RE: TC Spark Energy

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

Original poster: "Steve Conner" <steve.conner-at-optosci-dot-com> 

 >I guess the main reason is bangs_per_seconds rate. For Thor, keeping the
 >same bang energy even at 300 BPS is not a problem.

I don't think it's that. My OLTC II can crank out 7 joule bangs at anything
up to 550 bps, it's limited only by the risk of melting the capacitor bank
with too much RMS current. Note to self: Next time use more, smaller tank
caps in parallel, with forced air cooling :(

What I think it _might_ be...

Hypothesis 1. OLTC has lower resonant frequency than a classic coil. Low
frequency output is worse for streamer growth, because displacement current
in streamer channels is less. (Streamers are a capacitive load, the current
drawn increases with frequency.) The operation of Jimmy H's DRSSTC tends to
disprove this, legend has it that it produces 65 to 75" with less than 1.5kW
of power, and the same 66kHz resonant frequency as my coil.

Hypothesis 2. OLTC has lower output voltage for a given energy than a
classic coil. (Lots of self capacitance due to fat secondary and big
topload.) Low output voltage hurts streamer propagation. Jimmy H's
experiments reinforce this, he uses a smaller secondary and somewhat higher
bang energy than my setup (9-10 Joules?) hence more voltage. The OLTC II
puts out something like 500 to 600kV (estimated)

What is Thor's output voltage and resonant frequency?

Steve C.