Re: Does a "regulating" coil really waste energy?

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

Original poster: "Marry Krutsch by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <u236-at-earthlink-dot-net>

Hi John.

	I was thinking... It may be a combination of things.  If you were
running at 120 BPS, one "bad", or missed break might let enough time
pass to let the spark channel de-ionize almost to the pre-breakout
state.  I've had this happen at 120 BPS with my SRSG, when it isn't
quite phased right (it still isn't right on).  It happens more with my
big toroid and static gap.  The coil breaks out for a few seconds, then
stays quiet, breaks out...etc.   It usually happens more when it's windy
enough to blow the sparks around, but I can't run long enough to make
good observations because of my polyester :-( caps.  Also, the line
voltage around here drops every 15-20 seconds (predictably), and I often
lose breakout briefly.  Just a few thoughts...

Winston


> Dave,
> 
> I have a coil which barely breaks out.  Sometimes it can
> run for about 10 seconds before it breaks out.  One time it stopped
> breaking out after it started breaking out.  This seems to suggest
> to me that the breakout voltage remains rather high even with
> subsequent bangs/breakouts.  I would think that if the breakout
> voltage falls to almost nothing, then the coil would not have stopped
> breaking out after it once started.  Unless I missing something?
> 
> Cheers,
> John