Re: Suggestion on Power Supply?

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 5/5/03 9:44:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:

>John, thanks for clarifying... I didn't think your
>formula had much to do with BPS at all, simply
>what happens in ONE shot.


Jeremy,

You bring up an interesting point.  In my tests, I used
break rates from 30 bps to 1000 bps or so.  At 30 bps,
the output spark length was quite short and didn't come
anywhere near the predicted lengths.  At 60 bps however
the coil performed close to the predicted lengths.  I concluded
that such low breakrates of 30 bps or lower do not keep the
arc streamer channels hot enough to maintain spark growth,
at least in the coil setup I was using.  I know that the spark
length can be maintained at much lower breakrates however in
some tube coil designs.  My formula was simply based on
observed spark lengths of various coils.  At the relatively
low power levels I worked with, 120 bps gave better "efficiency"
than higher or lower breakrates did.

John