RE: The Tabletop Tesla Coil Showdown - OFFICIAL RULES and WEBSITE

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

Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Gary.Lau-at-hp-dot-com>

Malcolm wrote:

>Dear competition enthusiasts,
> After following this correspondence I am forced to ask once again, "what
is the point"?
>
>We now seem to have moved from a simple unmodified transformer to one 
>which has had some shunts removed (is now on steroids), that you are 
>now allowed to operate under conditions which will allow far higher 
>primary voltages than the open-circuit rating of the transformer is 
>designed to withstand if it will take it (i.e. if you are very lucky 
>and have buckets of money to find "the one"). Sounds somewhat similar 
>to the GMHEICxxx "competition".

I didn't follow the reference to "far higher primary voltages".  If you
meant NST secondary voltages, I did propose a maximum gap setting in an
effort to prohibit unsafe secondary voltages.

The point is that it's easy to improve performance by removing ALL shuts
and running with wide-open gaps, but this is not a healthy way to operate.
Automotive competitions (I'm no expert here) have all sorts of regulations,
governing types of fuel, engine displacement, type of engine, things
comparable to the NST and voltage/current restrictions which have been
discussed.  Automotive competitions also prohibit unsafe practices.
Granted, these are largely for personal safety, but I think things which
will ultimately damage an NST and do not advance the art should be discouraged.

It IS safe to remove a certain amount of shunts, so it would be a shame to
hobble performance by disallowing any modification.  We are looking for
user satisfaction in addition to beating the next guy.

If you lack the buckets of money for a 4/20 NST, there is a proposed
category 3 competition that will permit any NST whose after-modification VA
rating does not exceed the "official" modified NST rating.  If you want a
no-rules competition where the safety of NSTs and bystanders cannot be
guaranteed, you'll have to set up your own competition on a dark street
somewhere.

Dan, what exactly is the short circuit current of your 5/5 shunt
configuration, at 115VAC?


Greg wrote:

>Why don't you let people use their imagination? If people get better 
>sparks using rectified/voltage multipliers or magnifier systems, this 
>will indicate that these methods are better, not only for TTTCs, but 
>possibly for the rest of us with bigger coils. Why not simply set the 
>voltage/current requirements of the initial power supply and see what 
>people can do. This whole idea is getting silly. Why not let people 
>try using a small tank cap with high BPS or a large tank cap with low 
>BPS, and so on. Otherwise it comes down purely to losses in the 
>primary/secondary circuits which those of us with more money are able 
>to minimise because they can afford low loss coilforms etc. I want to 
>see people's ingenuity win this competition. Let's just see who can 
>do what with a 4kV, 20mA transformer, using their crazy ideas.

I believe this is precisely what I proposed.  I don't recall any discussion
of regulating tank cap size or BPS.

Gary Lau
MA, USA