Re: DC Powered Large Tesla Coils

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

Original poster: "S & J Young by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <youngs-at-konnections-dot-net>


Dan,

Since you are starting at such a high voltage DC, the comon method of DC
resonant charging is probably not for you.  You would end up with about 90
KV on your (very expensive) tank cap plus have major corona and insulation
problems to contend with.

So, consider making a single pole double throw ARSG.  It just takes adding
additional stationary electrodes - no big deal.  In one position you charge
your series connected primary and tank cap from your power supply through
the gap.  In the other position, you discharge the primary-tank cap through
the gap.  This works very well providing you have low ESR filter caps on the
output of your power supply that are at l0 to 100 times the capacitance of
your tank cap.

The advantages are you never have a direct short across your power supply,
and therefore no need for ballasting or other current limiting schemes.  And
there is no problem with power arcing or quenching in the ARSG.

If you would start at a lower voltage (10-20 KV), then resonant charging is
a good way to go.  See Richie Burnett's and Greg Leyh's sites for details.

I am sure many of us would like appreciate you sharing the details of your
90 KW power supply!

--Steve Young

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 3:32 PM
Subject: DC Powered Large Tesla Coils


 >
 > Original poster: "Mccauley, Daniel H by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <daniel.h.mccauley-at-lmco-dot-com>
 >
 >
 >
 > I finally got my High Voltage resonant-mode DC power supply to work this
 > past week and am ready to begin thinking
 > how I am going to incorporate this into the DC Tesla Coil I am planning on
 > building.
 > Using a dummy load set-up, I managed to get a sustained output of 2000mA
at
 > 45.5kVDC.  However, I am planning on
 > running the supply at a much lower current at about 500mA at 45kVDC.  My
 > current plan calls for a large conventional
 > type tesla coil running with a large ARSG.
 >
 > My question is, that I wanted to get some advice, 'lessons learned',
etc...
 > from people who have already ventured into
 > the DC powered tesla coil arena.  I'm current working on some very
detailed
 > simulations to see the effects of varying
 > BPS and cap size is for something like this.
 >
 > Any advice, comments, appreciated!
 >
 > Thanks
 > Dan
 >
 >
 >