Re: Maxwell AC vs. DC ratings

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

Original poster: "teri mckenney" <mck-at-ezy-dot-net> 


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Monday, April 05, 2004 2:04 PM
Subject: Re: Maxwell AC vs. DC ratings


 > Original poster: Edward Wingate <ewing7-at-rochester.rr-dot-com>
 >
 > Tesla list wrote:
 >  >
 >  > Original poster: Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-twfpowerelectronics-dot-com>
 >  >
 >  > Hi Bert,
 >
 >  > I never realized these caps were so fragile!!  I sold those two I have
from
 >  > that Lichtenberg figure experiment (wouldn't have worked...) to Kreso
and
 >  > we were wondering about this.  I have always played with MMCs, not
 >  > commercial caps ;-)
 >  >
 >  > Cheers,
 >  >
 >  >          Terry
 >
 > Terry,
 >
 > Commercial pulse caps aren't "fragile", they simply need to be properly
 > speced for the intended use and then operated within those specs. I have
 > certainly never had a commercial cap fail from "overcurrent" as your
 > recent MMC postings seemed to indicate. Actually I've had only one
 > commercial cap fail in 15 years and that was due to a manufacturing
 > defect in one section. The company built me a new one for free even
 > though the warranty period had run out!
 >
 > MMCs are OK for "playing", commercial caps are for more serious work!
 >
 > Regards,
 >
 > Ed Wingate RATCB
 >
Hey Ed,
To be fair,if you're talking about my MMC cap failings.Please keep in mind
that my MMC is not "properly speced for the intended use and operated within
those specs".I'm using 3 strings of 10 of the Panasonic 1600v .056uf caps to
run a 15/60 NST.I use a static gap with a variac turned up to 140v. In three
years I've popped 9 caps.I don't have to get the company to build me a new
one as I can replace a popped cap and be running again in literally 15
minutes tops.I also have 2 extra strings that I can hook up in a couple of
minutes if I want to fix a string later.I've run this coil for 20 minutes at
a time.My coil is a hobby coil for fun that I "play around" with so for me
it's no problem to replace a cap every once in a while.It's certainly cheap
enough.My static gap has 6 copper sections that are adjustable so every once
in a while I've opened 'em up and let it "goes till she blows"-dot-commercial
caps are great, so are MMC's :o)
Bill Mck.