Re: MMC

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

Original poster: "J. B. Weazle McCreath" <weazle-at-hurontel.on.ca> 


At 08:22 AM 16/04/04 -0600, you wrote:

 >Original poster: "Mudford, Chris" <chris.mudford-at-agresearch.co.nz>
 >
 >My last MMC was built on the ragged edge at resonant and failed a few
 >times.  My concern is that it failed in the same string.  4 parallel
 >strings were commoned on a brass bus bar with the tank connections at
 >one end and the string that experienced the failure was always that
 >closest to the connection points.  My new MMC which will have 7 parallel
 >strings are mounted on individual etched circuit board and I want some
 >ideas as to how I common them up.
 >
 >Cheers, Chris (NZ).
 >

Hi Chris,

Sounds like un-equal current distribution among the strings, which is
easy to prevent, simply by a small change in the arrangement of the
hookup.  Let's assume that your four strings are vertical, and that
you have a horizontal bus bar at the top and bottom of the strings,
just to make describing it easy.  Each string connects to the bus in
an orderly manner, from left to right.  If you now connect your tank
circuit leads to opposite ends of the busses, that is, the top lead
to the left end of the top bus and the bottom lead to the right end
of the bottom bus, the current path through any string will be the
same length.  This should balance out the current evenly among all
of the strings and end your troubles.

73, Weazle, VE3EAR/VE3WZL

Details of my "Hyperbaric Gap" and Tesla coil are at:
http://www.hurontel.on.ca/~weazle