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

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

Original poster: "Kevin Ottalini by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ottalini-at-mindspring-dot-com>

The way the existing rules are stated this is not a particularily
interesting contest unless you set up a small kit with all the parts in it
like a stock car race.

IE: identical secondary form, identical secondary wire, identical NST, but,
leave the primary and the tank and the gap and the secondary topload to the
imagination of the builder.

That way the assembly, mounting, control and tuning all become the key and
good challenge and all those that have problems can quickly implement the
winning solutions and try it out for themselves.  Everyone wins then with a
working table-top coil.

If you want this contest to be real interesting, only limit the maximum
continuous input power say ~ 80 watts (but don't reject battery-power coils
with only 5watts or 10 watts!) and who knows what wonderful designs will be
presented?  Remember inspiration is the basis for a contest, many who would
never bother to build a small coil will do so if they have a bit of a
challenge.

Have a couple of winning categories if you want (DC powered, AC powered) and
perhaps limit the maximum overall physical size (it is supposed to be
table-top, and what does that really mean physically).

And is the actual final winning category only spark length? or asthetic
design? most creative? lowest power, highest efficiency, least expensive,
etc etc all the things that really interest the people on this list who love
to make sparks!

As a benchmark, compare the contest design to say the Science-First (same as
Edmunds) coil which is a pretty poor performer, but fits the bill physically
and power wise.  It uses an inductive contactor running at 110v with a
single-loop primary ... no NST and certainly not 80 watts but it is a
table-top and it does work.

That coil would be excluded under your existing contest rules (and I'm NOT
saying allow the Science-First coil to be entered as a design unless it is
substantially improved either!).

Even Terry's GMHEI coil the way it's designed fits the description of a
table-top tesla-coil design.

Kevin


----- Original Message -----
Original poster: "Edward Wingate by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
ewing7-at-rochester.rr-dot-com

If it's going to be a competition to see who can get the most bang
with a given input power, then limit the input power ONLY and leave
the rest to the imagination of the builder. Isn't that what
competition is all about? If you put rules and restrictions on the
system design, innovation and ingenuity are stifled and the end result
is a moot point. You may as well hand out blueprints and a materials
list and everyone can build the exact same coil! Pretty boring!

I can't wait to see what happens if the only rule is an input power
limit and everything else is fair game. There are some pretty crafty
people out there and I would prefer to let the creative juices flow
and see what materializes!

With a 4KV, 20ma power limit the cost of materials isn't really a
limiting factor as it is in large systems either.

Another $.02,

Ed Wingate RATCB