Re: 1st Tesla Coil LIGHTED YAY!

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

Original poster: "Harold Weiss" <hweiss-at-new.rr-dot-com> 

Hi Ravi,

Great!  If you are getting corona like in Antonio's pictures on your
capacitors, that's where your streamer length is going.  The higher the
quality of your capacitor the longer the streamers will get.  It was the
same for my foil wrapped jugs.  When I glued the foil tightly to the glass,
it reduced the corona, and increased the streamer length.  Applying corona
dope helped cut the corona from the foil somewhat but it still would punch
thru.  It did look cool though in a mad scientist kind of way.

How big is your topload? (toroid or sphere)  It sounds as though you just
have a bolt thread up there and nothing attached.  A sphere needs to be the
same diameter as the coil or larger.  A toroid should have the inside
diameter as large as the coil or larger.  You will have to adjust your tap
setting for whatever topload you use.

You may also want to adjust your spark gap.  Disconnect the primary and
capacitor and then set the gap for the largest gap the transformer will
jump.  Reconnect the capacitor and primary and have a try.

Blow your capacitor at the science fair! (stagehand for good luck)

David E Weiss


 > Original poster: "Nightmare" <nightmare-at-bak.rr-dot-com>
 >
 > Hey, this is ravi, i grounded my secondary to foil sheets under the base
and
 > i get ~3in streamers from the top bolt and like 5 inchers to a grounded
rod.
 > Any suggestions on making em bigger? i have already tuned it.
 >
 > Ravi

 >  > As the capacitors charge and discharge rapidly at RF frequencies, some
 >  > corona unavoidably appears at the edges of the plates, as here:
 >  > http://www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/tesla/567c2.jpg
 >  > http://www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/tesla/mres6c2.jpg
 >  > The corona heats the plates, and thin PET plates melt. Even PVC (the
 >  > first cap above) melts.
 >  >
 >  > Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz