RE: outdoor coils

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Hooper, Christopher AZ" <christopher.az.hooper@xxxxxxxxx>

Good input, dry air could be the secret, as least for DRSSTC's. When I
went to the Cheesehead Thon this summer, I stayed in KOA's on the way
and demo my DRSSTC's in the campgrounds and also at the family reunion
in Minnesota. I left Arizona at 116 F. at 5% humidity and tested the
large DRSSTC (pic of spark before I left in AZ @
http://users.cableaz.com/~chooper/images/5spunker.jpg .) with no flash
overs at any bit rate, clean running and purred like a kitten. As I
traveled back east, the humidity rose in each state and more flash over
on the DRSSTC as the temp lowered and the humidity went up. The time I
got to Minnesota at 80 degrees and 90% humidity, I could not run the
coil at low bit rate due to high Flash over (uggggggg, I hate that). So
keeping the coil dry I believe is the secret. I test silicon at work
(Intel) at -60 C and we have issues when the chips come out of the
handler, the ICE would form on the device due to the extreme temp
variances from outside air and cause leakage failures on the pins.
However if we bring up temp. slow on the chip, no leakage failures (1
ua)! Grandly temperature changes and low humidity in the winter should
allow fun times with big sparks indeed!

Sure would be nice to see a coil running in the snow, great Xmas card!
rgs,
christopher

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2005 11:03 AM
To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: outdoor coils

Original poster: "David Rieben" <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hey fellows,

Don't be afraid to pull out your coil and fire it in extreme cold.
Actually, to my understanding, Tesla coils actually prefer the drier
colder conditions as opposed to the warmer, more humid conditions
for making sparks anyway. Obviously, you would
NOT want to fire one off outdoors unprotected
during a rainstorm but the ambient temperature isn't that big of an
issue IMHO. And Christopher Hooper
has made it clear that coils don't MIND firing
in the extreme heat environment of a southern
Arizona summer, either. I think the main concern
with the extreme temperatures is the coefficient
expansion/contraction caused by large swings
in ambient temperatures, possibly causing the windings
of the secondary to slip off and fall down during
very low temperatures. It has been my experience
that mulitple layers of Minwax Marine Spar Var-
nish will protect the secondary from this fate without
chipping or cracking itself. Glyptal is a bit more expensive
but will probably do it in one or two coats. I reside in the Memphis,
TN area where we virtually never get sub-zero
cold but never-the-less do get considerable sub-freezing
temps during the middle of winter and PLENTY of
the "3 H's" - hazy, hot, humid - during the summer
months (90's virually every day with mid-70's dew
points -- in other words, miserable heat & humidity)
and I've never had any problems with my coils due to
the seasonal temperature changes here from storing
them in the un-climate controlled environment of my
garage.

My $.02 worth,
David Rieben

----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2005 12:37 PM
Subject: Re: outdoor coils


>Original poster: "Langer Giv'r" <transworldsnowboarding19@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>hi, I live in saskatchewan, Canada, and temperatures at least 6
>months of the year are -10 or lower.  Ive been working on my coil
>for about 7 months and still havent finished, but its the peak of
>winter and im jsut about done.  Does this mean i have to keep my
>coil inside for the rest of the winter without even a test?  that
>would not be very good haha.  oh well. Thanks
>Original poster: CTCDW@xxxxxxx

>I agree about keeping the secondary inside... Thats an easily
>installed item when I want to use it. My real problem is the heave
>stuff, like the caps, control panel, etc. Thanks to all who have
>responded, by the way. most helpful. Anyone have any info on caps
>and what kind of abuse they can take (like freezing temps....) I'm
>most concerned about the harware of the coil being in an unheated
>enclosure all winter , and in the summer, rain, sleet, hail, etc.
>anyone have experience ith any of this?

>Chris