Re: Help with my rotary gap (and other tuning problems).....

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Jon Danniken" <danniken@xxxxxxxxxxx>

The values that John Freau lists on his webpage are the ones he used on his 
system; you will need to
empirically determine your own value for the capacitance based upon your 
own motor and variac.

When I built my Freau phase controller, I used a 5A Radio Shack variac and 
a 1/4HP modified (flatted
rotor) induction motor; in my case I ended up using 130 microfarads of 
capacitance which yielded a 10 volt
voltage swing at the motor and a nice range of phase adjustment.

My advice to you would be to measure the voltage at the motor, rotate the 
variac through it's range, and
note the maximum and minimum voltage at motor.  John recommends 5 volts, 
but this is just a safe guideline
to prevent the motor from burning out; I allowed 10 volts on mine.  If you 
have too low of a voltage
swing, add more capacitance, and repeat the test.

Jon

> Original poster: "Adam R." <arabraxas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> I am still not seeing any difference with the cap in parallel with the
> motor...I took it off and there was no real change it seemed. Could it be
> because I have the setup being adjusted BY the variac, not the motor
> (setup) in SERIES with the variac?
>
> Maybe my interpretation on how this thing operations is wrong?
>
> Again, thanks for the help.
>
>