Re: [TCML] Primary Coil Simulator for Safe Primary Circuit Experimentation

[Gary Lau <glau1024@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Phillip,

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

I think a thermocouple would be better suited than an optical sensor,
because when using a static gap, there are surprisingly low frequency
variations in power.  This is evident if you've ever viewed the mains
current on an analog meter movement.  I think thermal equilibrium would be
achieved in a few tens of seconds, and this would smooth out the variations
due to the static gap chaos.

I worry about the accuracy of monitoring the input power.  When pushing 140V
into the NST, I'd be concerned with core saturation giving misleading
results.  Does a Kill-a-watt meter not register saturation?  Doesn't matter
though - I have a thermocouple meter and I don't have a Kill-a-watt meter!
With the bulbs, all the power going to the bulb is real processed power.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA



On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 9:08 PM, Phillip Slawinski <pslawinski@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 18:40, Gary Lau <glau1024@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >
> > However, if you replace the primary with the dummy load, one can quickly
> > change the cap size and nothing else, and gauge the amount of power
> > processed by the brightness of the lamps.  For a more quantitative
> result,
> > you can mount a thermocouple on the lamp and see with what capacitor size
> > causes the lamps to get the hottest.  I believe that this would give a
> very
> > accurate determination of the optimum capacitor size.  I'll have to
> > resurrect my coil and try this!
> >
>
> Gary,
>
> I think a photo sensor of some type would be better suited to this.  The
> thermocouple would work, but it will not be able to react to changes very
> quickly, like adjusting the voltage on the variac.
>
> This makes me think, do we even care about what the bulbs are doing? Why
> not
> just measure the actual power coming from the wall? The power coming from
> the wall is proportional to the power going out of the NST.  Any increase
> on
> the output side will show up on the input side.  The Kill-a-watt would be
> perfect for this task, and provides those quantitative measurements you
> seek.
>
> -Phillip Slawinski
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