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Hi Krux,
Getting "zapped" by a charged secondary is a kind of a rite of passage
for coilers - you are now a more experienced coiler.. :^)
This phenomenon is thought to occur when secondaries that are coated
with a dielectric layer retain electrostatic charges on the outer
surface. The charged dielectric becomes a type of "electret" - the
electrostatic mirror of a magnet. Charges become deposited on the
coating surface during coil operation via corona charging or through
small racing sparks. Typical coatings, such as multiple layers of
polyurethane, or two-part coatings of polyester or epoxy, are excellent
electrical insulators, so any deposited charge becomes temporarily
stranded. One deposited, they'll remain trapped for days or even weeks
afterward. Their presence also makes your secondary a magnet for any
airborne dust. You can sometimes feel their presence when they lift the
hairs on the back of your hand as you bring it near the top portion of
your secondary. You may even feel and hear small snapping sparks as you
discharge regions of the coating.
When you touch or carry your secondary coil, some of these stranded
charges transfer to your hand, and you become one plate of a charged HV
capacitor - the secondary winding is the other plate. If you then get
too close to the top or bottom terminal of your winding, you'll
discharge this capacitor, sparking it to your nose or forehead, or to
lower parts of your body from the base of the coil. The capacitor
discharge can be quite painful for larger coils, and it has caused some
coiler to drop and damage their secondaries. You can avoid getting
zapped by connecting yourself to the secondary winding with a small clip
lead before moving it.
Best wishes,
Bert
--
Bert Hickman
Stoneridge Engineering
http://www.capturedlightning.com
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Krux wrote:
So this is a new one for me, but then I have only built one tesla
coil, so the whole hobby is new...
Anyway, I was tearing down my tesla coil, as I had designed it so
that I could take it apart to easily transport it if needed. I was
carrying the 4.5" diameter secondary with top load attached across
the room when I noticed it had a charge on it.. The charge was
minimal at first, like if you are building up a static electric
charge on something, and then when I was half way into the room it
crossed into a "hey.. Ow.. Let's put this coil down on this bench
here" level of painful zap..
My best guess is that I was picking up on the magnetic fields that
were being put off by all the florescent lighting in the room. Either
that or my movement some how built up a static charge.. But has
anyone heard of/experienced something like this before.
perl -e 's==UBER?=+y[:-o]}(;->\n{q-yp-y+k}?print:??;-p#)'
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