Re: purpose of a variac?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Barton B. Anderson" <bartb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Gerry,

Ok, I can see that. With my rotating stationary drive, I was able to 
adjust pretty much anywhere along the half cycle in real time. I 
always adjusted for consistency as opposed to highest voltage (and 
never for longest sparks, just a nice steady running coil). I 
remember when I first started playing with the setup that I was 
rather amazed at the how far I could move the stationary's with 
consistent firing before noticeable drop out was occurring. Kind of 
hard to say in degrees how far that was. About 40 degrees I guess 
between erratic to erratic. Eh, that's an old memory guestimate. I'm 
not really to sure, but I do remember it's one of those things that 
caught me by surprise.

Take care,
Bart

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Gerry  Reynolds" <gerryreynolds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi Bart,
>
> I have, but then again, I operate right at the edge of dropout (too 
> far after peak).  I determined this point not by the "longest 
> sparks" but by using a scope and going for the highest firing 
> voltage.  If timing is delayed anymore from this point, the SRSG 
> stops firing and ferroresonce occurs.  This point of operation is 
> very sensitive to the variac output since it doesn't take much 
> shifting in the charging waveform to "dropout" when this close to the edge.
>
> Gerry R
>
>
> > Original poster: "Barton B. Anderson" <bartb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >
> > Possibly Gerry. The closer the alignment, the more phasing will be 
> > affected with voltage. I personally haven't found it as a needed 
> > adjustment between say 50% and 100%, but then, there are are a lot 
> > of variations of rsg's (disk size, electrode size, # of electrodes, 
> > speed, voltage, etc..). Some may find more of a phasing variation than others.
> >
> > Take care,
> > Bart