Re: Terry's DRSSTC - Class Of Operation?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: <steve.conner@xxxxxxxxxxx>

>The days of "fully electronic" Tesla coils
>being controlled by 50MHz micro-processors
>is almost upon us!!

>Oh yes, you can add a "Dial-A-Mile" pot too,
>for distance control.

Lol! I suppose I'm not alone then in thinking that
Terry has just gone too far with computer control. As
far as we know the best performance for DRSSTCs (in
terms of spark inches out per watt in) is had by just
using 50-120 bursts per second, each burst being
100-300 microseconds long. In other words- not unlike a
sparkgap coil with a 120bps sync rotary.

You can do that with a 555 timer and two pots. Mind you
it would be cool if Terry discovered some digital pulse
sequence that made the sparks grow even better :)

However I don't want to sound too jaded about computer
control. I have just been working (with Finn Hammer) on
a special SSTC interrupter that gives an output that
looks and sounds like a lightning strike. It uses a PIC
micro to generate a fancy sequence of bursts that we
figured out by trial and error. We couldn't have done
that with a couple of 555 timers :-p

Steve
Conner