[TCML] NST's and ARSG's

["Lau, Gary" <Gary.Lau@xxxxxx>]

Since this question is about neither wax nor Phillips (?), I changed the subject line...

I think that ARSG's may have been over-vilified.  I can see no mechanism where having a too-high break rate would be stressful to an NST.  High break rates in no way cause higher voltages, currents, or anything else that would damage an NST.

What I suspect is that some folks ran their ARSG's at too LOW a speed, or perhaps turned on the NST before spinning up the ARSG.  Having a speed control knob on the RSG invites one to vary it too low.  This would be the same as opening a static gap so wide that it never fires.  This would cause the cap voltage to ring up to self-destructive voltages on successive mains half cycles, rather than being discharged with normal gap firings.  Just ensure that the RSG is always running at at least 120BPS.  And, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS (cannot be overemphasized) use a properly set safety gap in parallel with an RSG - sync or otherwise.  They're cheap and easy to build and there is no excuse not to have one.  You do have one, right? ;-)

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Phillip Slawinski
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 11:56 PM
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List
Subject: Re: [TCML] phillips question about wax and more

While we're on the topic of NSTs, ASRGs are pretty bad for them right?
 It seems that my NST keeps shorting, and I think it's due to the
ASRG.

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