Re: [TCML] racing arcs

[Daniel Hess <dhess1@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Phil;

Never experienced racing arcs? You're obviously not trying hard enough! 
;-)

There are two ways I can 'make' my 6" x 24" secondary produce racing arcs 
although it's not something I'm eager to do deliberately as they can be a 
fast-path to send your coil into the afterlife.

The first was when I was attempting to set coupling at what Malcolm Watts 
called the magic K values of .22. (Magic K values are where the coupling 
is specifically set to transfer energy from the primary to the secondary 
coil in whole, complete cycles, maximizing efficiency.) Greg Legh once 
posed a simple method to measure K with what he called the suicide cord 
method. I had already achieved .18 K this way and the time and trouble was 
worth it considering the performance improvement I gained. But when I 
tried to couple at .22 I got racing sparks out the wazoo! I've since 
learned that coupling this tight is nearly impossible to achieve with a 
classic two coil setup.

The second way occurred when I graduated from a RSG to a SRSG. My SRSG 
could be advanced/retarded, on the fly, with a stepper motor lead screw 
arrangement. As I advanced the SRSG, the sparks grew & increased until I 
reached a point where I developed racing sparks. Back off a couple of 
degrees and everything was fine. One of the list gurus explained to me 
that by changing the point on the sine wave where the RSG fires also 
changes the inductance of my NST secondary thus changing the tune of the 
entire system. This aspect of using SRSG came as a complete surprise to 
me. For those on the list more knowledgeable on this, please feel free to 
amplify on the subject.

Daniel Hess



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03/07/2008 01:37 PM
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Re: [TCML] racing arcs






Folks-
 
    On this note, I've never experienced racing arcs.  Does anybody have 
some 
pics, or even better, a video?
 
-Phil LaBudde
Center for the Advanced Study of Ballistic  Improbabilities
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