Steve,
I have thought about the balancing in depth! Electrode material is 1/8"
tungsten. So I don't think it will deteriorate any measurable amount of the
next few decades of constant running. And also, for now, I am just going to
run 2 electrodes for 120 BPS. I think running 16 would actually be easier.
I say this because tungsten is so heavy (and the G10 disc is heavy), that
every gram it is out of balance becomes a smaller and smaller percentage
difference as I add more electrode weight. I am no expert though. I built a
crude but decently functioning balance wheel. The rotor alone after
machining seems to be in great shape. When it is running there is minimal
to no vibration. I wish I had paid closer attention to the NVH levels prior
to machining. I am going to work on the rotor and disc as an assembly next.
I think I have come up with a good solution for the balancing act. Instead
of running the electrodes point to point (where each electrode needs to be
a precise length), I will run the electrodes edge to edge. See this
diagram: https://i.imgur.com/5teVQ9f.png
This will allow me to make the electrodes longer (or shorter) so I can
balance as needed and not worry about crashing electrodes. I also think
this might have a small positive effect on quenching since the mechanical
dwell time should be slightly quicker. And if the edge to edge/different
length electrode arrangement doesn't work as planned, I can go the
traditional point to point route and then plug the remaining open holes in
the disc with weights to achieve balance.
Thanks,
~Dan
On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 4:16 PM Steve White <steve.white1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Dan,
>
> Since I read that you are using a 3600 RPM rotor, balance will be crucial,
> otherwise it could fly apart or shake your coil to pieces. I had a very
> hard time balancing just 4 tungsten flying electrodes on an 11" rotor
> turning 3600 RPM. I can't imagine how I would balance 16. I hope you have
> special balancing equipment. Even if you get the rotor perfectly balanced,
> as the the flying electrodes wear, the rotor will begin to unbalance. It
> all depends on how even the erosion is. What I am saying is that the more
> flying electrodes that you have, the more difficult things become.
>
> Steve White
> Cedar Rapids, Iowa
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Daniel Kunkel" <dankunkel@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Monday, October 22, 2018 8:37:46 PM
> Subject: Re: [TCML] SRSG strobe
>
> Steve,
> I'll definitely experiment with the bps. 16 holes will allow for quite a
> lot of possibilities....
> 120
> 240
> 480
> 960
> I can't wait to see the final results!
> ~Dan
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 22, 2018, 8:30 PM Steve White <steve.white1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > I know that using an optical sensor with an oscilloscope provides a very
> > precise way to insure that the flying electrodes line up with the
> > stationary electrodes at whatever phase angle on the 60 Hz power line
> that
> > you pick on the oscilloscope. Now, whether or not that is the optimum
> > firing point may be a different matter. On my pole-pig powered coil which
> > runs at 240 BPS, the firing angles of 0, 90, 180, and 270 degrees which I
> > set with my oscilloscope did indeed seem to be the optimum. I built a
> very
> > nice John Freau style phase adjuster to make fine adjustments. When I
> used
> > it to vary the phase angle from the one that I set with the
> oscilloscope, I
> > saw no difference in streamer performance or quality. Maybe the effect is
> > much greater with a 120 BPS NST-powered system. Some posters have
> suggested
> > that a 240 BPS system is closer in performance to a ARSG because it
> fires 4
> > times per cycle where firing points may not be as critical.
> >
> > Steve White
> > Cedar Rapids, Iowa
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Gary Lau" <glau1024@xxxxxxxxx>
> > To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Monday, October 22, 2018 5:09:07 PM
> > Subject: Re: [TCML] SRSG strobe
> >
> > What exactly is the goal here? Assuming that you're successful in
> getting
> > the timing light to sync and fire 120PPS, that still gives no useful
> > information as to whether the RSG is set to fire at the optimum phase
> > angle. The best you can hope for is confirmation that the motor is in
> fact
> > synchronous and that the phase can be varied. I'm unaware of any means
> to
> > set the phase other than varying the phase and monitoring spark
> > performance. The optimum phase of the RSG relative to the mains phase
> will
> > vary with primary cap size and Variac setting, there's no fixed "best"
> > setting relative to mains peak. That's why the variable Freau SRSG
> > controller* is such a godsend - it's always something that you'll want to
> > tweak. In my experience, the SRSG phase is super-critical at 120BPS,
> > there's a clear increase in spark performance as I retard the firing, up
> > until a critical point, and then it becomes unstable, so I back it off a
> > tad.
> >
> > As far as protecting the NST, a safety gap in parallel is mandatory in
> > parallel with the RSG.
> >
> > For a simpler means of viewing the phase of your SRSG relative to mains
> > phase, attach a small magnet to the shaft, and mount a small, high turns
> > count inductor so that the magnet sweeps past it. Scope the voltage
> across
> > the inductor and sync the scope to the line. You should see induced
> > voltage blips with each sweep of the magnet, and you should see that
> > waveform shift as you vary the phase of the SRSG.
> >
> > *See my RSG web page - http://www.laushaus.com/tesla/sync_gap.htm
> >
> > Regards,
> > Gary Lau
> > MA, USA
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Oct 21, 2018 at 11:55 PM Daniel Kunkel <dankunkel@xxxxxxxxx>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > I'm getting ready to build my phase controller to control my new SRSG.
> I
> > > thought I've heard of others use an automotive ignition timing light to
> > > strobe and watch the phasing, but I can't get mine to trigger off a
> 60Hz
> > > source. Can anyone offer some advice here?
> > > ~Dan
> > > Kansas City area
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Tesla mailing list
> > > Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > https://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
> > >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Tesla mailing list
> > Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > https://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
> > _______________________________________________
> > Tesla mailing list
> > Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > https://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Tesla mailing list
> Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> https://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
> _______________________________________________
> Tesla mailing list
> Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> https://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
>
_______________________________________________
Tesla mailing list
Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
