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the spark gap is fixed .25" pure W rods that are about 3/4" apart inside of a glass tube with rubber stoppers to cut down on sound, the caps are four 20kV, .01uF ceramic encased teflon caps that are wired in series parrallel to get .012uF @40kV. I read that a 10/23 xfmr could do 24" streamers.
Registered Member #3599
Joined: Mon Jan 10 2011, 05:50PM
Location:
Posts: 15
i think u need to quench your spark gap properly? hot ions are trapped inside that glass tube, i guess?, will prematurely spark at lower voltage not reaching its full spark voltage.
Registered Member #1548
Joined: Mon Jun 16 2008, 09:22PM
Location: Ohio
Posts: 61
Building on what haikara said, it could be due to the spark gap not quenching properly inside that small enclosure with no air flow. Maybe try opening it up and blowing air over it with a fan and see if that leads you anywhere. Not really any clue if this is the problem with your coil, but trying to get good quenching is always a good thing to do.
If you want to read up on operation of tesla coils and kind of why you would want good quenching Richie Burnett has a good page on it. and particularly
Registered Member #1225
Joined: Sat Jan 12 2008, 01:24AM
Location: Beaumont, Texas, USA
Posts: 2253
I would make a better spark gap. A segmented spark gap ( ) with a strong blower would work wonders for improving efficiency i bet. An enclosed spark gap cannot dissipate heat and ionized gases hardly at all!
Another thing is a thicker primary, and all other wires after the tank cap. The current on the primary will be pulses of hundreds of amps oscillating at the resonant frequency of the primary/cap. Because of the high currents, even small resistances limit current and dissipate heat. The higher the current across the primary, the longer the sparks.
Then, just alot of tuning as usual. Do those three things and i'd bet anything you would get over a foot spark length. Also, if you can afford it, you should get some better capacitors. Teflon is less than ideal, and due to experiences i have had with Tesla coils, i will never use any capacitor other than polypropylene dielectric. I know that Teflon is more vulnerable to corona than PPE, but im not sure about it's other characteristics. Here is a PDF that compares characteristics of different capacitor dielectrics in TC use.
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Help with getting bigger arcs, not as big as they should be?
