Re: strange variac problem

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

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

Greg,

Is it possible that the variac is saturating somehow? If it is a 110V variac
and you are using it for 240V then it might well do that.

Wierd problem - never heard of anything like that before!!! Try connecting
up a 10A ballast and using it to load the variac, and measure the current
passing thru the system - if it is nothing then the core is saturating, and
if it is 10A... well you tell me :oP

Best Regards
Jason

{UK Geek #1139 Rank G-2}

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2002 2:08 AM
Subject: strange variac problem


> Original poster: "Mr Gregory Peters by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <s371034-at-student.uq.edu.au>
>
> I was running my small (15kV/90mA) coil yesterday. I hooked up my 10amp
> variac, which I have tested with my multimeter and shown that it
> smoothly varies the voltage from 1- 270v. However, even with the full
> 270v, I needed a very small gap to get reliable firing. I plugged the
> coil straight into the 240v socket and was able to get reliable firing
> with very wide gaps. What's going on? It's almost as if the variac is
> sucking all the power. I could only get 1 foot sparks with the variac
> hooked up but 4 foot sparks without.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Greg Peters
> Department of Earth Sciences,
> University of Queensland, Australia
> Phone: 0402 841 677
> http://www.geocities-dot-com/gregjpeters
>
>
>
>
>