RE: ...sounds totally newbie, but...

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

Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Gary.Lau-at-hp-dot-com>

Not at all a newbie question!  The problem with running without a secondary 
is that all of the power that would normally go into streamers will now be 
dissipated in the primary components.  The lion's share will just generate 
additional heat in the gap.  But without a secondary, there is no longer 
quenching, so the amount of time (actually duty cycle)  that the cap and 
NST see RF oscillations is now much greater.  And dielectric losses in the 
cap will now generate more heat than if there was a secondary, so your caps 
will take a MUCH more severe beating than normal.

I had a similar need to operate without a secondary as I played with sync 
RSG timing.  I wanted to adjust the sync timing and scope waveforms without 
worrying about being hit with a streamer.  What I did was to replace the 
primary coil with three series-connected 120V 500W halogen floodlight 
bulbs.  I was using a 15kV/60mA NST power supply, you may need more or less 
for other power supplies.  A photo may be seen on my site at 
http://www.laushaus-dot-com/tesla/sync_gap.htm.  These are tubular bulbs and 
have a high standoff voltage, despite the obvious 120V/5kV 
over-volting.  The brightness of the bulbs did a very good job of 
indicating the sweet timing spots.  It wasn't clear if your tank frequency 
needed to be left intact in your application; replacing the primary with a 
dummy load resistor clearly alters this ;-)

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA


 >Original poster: "Christopher \"CajunCoiler\" Mayeux by way of Terry 
Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" ><cajuncoiler-at-cox-dot-net>
 >
 >
 >I know this sounds like a majorly newbie question, but
 >I (for some unknown and mysterious reason) can't quite remember this...
 >
 >Would it harm a Tesla coil's circuitry to operate it without a secondary
 >coil in place?  This is in the
 >context of testing primary circuit functionality, before
 >actually proceeding with secondary coil construction.
 >
 >---
 >C.L. Mayeux
 >Owner, MSB Data Systems
 >http://www.msbdatasystems.tk