So after many many hours of trial and error. I've got my tesla coil working again. Paid $81 for 1 day shipping on new caps but they never showed. Pulled my old MMC apart and tested one by one. All of them checked out but still couldnt get the thing to fire off. My spark gap was made from two bolts mounted to metal L brackets as well as the safety gap. The whole base issue from 1/2" plywood. Noticed the coil would work sometimes but it was like 1 out of every 20 attempts after jiggling stuff. Found a broke wire on my MMC where it connected to safety gap. But still wouldn't work. Took apart the spark gaps and redid them inside 3" Pvc sleeves. And the damn thing worked but not very impressive due to having to retap primary. So moved the tap from the MMC around primary till I had something resembling what it was before. Also adjusted the spark gap as it was too close I think. And it works a little better as of now I have several service clips connecting different parts and nothing is hard wired but it works pretty decent. So the only conclusion I can come to is that somehow the metal brackets were shorting the circuit out through the wood??. A very weird issue. So after say about 5-6 hours of trial and error and completely re building the base and wiring and getting shocked by one side of my nst(it wasn't as bad as I thought) I got it working again. Still have the caps in series( all 17 of them) and I have 20 more coming Monday. I'll make a bigger MMC with a series parallel configuration but having an issue with matching caps to my nst. My nst is at 0.0066 uF and if I did 21 caps in series of just 1 string that would give me a value of .0068. But problem is I've heard that you should and shouldn't match caps to transformer. Not sure which way to go on that. Any suggestions welcome and appreciated.
> On May 8, 2015, at 8:49 PM, David Rieben <drieben@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Kerry,
>
> I'm assuming you're referring to a 13.8 VDC power supply? At just .15 ufd each, at only a ~14 volt charge, I doubt there would be enough energy in their discharge to be visible. I was referring to like several hundred volts. You could just get yourself a relatively cheap 1 kv, 30 amp rated FWB and just hook it up to the wall socket and the caps with the ~170 VDC pk that you would get from rectifying 120 VAC. Then you could either look for a visible spark discharge or simply check the capacitor's charge on a DVM, noting whether or not it could keep a charge if the bleed resistor has been removed. One of them could have failed as an open circuit or one or more of them could've failed as a short circuit, and the increased voltage stress on the remaining caps could've caused a cascading failure of the rest.
>
> David
>
> Kerry Soileau <kerrys@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> David-
>> Biggest source I have for ex is 13.8. I could make a voltage doubler or quadrupler and see if that does anything. I tried it with just two caps with the bleeders cut off and not connected to the rest of the bank and I don't get any sparks from them. When I short it out after charging for around 20-30 seconds. This sucks. Just finished it today and tested it for a couple hours of an on while tuning it to get about 12-13" arcs to air. Only ran it for 8-10 sec each time. Soon as I hooked that variac up it did this.. Guess I'll buy more caps and see if that works. In the event I replace the caps and still nothing happens do you got any other ideas what it could be?
>>
>> Kerry Soileau
>> Norfoxx Refrigeration
>> EMS Manager
>> C- 512-704-4161
>> O- 210-824-2955
>> F- 210-824-2956
>>
>>> On May 8, 2015, at 3:39 PM, Kerry Soileau <kerrys@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>> I'm using 17 Cornell Dublier p15k-f caps at 2kv each .15uF. Power supply is 12kv 30mA nst. Not sure how the caps could all go at once..... Without any signs of damage. Using 6awg stranded wire for my connections from nst to primary and MMC bank
>>>
>>> Kerry Soileau
>>> Norfoxx Refrigeration
>>> EMS Manager
>>> C- 512-704-4161
>>> O- 210-824-2955
>>> F- 210-824-2956
>>>
>>>> On May 8, 2015, at 3:19 PM, loneoceans <loneoceans@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Are you sure your capacitors are ok? Sounds like there's a short there at
>>>> high voltage. They may not measure a short with a meter. What sort of caps
>>>> are you using?
>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, May 8, 2015 at 1:10 PM, Kerry Soileau <kerrys@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Ok guys I got a weird issue here.
>>>>> I hooked my tesla coil to my variac and started to ramp it up. It stated
>>>>> firing around 80 volts and then it stopped. Tried it again and nothing
>>>>> happens but my 120v fan turns on. So I took it off variac and went to
>>>>> mains. Still nothing. I swapped transformers to my other nst 12kv 39mA and
>>>>> still nothing. I took the primary and secondary coil off the base and only
>>>>> left the spark gap connected and it sparks across the gap. None of my
>>>>> wiring looks burnt or broke connections or anything. All the caps are fine.
>>>>> No burn spots etc. when I hooked it all back up it still won't fire but if
>>>>> I take it apart and just leave the spark gap it sparks across. WTH? Any
>>>>> advice is appreciated. Can't figure this one out.
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