Re: First light for my first coil today !

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

Original poster: Bart Anderson <classi6-at-classictesla-dot-com> 

Congrats Ian!

First light is always the best day (unless something melts down). I expect 
you'll see streamers twice the length once everything is all put together 
as you envision it and tweaked in.

Great job!
Bart

Tesla list wrote:

>Original poster: "Ian McLean" <ianmm-at-optusnet-dot-com.au>
>Hi all,
>
>First light for my first coil, whoa hoa !!!!
>
>Specs:
>
>6x32" secondary, 1163 turns of 0.63mm enamelled copper. Fres ~= 144kHz.
>11.5 turns 0.25" Cu pipe pancake primary. 0.5" spacing.
>15kV 120mA (2 x 15/60 NST's) Power Supply.  Protection gap and RC filter.
>MMC is 1 to 5 strings of 12 CDE 942C20P15K 0.15uF 2000V caps.  Adjustable
>for  12.5nF, 25nF, 37.5nF, 50nF, or 62.5nF.
>Coupling is adjustable, but currently set at: Primary level with first
>winding of secondary.
>
>Lash up:
>
>I had to lash together a few things that were not finished to get a first
>light, I just couldn't wait to do a test !
>
>No proper RF ground yet - I have the copper clad grounding rods, just have
>to pound them in 6 feet.  Just used an overhead metal beam in my workshop
>for RF ground for the first test.
>
>No proper toroid yet - I still have to get the ducting.  For now, using a 2
>1/2 inch diameter foam "noodle" (those swimming floaty things), that I found
>in my parents garage, rolled into a toroid about 20 inches in diameter,
>taped, and covered with aluminium foil - pretty dodgy I know.  Resting about
>3 inches above top of secondary form with a wooden plank.  Even dodgier, I
>know ;)
>
>No proper static gap yet (going to build a sucker once I get a vaccuum
>motor) - and I haven't tried (not game to) my tungsten SRSG yet.  For first
>light, I just slapped together a 5 segment 3 inch long copper pipe gap with
>two 12V muffin fans blowing on it, basically a very quick and nasty RQ gap.
>
>Did not tune the system either (no point really until I get the proper
>toroid and sucker gap together) - just used the JavaTC calculation of 8.5
>turns for an LTR cap of 37.5nF for a static gap.  I have 62.5nF at my
>disposal, but that is about LTR for the SRSG.
>
>Results:
>
>With all the dodginess above, I didn't expect much - BUT ...
>
>At first power, I got streamers from about 1/2 power input onwards, and I
>was getting 3 foot streamers at about 3/4 power input (i can hardly believe
>it, but it's true :-) !!!! ), to the nearest metal object - a table vice
>sitting on my workshop table, and to the hanging RF ground wire (as I said,
>tied to a beam overhead), and lots of 1 or so inch surface crackly streamers
>all over the toroid.  The streamers are not very thick yet, quite thin and
>wispy.  No arc overs, flash overs, corona, or racing sparks were noted (good
>thing).  I was surprised at the hits to the RF ground wire, as this is
>GTO-15 cable.  Oh well, I guess that insulation cannot even begin to hold
>off TC voltages !!  The gap is VERY loud and VERY bright - sounds like a
>machine gun on full-auto.  I turned the power up a bit further, which
>triggered the safety gap.  End of first light test.  Did one more quick
>power up to show my parents (I currently live with my parents, and they were
>curious after I came in with a smug look on my face saying "It's working,
>it's working!").  They were suitably impressed (mostly with the noise I
>think).
>
>Pretty pleased with that result :)  Once everything is properly completed
>and the system tuned, I am expecting pretty good things from this coil :)
>
>More testing tommorrow ;)
>
>Sorry for the long post everyone, I am just so excited about today's success
>:)
>
>Rgs
>Ian
>
>
>
>