RE: Measuring static-gap break rate

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

Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Gary.Lau-at-hp-dot-com>

I once asked the same question, and Richie Burnette came up with an
interesting technique.  He took the gap voltage, passed it through a
resistive attenuator and limiter, to the MIC input of a small battery
powered tape recorder (isolated from anything else!) , and recorded it.
Then he played the tape to his PC's audio recorder, saving it as a .WAV
file.  This allowed him to visually count the bangs in a given time
interval.  I never did get around to trying this but seems simple and
plausible.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA


Original poster: "Scott Hanson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<huil888-at-surfside-dot-net>

What are the options for measuring the actual operating break rate of a static
gap? What simple, straightforward techniques have proven useful? I need to
measure the actual breakrate on a small coil that is using a much smaller than
usual tank cap.
 
I was considering using a small "spotting" telescope, a photo diode and a Fluke
multimeter with frequency counter function. Mount the photo diode in the bottom
of an opaque plastic 35mm film can, aim the telescope at the static gap, attach
the film can to the eyepiece of the telescope, and monitor the output of the
photodiode with the frequency counter. Everything could be 10 feet or more from
the coil, so EMI/RFI might be not be a problem.
 
Any suggestions?
 
Regards,
Scott Hanson