Re: Another 942 run

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

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

In a message dated 3/8/04 8:01:59 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:


>Hello,
>
>I replaced the cap that blew yesterday, and reset all of my safety
>gaps.  7/32 on the NST and 1/4 on the SRSG.  I think that I will set the
>RSG a little tighter than the NST gap, because if the RSG gap doesn't fire,
>the NST gap will, popping the 20 amp breaker!  (Why?  Time to hook up my
>Corcom?  Or is it because I don't have a dedicated RF ground?)  This is
>with 300uf of PFC caps.  I did a quick alligator clip lash of of John's
>phase controller, and with the 1/20 hp Teletype motor, about 50uf seems the
>best.  The voltage rise is about five volts above line voltage, or
>125.  Not sure if this matters.  75uf doesn't seem to make much more of a
>difference than 50, except I get a lot more of a growl out of the
>motor.  As I thought, the RSG phasing was pretty close before, but there is
>a subtle difference in output.  Zero inductance to about 25% variac travel
>seems to be the sweetest spot, anything more and the safety gaps fire like
>crazy.  Primary is still getting warm, but not hot like it did with the
>last bad cap.  The dog is going ape with this thing running, so I did have
>to keep runs short.  Caps are getting slightly warm.  Re-checked RSG
>spacing, and the 5/32 tungstens are starting to erode.  Is this normal for
>such a short run time?  This is my first foray into SRSGs, so I don't
>know.  This weekend or later this week, I plan on running for an extended
>period of time to check for tank heating and more caps popping.  I have
>found one cap with the "sand size piece" under the first layer, per David
>Weiss.  Will see if that one goes first.  One more thing:  Anyone running
>their coils in a basement have some stray streamers up and hit the house
>wiring?  It's not a good thing, but sometimes hard to avoid in close
>quarters.  All of the incandescent bulbs in the room, maybe six or seven,
>light up when a streamer hit the 12-2 light wiring.  Each bulb had the
>equivalent intensity of about a 25 watt unit.  Pretty neat, albeit rather
>unsafe.  Obvious the toroid is too small, as I can get 46-50 inchers and
>still have multiple streamers coming off of other areas of the toroid.
>
>Thanks to all who are helping me.
>
>John Richardson


John,

When I used to run my six inch coil in the basement with a 15 kv 120 ma 
power supply, arcs would connect to everything overhead (unfinished 
basement).  I finally removed the overhead house wiring because I was 
worried about remotely damaging say the tv, stereo or computer.  I would 
still get strikes to an overhead copper cold water pipe that would start 
the dishwasher in the kitchen.  Then I added some bare copper wire on the 
ceiling, connected to my RF ground, and that helped a lot.

Ed Sonderman