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Re: Information Unlimited BTC30 coil ??
Original poster: Mddeming@xxxxxxx
Hi Shaun, Jay, et.al.
Some thoughts on the consequences of continued improvement.
1) Several decades ago, Isaac Asimov, in one of his robot stories,
posed the following question: How many organ transplants or
artificial replacements can you receive before you are no longer legally you?
2) At about the same time, a anecdote appeared in one of the
"humor" sections of Readers Digest: A tour guide at Mount Vernon was
showing a group around and pointed out George Washington's Original
Axe. When asked about its excellent condition, he explained "Well,
over the last two centuries it has had three new handles and two new heads."
3) In the early days of PCs, IBM stuck its toe into the market
with their "own" brand. IIRC, it was called PC-jr. It turned out that
the only parts designed and manufactured by IBM were the keyboard and
the IBM label. All the rest were off-the-shelf components from other
PC manufacturers.
At some point in the "improvement" cycle, your TC will cease to be a
BTC30 and will instead be a unique, home-made TC, perhaps in a BTC30
case. This is neither a good thing nor a bad one, but it's something
to be aware of.
Good Luck,
Matt D.
In a message dated 11/27/06 12:33:27 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
tesla@xxxxxxxxxx writes:
Original poster: Shaun Epp <scepp@xxxxxxx>
Jay,
I read over their design for the BTC30 and I ran it into a program
called WinTesla. You definitly make a diferent primary. make one
with about 10 turns of copper tubing, 3/16 inch refridgeration tubing
would be good, space them 3/16 up to 1/4 inch between each turn.
Your coil without a toriod output terminal should tune at 8 to 9
turns on the primary. If you connect a 2" by 8" toriod to the top of
the secondary coil, like the instruction recommend, you'll tune at
about 5 turns on the primary. You'll also get better sparks if you
use a toroid or some kind of topload as they are called.
If you mount your primary on a sheet of plastic with a hole in the
middle to go over top the secondary, you can raise (move it up) the
primary and increase coupling between the primary coil and the
secondary coil. The output sparks should get bigger and brighter as
you raise the primary. Do this 1/4 inch at a time (of course with
power off). You will reach a point where they sparks don't get more
powerfull and the sparks could jump down the side of the secondary
coil. If this happens lower it back down 1/4 inch to where it runs
ok. Each time you raise or lower the primary, you may need to adjust
the tuning of it.
If you can, get a bigger capacitor, this would give you more
power. 0.005 uF is small for you power transformer. 0.0082 uF is
the resonant value, this value could damage your
transformer. 0.013uf would be ideal and give maximum power.
Your spark gap might overhead and run funny after you've run the coil
for a few 10's of seconds. You could have a small fan, like a
computer fan blow on the spark gap. This will cool it and make the
coil run better. If you can, a two gap (2 spark gaps connected in
series) would make the coil run alot better. Also after running the
coil a few times, cleaning the gap with 600 grit sand paper helps
proformance alot.
Make sure that the wire that the secondary is wound with doesn't go
inside the secondary coil form (pvc tube) , I know that is what the
instructions show but this can cause problems, the sparks can jump
inside of the coil and it woun't run right and can permenantly damage the coil.
GROUND. It is very important that there is a good ground wherever
you plug this tesla coil into. Your coil performance will change
wherever you plug in depending on the ground and how far from the
electrical panel you are. Have someone check the plug receptical
where you plug in.
*Anyone on this list will recommend that you don't draw sparks to
your body! Use only a grounded rod that is insulated from you.* The
skin effect with high frequencies isn't a safe assumption with tesla
coils. There are low frequencies too. These things can hurt you.
That is all I can think of right now. I hope it helps! : - ))
Shaun Epp
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2006 2:47 PM
Subject: Re: Information Unlimited BTC30 coil
>Original poster: jhowson4@xxxxxxxxxxx
>We are building the BTC30 coil during physics class at school. I
>was wondering if there was any way to make it better. I also read
>some where that it had a run time of about 45 seconds is that true.
>i was going to re-make the primary coil on it so i could tap it at a
>lower turn which i can't do now because of the way it is made. I am
>not sure on how to go about calculating the inductance since it is a
>weird primary design.
>
>
>-------------- Original message --------------
>From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> > Original poster: Shaun Epp
> >
> > I built that coil about 15 years ago. It works but has some design
> > flaws to it. I didn't use any of there parts to build it either,
> > just locally obtainable parts.
> >
> > What would you like to know about it?
> >
> > BTW: If your looking for tesla coil plans, go to
> > http://hot-streamer.com/ There are many designs there that you
> can > follow.
> >
> > Shaun
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list"
> > To:
> > Sent: Monday, November 20, 2006 3:49 PM
> > Subject: Information Unlimited BTC30 coil
> >
> >
> > >Original poster: jhowson4@xxxxxxxxxxx
> > >
> > >Does any one have and info on the BTC30 coil made by Information
>Unlimited?
> > > < BR>> >Jay Howson
> > >
> > ><?xml:namespace prefix = mailto />jhowson4@xxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> >
> >