Re: A laser pointer killed my coil?

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

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

I'd think coincidence... the energy in the laser pointer is so low that it
wouldn't have any real effect..
Now, if your friend had been waving around a fiber probe carrying the output
of that 20 kW gasdynamic laser...
Just rotten luck..


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 7:59 PM
Subject: A laser pointer killed my coil?


 > Original poster: "Chris Roberts by way of Terry Fritz
<teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <quezacotl_14000000000000-at-yahoo-dot-com>
 >
 >
 > I think I'm starting a trend of blowing things up. =\
 >
 > I finally got my mini coil completed (I would show some pictures, but
don't
 > know how to post them) and decided to bring it over to a friend's house to
 > show him. (It's wierd being able to fit a complete, unassembled coil in
 > your car) While it was running, my friend had a laser pointer with him and
 > pointed it at the coil. The second the red dot touched the breakout point,
 > there was a popping noise, the coil stopped running, and there was a fire
 > starting on the primary side of the open core and coil NST. (Let's see,
 > that's about 1min 43 seconds of TOTAL run time before something blew up -
 > is that some kind of record? =\ Now, did the laser pointer do this, (I
 > think it's just a coincidence) did something else cause the NST to die,
 > (there wasn't a saftey filter but I think that would hurt the secondary)
or
 > could it be that the NST is just somewhat old? Sigh - I wish I could build
 > a tesla coil correctly for once.
 >
 >
 > -Chris
 >
 > "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm
 > not sure about the former." -Albert Einstein
 >
 >
 >