Jonathon's 6" Coil (fwd)

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Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:11:05 -0400
From: Jonathon Reinhart <jonathon.reinhart@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Jonathon's 6" Coil

Hello everyone.  I read the post about people maybe not giving updates on
their projects, etc. so I thought I'd give a little feedback.

Some of you have heard about, and some of you helped (thanks!) get my coil
started a few years back, and a little bit of help lately with my RSG.
Almost a year ago, before I went to school I built with the help of my dad,
a pretty decent SRSG.   A week or two ago, I got it hooked up, after
doubling my tank cap from 17nf  to 34uf.

At first, my results were quite disappointing.  I was getting plenty of
bright sparks at the SRSG, but absolutely no output from the coil, which I
had tuned to its previous (Segmented SSG) sweet spot.   I played and played
with the rotation of the motor, but got nothing.  I was starting to get
worried, concerned that I had possibly blown one of my caps due to the SRSG
being out-of-phase.

Getting frustrated and ready to go inside for the night, I grabbed my
primary tap and threw it on about 1/2 way in.  Keep in mind this primary is
only about 10-11 turns anyway.  Turned off the lights, and threw the switch
for my coil.  Hey!  About 4 inches of breakout.  So I knew it was just a
matter of fiddling with it.  After playing and playing with the SRSG and the
primary coil, I had set a new personal record for streamer length of 46" to
a (poorly) grounded point.  This only beat my previous record of 44 by two
inches, but hey it's progress.

Points for improvement have been noted, however.  When adjusting the SRSG, I
keep getting longer and longer streamers, but then the safety gaps start
firing.  I believe I have them set too conservatively far in.  I think I
will open them up some.  Also, my topload is 4" aluminum dryer duct around
standard-sized pie pans.  I have some 6" aluminum flexible duct work (HVAC
style) that is more ridgid, and longer, so I can stretch it out around a
larger  pizza-sized pie pan.

Glad to be playing with ~0.75MV again :-)

Jonathon