Re: Ground vrs Sprinkler

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

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


> Ok I have a question I have been wondering for about a week or 2. I probably
> should address this before I run again..


> My parents have an inground sprinkler system. The primary control boxes are
> located near my tesla coil testing area and I have been unpluging them when
> I run.


> Except about a day or so after my last run one of the sprinklers #5 on the
> second box refused to shut off until I shut down the valve allowing water
> into the sytem. I was at first bumming thinking I had downed the system with
> some stray EM energy, but after some later consideration thought maybe it
> was something else, since I had unpluged them. When the sprinkler guy
> arrived he confirmed my supspicions at first, and stated that it was a valve
> in the system. Ok so I was curios I stuck around, and much to my suprise the
> guy took a EM detection device out. A black plastic egg on a long cord
> attached to a Multimeter type readout. He then setup a pulsing current
> running though the sprinkler system, and proceeded to traipse back and forth
> across my yard while swinging the egg back and forth. When the thing made
> the right type of clicks he grabed a shovel and dug down to a small box.
> The box was an electricaly controlled valve switching device.

	Such injected current detectors are relatively common
	in working on buried pipe.

> Buried under ground about 30 feet from my TC ground. My ground is about 5
or 6 feet of
> copper pipe driven into the ground, I got lucky it was like hammering the
> thing into butter and the top of the pipe is barely deformed. It is located
> about 30 feet from the box that malfuctioned and an unknown distance from
> any number of other wierd sprinkler boxes I was untill recently un aware
> of...
 
> Could my coil have downed this mysterious burried electrical box?

	Possible, hard to say.

> Is it safe for me drop current into ground near one of these things?
	I would not consider 30 feet 'near'.  HOWEVER,

	the question might be rephrased:
		How far is the nearest sprinkler pipe from
		the TC RF Ground?

 	Path might have been TC rod to speinler pipe, to

	'valve controller'.

	best
	dwp

...the net of a million lies...
	Vernor Vinge
There are Many Web Sites which Say Many Things.
	-me