First light...sigh

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Original poster: "Rothman, Aric by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Aric.Rothman-at-Honeywell-dot-com>

Well, I had first light with my new/old coil last night.

Details:

* Two Maxwell 0.03uF 37667 caps in series, shunted with protection gaps and
200MOhm resistors
* 15kV/60ma NST
* Terry's NST protection circuit
* Mark's triggered gap (modified, built from Ted's excellent PDF document)
* 6" secondary (winding details of primary and secondary do not come to
mind at the moment)
* Professionally made aluminum toroid (24" major/6" minor diameters)

In it's previous incarnation, my TC with 0.01uF homemade styrene cap,
15kV/60ma NST, and static gap was throwing 5 foot
streamers.  Last night, the coil topped out at about 3 feet, and that was
off a breakout bump on the toroid.

I believe I had the main gap and capacitor safety gaps set too wide.  There
was a loud flash from the tank circuit, and
what was a loud rat-tat-tat from the spark gap turned into a sizzling
flame.  I expect the caps are down for the count
:(  I will try to get them hi-pot tested at work.

I have to get the MMC backup wired in...

Aric