Re: [TCML] Grounding

["McCauley, Daniel H" <daniel.h.mccauley@xxxxxxxx>]

Actually,

The thickness depends on the length of the conductor.  Ground currents can be fairly high.  I've measured up to 7A peak in some of my mini DRSSTCs.  Which means, if your ground connection turns out to be 100 ohms impedance, you could be dropping 700V across the ground.

If its short, then I agree, no need to make thicker.

However, if it's a long run, and this is what I most commonly see, you need to have a pretty beefy conductor or braided ground strap to minimize the impedance.

Dan
http://www.easternvoltageresearch.com
COMING SOON! - VTTC Stacatto Controller - Back by Popular Demand!



-----Original Message-----
From: tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Teslalabor
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2010 3:10 AM
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List
Subject: EXTERNAL: Re: [TCML] Grounding

Hello,
I also think there is no reason for making the ground connection much 
thicker than the secondary wire itself, because the same current which flows 
through the grounding wire, goes through the last few bottom turns of the 
secondary. So why make the grounding wire very thick. Of course it should be 
as short as possible.

Stefan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Lau" <glau1024@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2010 4:32 AM
Subject: Re: [TCML] Grounding


>I agree with Dave - the length of the ground wire should be minimized.  But
> I can see no reason to choose such a heavy conductor as #2 to #6 AWG.  The
> ground currents are not at all high.
>
> Regards, Gary Lau
> MA, USA
>
> On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 5:35 PM, DC Cox <resonance@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> #2 to #6 AWG for otom of sec ground.
>>
>> Dr Resonance
>>
>> .
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 23, 2010 at 10:08 PM, dave pierson <dave_p@xxxxxxxxxxx> 
>> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> > > ... Is it possible to ground my 12/60 tesla coil using a body of
>> > > water such as a quarry?  I was thinking about using both leads
>> > > on a long extension cord
>> >   What wire gauge?
>> >   How long?
>> >   (The shorter the better...)
>> >
>> > > which would be attached to a copper pipe which then could be placed
>> > > in the water.  The other end would go to my ground for my coil.
>> >   I've never tried something like that, but seems it should work.
>> >
>> > > My reason is that I would like to shoe my coil to
>> > > my dive club and I don't want to go pounding in ground rods, and 
>> > > there
>> > > are no other pipes or drain pipes to hook to.
>> >   I'd keep the divers out of the water...
>> >   8)>>
>> >   dwp
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Tesla mailing list
>> > Tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
>> > http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
>> >
>> _______________________________________________
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