RE: how much does current matter?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Qndre Qndre" <qndre_encrypt@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Hey Ben,

more current will cause the capacitor in your tank circuit to be 
charged more quickly resulting in more "bangs per second" with a 
static gap system or resulting in higher "bang energy" ("joules per 
bang") in a rotary system. If you put more current into your system 
your streamers will become thicker and hotter .. and if you have a 
static gap they will also get longer since the higher "firing rate" 
(remember, the cap is charged more quickly with higher input current) 
will cause more remaining ions from the precending firing to be in 
the air so your streamer will "break through the air" section by 
section and get longer with every time the spark gap fires and 
"pushes" energy into your secondary and therefore into the air until 
the ionized path through the air gets interrupted. It is more likely 
to be interrupted with lower firing rates in the gap since the air 
has more time to "deionize" while high firing rates will cause a more 
continuous current to flow through the air, keeping it hot and ionized.

Current is very important for good performance, even more important 
than voltage. But remember that it's voltage which actually causes 
the air to break down so with higher voltages the distance through 
the air which is "broke down" by your streamer during one firing gets 
higher with increasing voltage.

Quenching is also very important for good performance since your 
capacitor only has the opportunity to charge when the spark gap is 
not conducting. With higher current from your NST supply, the arc in 
the spark gap will be more difficult to quench.

Regards, Q.

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: how much does current matter?
Date: Sat, 04 Mar 2006 14:09:45 -0700


Original poster: ben eells <squeels2171@xxxxxxxxx>

In my attempt to build a more powerful tesla coil I have come across 
this question. How much will the output current of your NST affect 
the length of your streamers. I'm using the program Tesla map to help 
design this coil and it calculates the max streamer length by the 
output wattage of the NST. Unless I'm mistaken output wattage can 
never be higher than input wattage. If this program is correct, and 
I'm sure it's not, I wouldn't need a transformer at all. So what is a 
better way to determine max streamer length given the output voltage 
and current of a NST?