Re: Kicker Coil Powered TC

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

Original poster: "David Sharpe by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <sccr4us-at-erols-dot-com>

Kevin, Steve
We had some problems at work with battery chargers that were failing, I
suspected
that the PS were not transient protected (price point and all).  The
marketing gurus
tried to say "Good is good enough" (a hot button for me...  >:>C )

So I told them I could induce a failure in less then 1 hour, they laughed.
I took a
Allen Bradley 700N relay as a buzzer and put in the same duplex recepticle as
three "Units under Test".  I was wrong, they ALL failed within 15 minutes:
primary to secondary short circuits, bridge VRRM crashes, etc. etc.  An
inductive
kicker like this can produce obscenely large voltages (I measured
repetitively 3kV
pk to pk).

They ask me to redesigned, added a varistor, some high speed RC snubbing and
problems vanished.   :^)

Regards
Dave Sharpe, TCBOR
Chesterfield, VA. USA


Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Kevin Ottalini by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ottalini-at-mindspring-dot-com>
>
> Steve:
>     The Science First coil is a kicker coil ... in fact the same as the
> Edmund small coil since Science sells to Edmunds.
>
> This coil has a conical secondary, with a single wire turn primary
> which is powered off a small induction coil run on 120VAC.
>
> The resonant frequency is quite high,  perhaps 2MHz or more ...
> I haven't measured it, but I will.
>
> All in all I was quite disappointed in the performance.
>
> Anyone can take a relay with at least one NC contact and wire the
> coil through the NC contact to make an induction coil.  The voltage
> will be built up across the coil itself (as the field collapses), and
> can be quite dangerous!
>
> I built one of these when I was 13 or so running off a 9V battery
> (I still have it ... I'll take some pics).  I used old CB antennas as
> electrodes.  It will totally lock up all the muscles in both arms
> and hands such that it  is impossible to let go!
>
> Just imagine what one powered off wall current would do.
>
> Everyone, please be careful with these ... they look simple and
> not very dangerous but they are quite deceptive and can be lethal.
>
> Kevin
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 11:07 PM
> Subject: Kicker Coil Powered TC
>
> > Original poster: "S & J Young by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
> <youngs-at-konnections-dot-net>
> >
> > Hi List,
> >
> > Just wondering if anyone has built their own kicker coil powered small TC,
> > similar to those sold by Edmunds Scientific.  If so, please share your
> > design and results.  (A kicker coil is sort-of a one winding induction
> coil
> > which relies on the collapsing magnetic field to generate perhaps 1 KV
> > impulses.  It was more common in the early 1900s.)  Seems like one could
> > make a kicker coil by using 120 VAC relay with normally closed contacts.
> >
> > A kicker coil powered TC should be a fairly safe introduction to TCs as no
> > HV transformers are involved.  One should be able to produce
> "streamerettes"
> > a couple inches long.
> >
> > For those interested in this, get a book from Lindsey Publications called
> > "High Frequency Apparatus" by Thomas Stanley Curtis, originally published
> in
> > 1916.  It has a chapter on kicking coil apparatus.
> >
> > --Steve Young
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >