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Registered Member #61695
Joined: Sun Jul 16 2017, 11:22PM
Location:
Posts: 31
Hi everyone, I have been having some problems with an induction coil and wonder if someone here could help. This is the coil:
The problem is that it only produces very small arcs (the video is about as good as it gets, they are usually about 2mm). The interrupter often stops after a few seconds and needs a push to start again. It only occasionally works well.
The other induction coils that I have are much more lively. They are meant to be lower voltage, so not much spark, but they are much more reliable and the spring action of the interrupter is much better.
I have measured the resistance of the primary and secondary and they are 0.6ohms and 7.56k. The capacitor in the base is 1uf and I measured it and it is close to that. I have cleaned the contacts and adjusted the interrupter gap.
Nothing is noticeably overheating. The current draw at 6V is about 1A, when it is working reasonably well.
Registered Member #230
Joined: Tue Feb 21 2006, 08:01PM
Location: Gracefield lower Hutt
Posts: 284
Most probably a shorted turn caused by green spot on the secondary or some one over volting the primary or trying to get the spark to jump over to grat a distance causing the insulation to break down
A "Q" meter may help to see if the secondary is ok
Registered Member #230
Joined: Tue Feb 21 2006, 08:01PM
Location: Gracefield lower Hutt
Posts: 284
Some LCR meters also give Q
measure inductance of both primay and csecondary then again with not measured winding shorted
This measures coupling factor so a very big change in inductance with the winding shorted tends to say that the winding is ok the expected ratio should be a change of 80-100 times change with the inductance much less with the other winding shorted
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
"I have measured the resistance of the primary and secondary and they are 0.6ohms and 7.56k." - These figures strongly suggest that your induction coil is a re-purposed automotive ignition coil!
I would guess that the most likely reason for poor performance was in the erratic nature of the contact breaker as you describe it. Clean the contacts with very fine abrasive paper.
Try wiring a 100nF 350V capacitor across the contacts and see if that perks it up. If it does, try a 200nF, then the next size up if the 200nF shows improvement over the 100nF. As well as suppressing wasteful and destructive arcing, the capacitor can help boost the coil output by creating a resonant LC circuit with the coil windings.
Registered Member #61695
Joined: Sun Jul 16 2017, 11:22PM
Location:
Posts: 31
Thanks for the help. I didn't know that some of those coils were made from automotive ignition coils!
I have cleaned the contacts. I will try to find some capacitors and see if that improves it. There is definitely arcing on the contacts, sometimes more than from the output!
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Ruhmkorff induction coil
