon track the molecular layer -
simulated the 40A relay used in the
field - clamping diode should be the solution). What interested me was the
single 18awg wire was limiting
current. I assumed it would be large enough, but I was wrong.

In regards to primary circuits, I can see the need to have a high current
conductor regardless of flat or
round types (I really don't see a benefit between one or the other). It
makes me wonder how many TC's are
running weak primary circuit wiring and not realizing it may be current
limiting the circuit. I'm not
sure, it's just a thought I had.

Take care,
Bart

---------------------   snip