Re: Size DOES matter? Watts Limit, Polypancake coil

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Peter Terren" <pterren@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

I like the concept of a 'Watts Limit' of 3.  I have not seen photo proof of 
longer although people have talked about up to 3.5 or so with overdriven 
coils at the limit of racing arcs. I don't know where the 5 came from and 
suspect urban legend or a lack of understanding of what a magnifier is and 
only counting the tertiary coil.  Whether this is a true electric field 
limit or is simply related to insulation factors vs total voltage is unclear.
My TC reaches 3.0 which I attribute to a very high break rate of 1400BPS 
and oversized double toroids. (That pic is now number one on Google images 
search of  'Tesla coil').
What I am in the process of making is a polypancake coil under oil which 
will have much better insulation than a standard TC. This may allow the use 
of greater power input relatively and a serious testing of the 'Watts limit'.

Peter (Tesla Downunder)
http://tesladownunder.com




> Original poster: Steve Conner <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >looks like that "brick wall" from the old days of
> > untuned-primary SSTCs has returned, except now the sparks are much
> > longer than before :-).
> ........
> Well if what we are saying is true, the brick wall is a limit that any 
> coil design will run into and the only way round it is to make the 
> resonator and toroid bigger. I remember Malcolm Watts talking about it in 
> the past so maybe we should call 3x your secondary length the "Watts 
> Limit" or something ;) John Freau's famous research coils that set the 
> efficiency benchmark had a "Watts Number" (=spark length/secondary length) 
> of about 2.2.
> .......
> Conner, Steve