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Re: Capacitor Help
Original poster: Terry Fritz <vardin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Hi,At 02:23 PM 12/19/2005, you wrote:
Well while I was waiting around wondering what to do I removed 2" from the
primary so I now have 18" of windings. It seemed to help some. However the
safety gap was going off like crazy (intermittently). We started running it
for 5 to 10 seconds at a time probably for a minute or two with a few
seconds break inbetween and boom a capacitor went.
If it is not in tune, all kind of wild and crazy things go on!!!
I think it may have just
arc'd out to the resister across it as they resister was totally annihilated
and all that was left was two terminals where the resister used to be. I
powered off the unit and touched the other caps and they were about room
temperature. I'm not even sure I'd call them luke warm.
Cool!!! Probably a "weak" resistor :D Just slap in a new resistor
and go on... I have not really heard of one failing like that
before. But the resistors have a very robust history, so I would
first think it was damaged or something. It is unlikely that the
caps themselves would have been damaged. If it happens again,
replace the cap and send the old one to me so I can see what was wrong!
Oh and this whole time we're only getting about 5 ~ 6" sparks and the tap is
on turn 14 and a half. If I move it in the sparks go away. Oh and another
point of interest is the safety gap makes a LOT more noise when it arcs than
the regular spark gap. Not sure if this is normal or just because I used
tiny thin bolts on brackets for the safety gap and 1/2" bolts for the
regular gap?
It sounds like you need more primary turns... I think you have run
out of room now for more turns, so consider this special fix :D
http://hot-streamer.com/temp/OffAxisPrimaryInductanceFixerUpperThing.JPG
Another interesting thing is when the safety gap fires we get stronger,
brighter sparks off the torid as though the regular spark gap is not doing a
very good job.
That is sort of worrysome... Extra double check the main gap!! the
two bolts are not known for being trouble free... Might consider a
bunch of pipe section like this:
http://hot-streamer.com/TeslaCoils/Misc/terrygap.jpg
There are many versions... But short sections of pipe in series do
seem much better.
Cheers,
Terry
Thanks
Malcolm in KC