Re: newbie questions

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

Original poster: "Crow Leader by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <tesla-at-lists.symmetric-dot-net>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 11:45 PM
Subject: newbie questions


 > Original poster: "harry by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<harry-at-prcn-dot-org>
 >
 > Hi
 >
 > My name is Lance Williams , I am 36 yrs. old and I live in British
Columbia
 > Canada , I have a basic understanding of electricity and electronics,I
have
 > been lurking on the list since Xmas, in that time i have built a coil with
 > the following specs:
 >
 > -3" dryer duct toroid 16" dia. oa.  a bit small but the kids prefer it
over
 > the 4"(lots more sparks :)
 > -14 turns 1/4" copper tube primary spaced 3/8" apart 45deg. inverted
 > conical 8" id. 19" od.
 > -4.25" pvc secondary form 30" long with 25" winding of 24Ga magnet wire.
 > -powered with 2  12/30 nst's (soon to be 4 :)
 > -static gap 1"copper tube 6" long 11pcs. for 10 gaps at .02" each and 2
MOV
 > fans for quenching.
 > -2 homemade rolled poly caps .022 uf ea. in series  and an ESR of 19 and
18.
 > -#4Ga welding cable for a ground wire to a 10' copper clad ground rod.
 >
 > With this setup i am achieving 26" continuous spark w/o breakout point and
 > 32" w/ breakout points.
 >
 >
 > Now for the questions:
 >
 > -Can the ESR of the caps be lowered by wrapping it tighter and would
there
 > be any improvement in performance of the coil ?

Welcome to the joy of coiling. You mention your caps have an ESR of 19 and
18. What units are these, and how did you measure it? If by wrapping the
caps tighter, you compress the dielectric and get a shorter distance between
the electrodes, you will increase the capacitance. I can't guess how this
will affect the ESR in your case though. Do your caps warm up at all (or
just the leads to them, or internal connections)?


KEN