Re: [TCML] triggered gap (for musical coils)

["Carl Noggle" <cn@xxxxx>]

You're right.  I don’t have a heating problem on my gap, but with higher 
power and higher rep rate that could certainly be a problem.  You could put 
a heat sink on each of the electrodes and blow it if necessary, and the 
triggering plane could be extended into a larger disc.  The air rushing out 
(or in) through the electrode tubes would probably afford some substantial 
cooling.

The Maxwell gaps are sort of designed for 30 kV or so at atmo, so you would 
have to set the electrode spacing for the voltage of the supply.

I have run a gap like this up to 1 kHz rep rate at 30 kV and about 10 kW in 
flowing oil, so air would probably work.

In any case it would be fun to try.

---Carl





-----Original Message----- 
From: Jim Lux
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2012 2:06 PM
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List
Subject: [TCML] triggered gap (for musical coils)

Carl wrote:

All this is to say that such a gap would probably make a good triggered
gap for a musical TC with the addition of a triggering plane.  A
standard Maxwell triggered gap would work well too, blowing the air in
one side, through the hole in the trigger plane, and out the other side.
   You would have to make some mechanism for adjusting the electrode
spacing from the triggering plane, such as screw threads.

One of these Maxwell gaps can be seen on the Tesla Coil Builders of Fort
Worth site,

    http://www.capturedlightning.org/hot-streamer/ross/TCBFW/TCBFW.htm

---

that's what's called a midplane knife edge triggered gap..  the problem
with that one is that it probably can't do a high rep rate, because
there's not much of a cooling path.  Normally, you run those at higher
than atmospheric pressure, sometimes in SF6.  It's a very low inductance
design intended for use in a Marx bank, and by running it at high
pressure, the resistance of the spark is reduced (it's physically shorter).


I've done a triggered gap with a point electrode in the center of a
hollow end electrode (similar in design to a Marx blast gap).  The
cooling air blows along side the electrode so it keeps it cool.  I used
an auto ignition coil to fire it, so there was plenty of voltage margin.

http://home.earthlink.net/~jimlux/hv/blastgap.htm

I used two copper pipe caps as the electrodes and pressurized the inside
of them so the flow was radial out, as opposed to radial in.

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

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