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BPS, J/bang, and spark length



Original poster: "Daniel Barrett by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dbarrett1-at-austin.rr-dot-com>

    Hi all-

    The spark length equasions for AC powered coils are pretty well
developed, but the playing field is a little different for DC powered coils:
Lets say that we are constrained by the available power to running a DC coil
at 120V at 15A, or 1800 KVA. When designing a coil for such a power supply,
you can go one of two ways: Build a huge MMC and run at a low break rate, or
build a small MMC and run at a high break rate. My question is this: Which
approach will lead to the best spark length?
    On my coil, ferinstance, the spark length appears to increase as BPS is
increased (energy per bang stays constant) until the breaker pops. But it's
also likely that increasing the MMC size (read more energy/bang at less BPS)
will increase the spark length. So as I try to eak every last inch out of a
120V wall outlet, which optimization route is likely to be "best"?

A) keep my exisiting 6.5 J/bang MMC and run it at 277BPS (=1.8kVA)
-or-
B) increase my MMC to 15J/bang and run it at 120BPS (=1.8kVA)

Any ideas appreciated-
db