[TCML] RE: Pulse Capacitors

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

Hi Nicholas,

Quite all right, the term pulse cap IS rather vague.

It simply means that the capacitor is capable of being discharged (and charged) "rapidly", with minimal losses, as compared to other less demanding low frequency applications.  In a Tesla coil, the cap isn't just discharged, but forms a resonant circuit with the primary coil, so it discharges and charges (rapidly!) at that resonant frequency.  Exactly what constitutes a suitable capacitor for a Tesla coil is a complex topic that has been and will continue to be discussed on this forum for a long time.  The things important to us are the dielectric material (the insulator between the plates), which is usually polypropylene film, have a low dissipation factor so it doesn't get hot and waste energy, and the plate construction and connections, which must be heavy-duty to support huge peak currents.  

If a non-pulse cap were to be used in a Tesla coil, it would rapidly overheat, and depending on just how lossy it was, either not work at all, work poorly, or fail after a very short lifetime.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA

> -----Original Message-----
> From: tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
> Behalf Of Nicholas Goble
> Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 6:07 PM
> To: Tesla Coil Mailing List
> Subject: [TCML] Pulse Capacitors
> 
> Hi everyone.  I've heard some talk about using pulse capacitors in a tesla
> coil and am a little confused as to how they are used, what they do, and how
> they do it.  Sorry if that's a little vague, but can anyone give me an
> overview of what pulse capacitors are?
> 
> Nicholas Goble

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