Re: [TCML] At a loss. No light on second coil (Update)

[Andrew Webster <andrew600rr@xxxxxxxxx>]

All,

I cannot thank you enough for you time helping me out with this. I
took all of the advice that I received and went to work. I pulled it
all down, checked it piece by piece. The big task at hand was my power
supply. I pulled the entire thing back out of the oil and set it up on
the workbench, hooked up one of my spare mots backwards to get a nice
6.3v input and started testing my phasing and wiring. Once I had that
complete I dropped them back in the oil and started on a ballast. The
easiest thing I could do right away was a shorted MOT.

Well, I got first light tonight! And what a show it was. Seeing as I
am still working on the ARSG I just used my sucker gap but it runs and
runs well. I haven't even had time to tune it yet but it lives and it
was a great show and a wonderful night!

Thank you all again!

Here is a video of it up and running!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nq-X-xtEGw

Have a wonderful night!

-Andrew

On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 8:06 PM, Bert Hickman <bert.hickman@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Andrew and all,
>
> David is absolutely right.
>
> The root cause is that your tank capacitor and gap electrodes are too small
> for the current delivered by your HV power source. After the first "bang",
> the high power supply current recharges your tank cap too rapidly - before
> the tips of your electrodes can cool below incandescence. When the tank cap
> voltage rises too rapidly, the gap
> re-fires at a relatively low reignition voltage. If the electrode tips are
> still incandescent (from the previous firing), they readily emit free
> electrons (thermionic emission) into the gap, causing it to reignite at a
> much lower low voltage compared to if they were cooler.
>
> The result is that your tank cap never has a chance to recharge to anything
> near full voltage before the gap re-fires. The gap develops a fiery
> appearance that quickly oxidizes/melts up your gap electrodes. Since the
> "effective bang size" declines substantially, your coil's output drops
> catastrophically - sometimes to virtually nothing!
>
> Bert
> --
> Bert Hickman
> Stoneridge Engineering
> http://www.capturedlightning.com
> ***********************************************************************
> World's source for "Captured Lightning" Lichtenberg Figure sculptures,
> magnetically "shrunken" coins, and scarce/out of print technical books
> ***********************************************************************
>
>
> David Dean wrote:
>>
>> On Friday, March 29, 2013 09:26:22 AM Andrew Webster wrote:
>>>
>>> I swung by the local metal recycling facility yesterday and got some .25
>>> inch tungsten rod I'll have to cut down and ordered a new sheet of
>>> phenolic. I'll have the new gap up soon.
>>
>> So maybe it takes twice as many "few seconds" to melt the tungsten as the
>> brass.
>>
>> In order to "cure" the power arc you need to reduce the power (via
>> suitable
>> ballast) to a level the coil and gap can process.
>>
>> IMHO
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>>
>
>
>
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