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Registered Member #5171
Joined: Tue Jun 05 2012, 11:32AM
Location:
Posts: 67
Hello everyone. In these days, i'm making the tests of my first TC. That's the situation. My home is 3 floors. I live on the 3rd floor, but for the tests i have every time to go at the ground floor, carry all the stuffs and that's very uncomfort for me. So, i was wondering. 1) can i ground the secondary on the mains ground? (if yes, how can i test if the ground is ok?)
2) Since my dedicated grounding rod is at the ground floor, can i run a cable from my floor to it? Would the high inductance of a that long cable change something?
You can run a cable to the ground rod, just use very thick cable so the inductance is kept low. Welding cable is ideal, and old stuff that is burned/singed but electrically good can be bought for cheap at welding shops since no welder wants to use a cable which has lost it's insulation.
No, that will not work well at all and would be dangerous. The ground line on a TC caries high RF currents but low voltage, you cannot use thin single conductors. Stranded wire is almost always preferred (single conductors act as hollow tubes and most of the conductor is invisible to the current).
The thinner the wire, the more impedance it has. The entire reason you don't use mains ground is that it is HIGH impedance to tesla coil frequencies... and your coil will blow up anything electronic in your house... and in any other dwelling connected to yours through a common junction box.
I have used 14AWG in a pinch, but I would not use anything thinner than 10AWG for a permanent installation.
Registered Member #2919
Joined: Fri Jun 11 2010, 06:30PM
Location: Cambridge, MA
Posts: 652
Sigurthr wrote ...
No, that will not work well at all and would be dangerous. The ground line on a TC caries high RF currents but low voltage, you cannot use thin single conductors. Stranded wire is almost always preferred (single conductors act as hollow tubes and most of the conductor is invisible to the current).
The thinner the wire, the more impedance it has. The entire reason you don't use mains ground is that it is HIGH impedance to tesla coil frequencies... and your coil will blow up anything electronic in your house... and in any other dwelling connected to yours through a common junction box.
I have used 14AWG in a pinch, but I would not use anything thinner than 10AWG for a permanent installation.
I've run coils grounded to mains ground without any ill effect, so this is not necessarily true. It matters more for SGTC's I think. And stranded and solid wire have the same AC resistance; you need Litz wire (which is braided) to lower the AC resistance.
Registered Member #5171
Joined: Tue Jun 05 2012, 11:32AM
Location:
Posts: 67
Small SSTC, built following this guide Here: is also a photo. The specs are 10cm secondary diameter, 1000windings 8cm diameter topload, 25cm large diameter.
And stranded and solid wire have the same AC resistance; you need Litz wire (which is braided) to lower the AC resistance.
Correct, but I was thinking more of the mechanical aspects of bringing heavy gauge wire up several floors in height, not the electrical. I was a welder for 5 years and often had to work up high with long cables; finely stranded/braided cable is much easier to work with than solidcore. Sorry for the confusion, my statement that stranded is often preferred was a bit vague.
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TeslaCoil grounding
