Hello all,
It's been quite some time since I have worked on any coils or
other high voltage fun at all... I am thinking of building a VTTC,
however I have not ever made one before -- just normal spark gap coils...
I was given about a dozen 4-400 tubes that were taken out of
service as part of the routine maintenance of a local radio station's
AM transmitter. Basically they pull the tubes based on the number of
hours on them, not by their condition... Therefore, while some of the
tube's lifespan is used up, they may still work perfectly fine in a VTTC.
Has anyone here made a coil using 4-400's? Anyone have any words
of wisdom? I just hate to let these tubes sit here and collect dust
if I can put them to use in a tesla coil.
Thanks,
Brad
Brad, That tube is capable of excellent performance in a VTTC. I built a coil that used a similar 4-250A tube. It gave 18" sparks. I once obtained a used 4-400 tube but it was defective so it was not able to give longer sparks than the 4-250A tube. There are some photos somewhere on my website of the VTTC. Of course you can use multiple tubes in parallel for extra power and streamer length. Also the staccato controller can be used to give interesting effects to the coil and extra "efficiency". I sent some information about tube coils and a newer staccato schematic to Steve Ward and he may have some of the info at his website. A google search should bring it up. Meanwhile my site is at: http://hometown.aol.com/futuret.page3.html Cheers,John