Re: Power level Vs Coil hieght

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

Original poster: FutureT-at-aol-dot-com 

In a message dated 2/16/04 12:10:25 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:

>John:
>You kinda lost me there.
>If I keep the same gap distance (yes I will be using a static gap) the
>break rate will rise and the sparks will get longer if I ..........  If
>I do what?
>You mean loosen the coupling?


Luke,

Sorry, I suspected I might not have given enough details.
I often have little time and therefore attempt to give a quick response.
What I meant is that if you keep the gap spacing the same,
and increase the input power, the break rate will increase
automatically and therefore increase the spark length.
The breakrate will increase automatically because the
greater input current will charge the capacitor faster, and
let it fire more times during each half cycle.  Oh that assumes
you keep the cap value the same.  If you use a larger cap value
(larger in proportion to the increased current), then the break
rate won't increase, but the bang size will increase, and there-
fore racing sparks are more likely.... if they happen to *want* to
appear at that power level, which they probably won't anyway.

If you keep the gap spacing the same which will clamp the
voltage, then you won't need to loosen the coupling.  If you
increase the gap spacing or the cap value, then you may need
to loosen the coupling to prevent racing sparks.  Then again,
it may be OK with a tighter coupling.  Hard to predict in advance.
But I just wanted to say that for a given coil, as the power is
increased, racing sparks are more likely to occur.  Yet the
racing sparks can often be eliminated again, simply by
reducing the coupling by raising the secondary coil position
relative to the primary coil.

John