[TCML] Help with high school Tesla coil

["Arnold, Mike" <marnold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Our school has a solid state Tesla coil. I am attempting to get it into
working condition. It had a bad solder connection in the tuning remote
control. I have repaired the bad connection.
 
Now the coil will spark for 1 or 2 seconds and then it trips the 20amp
circuit breaker. The coil only works (albeit briefly) if the burst rate
is high and the timing is high. The power cable gets warm in those
couple of seconds. (Not to influence responses, but I'm not positive
that the timing is working. It seems like the sparks burst without pause
-- da-da-da-da-da -- until the circuit breaks. I can definitely slow th
e rate -- da----da----da-----da.  I can see the pot for the timing and
it looks like it might have some cold solder joints.)
 
When hooked up by itself, the low voltage transformer that powers the
control board does not blow the fuse.
 
A photo of the board can be seen at
http://collierhighschool.com/teslacoil/board.jpg and I can provide more
photos if it helps.
 
Any help would be appreciated.
 
Thanks,
 
Mike
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