Hello Tesla List,
I have been conversing with Bart Anderson about some quirks in the
ways my DF-DRSSTC works vs computer models. As an aside discussion I
was mentioning that my lead to the primary tap on my coil gets hot.
Bart was giving me some pointers on a primary tap connecter he made
which provides a good connection to the primary coil. (you can see
it in some of the photos on Bart's website).
I was mentioning that my primary connection wire got hot at the
point where the lead screws into the battery clip I was using for a
connector. It also heats in the first inch or so down from this
connection. When I was first trying to tune the coil, the lead got
hot enough to melt the insulation on the #12 wire after only a 10-20
sec run. After finally figuring out where this coil wanted to tune
(best tune point) the lead still gets pretty warm (hot to touch).
The thing I found interesting was that the primary coil leads feed
into a circuit board where they are fed by hook up wire (~#22). The
primary is about 5 turns of #6 solid copper. The thing that is
puzzling is that the #22 wires feeding the primary do not seem to
get too hot. Also the heat sinks on the IGBTs don't get uncomfortably hot.
My thinking is that the unit is acting like an induction heater, and
that some point along the primary lead is a node where current is
high. The hook up wire lengths are fairly short compared to the
primary tap lead.
Maybe some others on the list have seen this and can shed light on it.
Regards,
Jim Zimmerschied