RE: NST protection and grounding

["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>

I'm not sure I agree with a couple of your points.

 >Original poster: "WIZZARD . by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
<pbobyk-at-hotmail-dot-com>
 >
 >A safety gap alone will not protect an NST.
 >Capacitors of greater than ( a certain value ) to ground to filter out RF
 >back to the NST can actually cause the NST to fail.

In a Tesla Coil, I don't see how.  Provided one's main gap is properly set 
to limit the maximum voltage, the value of bypass caps should make no 
difference.

In the context of lighting neon signs however, capacitance across the 
secondary IS a big no-no.

 >I have heard that
 >series coils for each leg of the NST are the best protection, coupled with
 >the overvoltage spark gap can be effective,

Inductors and chokes in NST protection circuits have gone the way of 
leaches and blood letting.  Folks once swore by them and this dogma was 
repeated many times on the 'net.  Then folks started question this wisdom 
and performing circuit simulations.  It turns out that series inductors 
alone do absolutely nothing, and L-C filters may subject the NST to more 
high voltage oscillations than if no filter circuit was used at all.  The 
current wisdom is to use series resistors with bypass caps to (RF) 
ground.  And definitely use overvoltage spark gaps across the NST.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA