Ignition Coil

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

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

Hi all,

I just got my hands on a new ignition coil from Unipart. I hooked up a
dimmer switch, and started to draw arcs. Suddenly, a cloud of white smoke
erupted from the dimmer, and the wire wound on the ferrite core has
literally melted. What am I doing wrong? Should I have used a ballast
resistor? The dimmer was only 240W but I thought that ignition coils were
ballasted to much less than that!!! Previously with the same igntion coil I
have used 20uF of PFC caps, and it worked ok but with the dimmer I got much
better arcs. Should I use a ballast resistor/capacitor to limit the current
in? Also what is the longest arc that I can draw from an ign. coil without
cooking it? Also, what current should I be using? Keep in mind that before I
have only used the PFC cap setup.

Thanks,
Jason