Dimmer Differential

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

Original poster: "Luc by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ludev-at-videotron.ca>

Hi Guy,

Couple of week ago I posted here that I used a
"dimmer-cap-ignition coil" circuit to drive a fluorescent as
strobe to checked a sync motor I rebuild. The result I got was a
double pattern, many possibility existed that could cause this
double pattern. The first 2 things I suspected was bad bearing in
the motor or problem with the dimmer circuit. With the help of
Terry I finally find that the problem come from the dimmer
circuit. If you check the dimmer reading from a previous
experiment by Terry you'll see that the conduction on the
negative part of the 60Hz cycle is later than on the positive
part:   

http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/CoilTest/ACin3with20uFcap.gif

By the number of degree I have between the 2 patterns on my sync
motor I calculated around 1 mS of difference, in the Terry
reading I calculated around .7 mS. It probably could explain
Partially why some of you report erratic firing with TSG, I
remember Marc reported that he have only 60 pulse/seconde in his
first attempt with the TSG, that could be part of the explanation.

I'm sure that for most the time this condition is not a problem
in tesla application, many people have great success with TSG.

This should raise a question: Is this difference stay the same
independently of the position of the adjustment knob on the
dimmer, is all dimmer are the same regarding this delay and is it
a condition cause by the dimmer itself or by the "cap-ignition
coil" part of the circuit ?

Cheers,

Luc Benard