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...And then there was silence.



Original poster: "Matt Woody Meyer by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <meyerml-at-stolaf.edu>

I got it running again... had some problems before which turned out to be a
shorted capacitor (ah, the troubles with homebuilt caps!) and the spark gap
wasn't working correctly.  I also changed my large toroid to the small
toroid.  All told, tonight during my final night of testing before my big
symposium, I was able to get 36" arcs (a guy in my class bet me a pint of
beer for every 3" I was able to get... that's 12 beers!)

So, while taking pictures after tuning, something happened, and as of now I
am not sure what it was.  Everything was working very well, and then, the
gap stopped firing suddenly (just happened right away, didn't "ramp down"),
and I heard the transformers "sizzling".  I am using a RQ style gap (like
the one on Vince's website: http://www.teslafx-dot-com) with a small piece of
wood between the two end electrodes (to prevent arcing between them.  I am
at this point very desperate for any answers.  I have so far ruled out the
following:
-NST's are working correctly
-Wiring is correct
-Capacitors failed continuity test (good thing- they're not shorted again).
  (will measure capacitance tomorrow morning to verify these aren't the
problem)
-NST Protection should be working
-Spark Gap has no faults in it.

My setup is:
15kV 60ma & 15kV 30ma transformers, in parallel
Terry's NST protection filter
RQ style gap (see http://www.teslafx-dot-com)
2 capacitors, in parallel for total capacitance of .034uF
11 turn primary, .375" copper tubing
8x32 secondary, 22AWG magnet wire
smaller toroid (don't have dimensions)
All grounding done directly to earth with two grounding rods.

Any suggestions would help me VERY much, as my presentation is at 2:00 on
Wed (CDT) and the firing is at 9:00pm CDT Wed. as well.

Many thanks,
><>Matt

ps: please e-mail me directly, so as not to clog up the list with answers.
:)
meyerml-at-stolaf.edu

>