[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [TCML] Sudden and unexplained destructive racing spark flashovers

Hi Adam,

I must admit that I am not as diligent as I should be about
wiping down the secondary (really should wipe down both
secondary and primary coil surfaces) and this too could have
been a contributing factor. Hopwever, I had already been
running it on and off for probably 30 minutes before this oc-
curred, so that would also seem to pale as a GOOD expla-
nation for what happened to me. Of course, the weakened
dielectric standoff may have been just on the brink of break
down when finally, the "straw broke the camel's back". ;^0
Pre-wiping down of the secondary IS something that I AM
going to concentrate on making a regular "setup" procedure
before firing my coil in the future, though.

Thanks for the input,
David Rieben
----- Original Message ----- From: "Yurtle Turtle" <yurtle_t@xxxxxxxxx> 
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 10:10 AM
Subject: Re: [TCML] Sudden and unexplained destructive racing spark flashovers
Do you wipe your secondary down before using it? Mine gets quite dusty in the garage, and it even manages to get bird poop on it from wrens looking for a place to nest.
As to the humidity, I guess that's a possibility, but we have 25 kV switchgear at work operating just fine in the humidity with no problem. The gear has space heaters, to keep the temperature above the dew point in the winter. If your at 90 degrees, I don't think you are in danger of being in a condensing environment. 

--- On Sat, 6/27/09, David Rieben <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


From: David Rieben <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [TCML] Sudden and unexplained destructive racing spark flashovers 
To: "tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Saturday, June 27, 2009, 5:36 PM
Hi all,

Well, Phillip Slawinski and Cameron Prince (and Cameron's
son,
Brandon) made the 3 hour drive from northern Alabama to
Mem-
phis yesterday for some sparks and ozone. As is often the
case
this time of the year in this part of the country, the
outside temps
were absolutely sweltering (upper 90's w/ high humidity)
but we
still had a great time. Phillip also over and illustrated
his newly
completed DRSSTC unit and was slinging 32"+ sparks all over

the floor of my garage from its 3"x ~15" secondary, topped
with
a 4 x 13 spun toroid. We finally got around to firing off
the Green
Monster that evening while Cameron and Phillip both got a
lot of still shot and video footage of the show. Once
again, my
18 kV distribution arrester (aka safety gap) finally gave
up the
ghost, so we had to bypass it to get the sparks going
again. Fi-
nally, we were powering it up and down for Phillip to get
more video
footage when all of the sudden and without warning, the
secondary
flashed over to the primary with farily destructive results
before I
could kill the power. :^<

Quetsion: Can anyone offer a plausible explanation for why
an
otherwise perfectly tuned and running SG coil, that we
verified
was quenching on the second notch consistantly and first
notch
with ground stiking power arcs, will all of the sudden
destructively
flash over with secondary/primary racing sparks? I
witnessed DC's
Big Bruiser do exactly the same thing at the 2007
Cheesehead
Teslathon and it seems till this day, no one has been able
to offer
a plausible explanation for why this happens. I seem to
recall DC
citing something about the high humidity causing it but the
thing
is, no one else's coil there suffered this same fate
operating in
the same ambient atmosphereic conditions as the BB,
(including
my Green Monster, at the time) . I sure would like to
figure out
what's causing these anomylous flashovers so I can take the

proper future steps to prevent this from re-occuring. ;^/
Anyone?

BTW, I believe I can probably salvage my current secondary

coil for future re-use, as I only ended up losing about the
bot-
tom most 10 secondary windings from a 1250 turn total and
it looks like I have successfully sanded out most of the
damaged
poly coating, but I sure would like to figure out how to
prevent this
from re-occuring in the future. ;^*

David Rieben
_______________________________________________
Tesla mailing list
Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla





_______________________________________________
Tesla mailing list
Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla 

_______________________________________________
Tesla mailing list
Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla