Re: peak current when spark gap fires

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Vardan <vardan01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi,

There is a list of such formulas here:

http://hot-streamer.com/temp/FormulasForTeslaCoils.pdf

The formula you want is at the top of page 6.

However, you already figured it out almost correctly ;-)  The thing I 
would change is the actual voltage the gap fires at.  If your NST is 
rated at 12000V RMS then the peak voltage will be 12000 x SQRT(2) = 
16970 V.  So the primary peak current is probably 245 amps.

Cheers,

        Terry


At 09:23 PM 10/19/2006, you wrote:
> Hello. I am new to a lot of this, so I want to make sure I got this 
> correct. Did I do this right to find the peak current when the spark 
> gap fires? Assuming the only inductance in the calculation is the 
> primary coil....
>
> Surge impedance = sqrt(Lp / Cp)      my primary is around 48.029uH 
> according to calculations, and capacitor is 
> 0.01uF    so  sqrt(0.000048 / 0.00000001F) = 69.282     and then 
> current peak = Vp / Surge impedance  so  12000 / 69.282   = 173.205 
> amps?   This is most likely way wrong :P