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

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

Original poster: "Mark W. Stolz by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <mark_w_stolz-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Hi Zagarus,

 From the looks of it you most likely have a quenching problem with your 
spark gap.  Add a fan blowing across it to help the quenching.  Is the 
spacing of the gap still only 3-4mm?

The toroid looks a little on the small side, but should probably be 
adequate for the time being.  I have a 4" coil also wound with 22 AWG for a 
winding length of 23".  It produces ~36" using a 15/60 NST.
http://teslacoils4christ-dot-org/~mark.stolz/4inch/4inch.html

I have been experimenting with a 4-pack MOT supply myself lately.  When 
using 40nF of capacitor and an TCBOR/RQ type gap I got some nice thick 4' 
arcs from it.  I however didn't limit the current. :-)
http://users2.ev1-dot-net/~nmyreality/tesla/psu/mot/motsparks.htm

I think you'll see a big improvement by working on the spark gap.

Mark Stolz
Houston, TX
http://teslacoils4christ-dot-org







>From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>Original poster: "Zagarus Rashkae by way of Terry Fritz 
><teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <arbitrarily_random-at-yahoo-dot-com>
>
>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.