Re: PIRANHA-III Power control? (fwd)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Gerry Reynolds <greynolds@xxxxxxxxxx>



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2006 11:54:48 -0700
From: Terrell Fritz <terrellfone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: PIRANHA-III  Power control? (fwd)

Hi Peter,

At 08:00 AM 12/17/2006, you wrote:

>You are concerned to avoid the near saturation wastefulness of the MOT's
>driven at mains voltage.  A dimmer switching at 90%  will be well past the
>peak of the half wave and hence past the point of near saturation I suspect
>but with the current being 90 degrees slow I am not sure what will happen.
>Switching a transformer on at zero crossing gives the biggest current surge
>(rather than at peak).  I'm sure the dimmer people have it all worked out
>but I'm not sure it will neccessarily work as expected to improve
>efficiency.
>
>Peter

The higher voltage will probably charge the PIRANHA sooner so that the 
"full" power setting is not needed.  The only real concern is to keep the 
current lower than 20 amps so the line circuit breaker does not 
trip.  Saturation of the MOTs does not "hurt" anything.  The triac thing 
might actually be better in controlling break rate which is "wild" now with 
a varaic.

It should always be "efficient" since there is not much in there to 
generate waisted heat.  SISG coil's are really screwed up as far as Freau 
numbers go since the Freau number varies wildly depending and the power 
setting.  They can make shorter streamers with very high Freau numbers or 
make longer streamers with sometimes very poor numbers.  But as long as 
they make "long" streamers, no one cares.

It is interesting to note that PIRANHA-III can produce about 750kV on the 
top load but streamer loading brings that down to about 400kV.  There is a 
lot of voltage and power (2.4kW) there without any "other" place to go but 
the streamers.  If something "goes wrong", it should be 
"spectacular"  8o)))  The electronics is actually very tough and reliable, 
but I am starting to worry about the "Tesla coil" itself just arcing and 
burning up...  Not sure, but I am sort of expecting some odd problems with 
so much power being "so easy to play with"...

Cheers,

         Terry