Mini DRSSTC efficiency tests

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Steve Ward <steve.ward@xxxxxxxxx>

Quoting myself from one of Terry's threads:

> I also did a few power measurements on the little coil.  It struck 10"
> with the kill-a-watt reading 35W :-).  It took around 120W to get 14"
> (just to prove that *my* coil can beat all the coils in Gary's mini
> coil competition ;-) ).  Interestingly, it took a whole 200W to get
> 15". Note that these power levels were recorded at 120BPS at least. It
> seems obvious that efficiency is really dropping off as the ON time
> increases for each pulse.  What i find is that my primary (made from
> wire that is WAY too small) gets very hot, quite quickly at these
> higher powers.  I think that the primary may just be eating up the
> extra power... its about time i make a new primary from some 12awg or
> something.  I will let you know how it goes.  Sorry to get off topic
> here, but im sure you might find that interesting.
>

OK, well, i just replaced the primary coil.  I ditched the cardboard
and 16awg and went for PVC and 12awg.  The results are quite apparent!
 The numbers below were taken at 120bps:

10"  33w
14"  88w
15"  110w
16"  135w
18"  180w

That is quite an improvement.  Not only does it produce longer sparks
at less input power, but now everything runs much cooler!  Cant argue
with that.

Seeya,

Steve