Re: Differences between "bad" streamers and "good" streamers

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dhmccauley-at-spacecatlighting-dot-com>


Firstly, the reason your streamers don't break-out so easily with out a
break-out point may be due to the fact the toroid is too large for that
particular coil.
Secondly, thin purple sparks are usually common for the lower power coils
(<3kW)  To get long, thick white streamers, you need to be pushing lots
of power!

The Captain


 > Hi All,
 >
 > I have recently built a Tesla coil and fired it up. At
 > best, it produced thin, wimpy, purple 36 inch
 > streamers at first light Specs can be found at
 > http://www.hot-streamer-dot-com/lulabs/Tesla.html
 > The power input is maybe 1.5-2.5 kW. I haven't
 > measured it yet.
 > Spark images are at
 > http://www.hot-streamer-dot-com/lulabs/images/sparks/
 > I don't know what is causing these sparks to be so
 > thin and purple. I have also noticed that sparks don't
 > break out easily without a breakout point. Is it
 > because I haven't tuned the coil right? Is it the
 > toroid? Is it the ground? Is it the capacitor? Input
 > power? Please help.
 >
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