Re: MMC or Maxwell? Which is better?

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

Original poster: Mark Broker <mbroker-at-thegeekgroup-dot-org> 



>If I set out to collect flowers, I'd have a large collection as well. I'd
>bet a large number of the 50 aren't true RF duty rated caps, and would have
>failed because of improper use. I can take the best 12 vold light bulb, and
>it's going to fail if I plug it in an outlet.
>
>KEN

Ken, judging from previous posts you seem to dislike the MMC.  Would you 
care to elaborate on your views with some specifics?  Have you tried an 
MMC?  How did it compare to your $500 new commercial pulse cap?  What would 
you recommend a newbie and/or budget conscious coiler use?

Terry, I think you sold thousands of those caps because they were fairly 
small compared to the Geek Cap - about 30% the CV value.  I know I bought 
about 140 of them for a larger NST coil (that has never seen all 140 caps 
:( ).  The current chart says I'd need only 44! :o  (with a significantly 
higher voltage rating, too!)

Also, the chart on the website was really optimized for cost.  Basically I 
attempted to keep the voltage rating at or above the peak transformer 
voltage (except for a couple that are a few percent lower) and tweaked the 
values until the lowest cost was achieved.  Any apparent current overrating 
is surrendipitous by the nature of the capacitors. O:)

According to the website orders, we've had 100 orders for a total of 1906 
caps (452 of the .10s, 1454 of the .15s).  This doesn't include the caps 
Kalamazoo locals have purchased in person, which is probably another 100 or 
so, and there may be other orders that didn't go through the website that 
I'm not informed about.  I'll see if I can get the full information from 
the person in charge of the orders and shipping - at the very least now I'm 
curious :)

With respect to the question at hand: which is better, I must mirror Dan M, 
Matt D, Terry, and Dr R's comments.  There is no question that an 
appropriate commercial pulse cap has higher current ratings than an MMC, 
but an MMC will cost significantly less in most circumstances and deliver a 
similar performance to a commercial cap.

Personally, I will probably always use an MMC, even if I "graduate" to big 
pig power in the distant future; The Geek Group will probably always use an 
MMC for its Tesla Coils, too.  But I guess my views are a little skewed :)


Cheers!

Mark Broker
Chief Engineer, The Geek Group