Re: noob question

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Harold Weiss" <hweiss@xxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Ben,

I started out with the same set of plans and had the same 
problems.  Try rewiring with the gap in parallel with the NST and the 
cap in series with the primary.  On every coil I built with the cap 
in parallel with the NST, I had that problem.

David E Weiss

----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 1:38 PM
Subject: noob question


> Original poster: ben eells <squeels2171@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> I've been looking for quite a while to find an answer to this 
> question and haven't had any luck. Please don't flame me too bad. 
> I've built my first coil based on the schematic for the 12" spark 
> coil from information unlimited. I can run my coil for maybe 20 
> seconds or so (depending on the width of my gap) but eventually the 
> spark gap stops firing and the coil stops working and won't start 
> again until I turn it off and back on again. I've tried shortening 
> the spark gap but the problem will persist and the more I try to run 
> the coil the sooner the gap stops firing. Can anyone explain to me 
> why this happens and what can be done to keep the coil running while 
> the power is on. The only explaination I have been able to come up 
> with by myself is that my capacitor is slowly dieing (I've had to 
> replace the capacitor once already) and the longer I run it it can't 
> produce the breakdown voltage.