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RE: 1st Tesla Coil WONT LIGHT HELP PLEASE!
Original poster: "Randy & Lori" <rburney6-at-comcast-dot-net>
Ravi; I have been watching the advice you have been getting, and while
some of it is very good, there has been some guessing without taking
into account that you haven't got much troubleshooting experience. I
didn't try the bottle caps in the beginning, and I don't have a clue
what value they are worth. If your parents are supportive of this
project, you could really use a multi-meter that measures capacitance.
I found one at Sears for $29. I am concerned that your capacitance is
on the small side, and a meter will let you know real quick. (MAKE SURE
your caps are discharged before metering!!). Once you know what your
capacitance is; plug that value into the program that you used to design
the coil and get a rough tap point (you may need more capacitance). Now
that your SG is popping, this may be your last step to getting this
thing going. Since you still have a week to go you might consider
finding a higher voltage transformer (way much easier to set up your
spark gap). Go to the Neon sign businesses in your area and ask for any
dead ones they are willing to get rid of. Check the ohmic value of both
HV terminals to ground and check the LV terminals against each other.
As long as you get some kind of value on these three readings your
transformer may be salvageable. One last check to make is from a LV
terminal to ground; here you do not want any reading! Pull the top off
of the transformer and heat that baby up. I have an electric smoker
that works real well, but it does get messy. When the Tar is soft
enough, stir the stuff around. If you hit one of the HV wires while
stirring, you can break it REAL EASY. The actual coil wires are as thin
as a hair, and with the tape that is holding the bigger wires to the
coil being hot, you could break a wire and not even know it. I saved
two out of three this way; and they were FREE!!! There is one other
reason transformers don't work. Some of them have a built in "Circuit
Breaker" that has gone bad. If it has a label that reads something like
"...unplug for 1 second..." then the problem may be that this circuitry
has to go. This almost requires an unpotting, and you will have to do a
bit more than just stir some tar around, but chances are there is
nothing wrong with the transformer at all. Good Luck
Randy
-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 10:03 AM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: 1st Tesla Coil WONT LIGHT HELP PLEASE!
Original poster: "Nightmare" <nightmare-at-bak.rr-dot-com>
Hi, this is ravi, i just made my first TC and it wont light, i wired
everything up right but it still wont light! It was grounded and
everything. I plug it in and nothing happens. I tested the transformer
by
plugging it in and the terminals arc to each other like a jacobs ladder
and
it works, but nothing happens when i plug it in! All i hear is the
humming
of the transformer Please help. I ve experimented and done all i can .
I
need this done by next Friday for science fair so please help. The spark
gap doesnt fire either, ive tried 2 different transformers and the same
thing. Please email me off group for picctures since it doesnt support
attatchments. Here are my coil specs:
Secondary: 22inx3in 18in windings
Primary: ~7-8 turns of 1/4in copper tubing with various adjusted taps
with
clip.
Caps: 4 soda bottles covered in foil wrapped in elec. tape. filled with
salt water. all connected with ring terminals
Spark gap: 2 1.25in dia copper pipes 3.25in long
Transformer: 1st is 7.5kV 30mA 60Hz 2nd one i tried is 4.0-4.5kV 30mA
50/60Hz
Toroid, 3in air cond duct with 2 pie plates like this >--< in center to
hold in place 9 in inner dia 15 in outer dia.
Everything is conected with ring terminals and 600V hardware wire, and
gator clips for primary.
I used the schematics on deepfriedneon-dot-com exept with diff. gap and
bottle
caps instead of MMC's. Please help me I've done all i can. Again, if you
need pics please email me seperately and i will send them. Thank A
LOT!!!!
A desperate 8th Grader,
Ravi
Thanks A LOT for the help. Thanks A LOT again
Ravi