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Graham Armitage

Thu Mar 14 2013, 05:17PM

Registered Member #6038 Joined: Mon Aug 06 2012, 11:31AM
Location: Salado, TX
Posts: 248

Deodanth,

I have been following this thread and not commenting much as I see you are in good hands from a technical support perspective. Wanted to say thanks for your service to our country and the sacrifices your family had to make too. All the more reason not to give up. As Dan said this is not easy stuff, and not having an oscilloscope makes it that much more challenging. Keep at it and you will get there. If lived a little closer I would love to offer some service or equipment to help you and Liam. When you finally see those sparks you will feel rewarded !! Tell Liam to hang in there too - too bad about the science fair, but it's about the learning and spending quality time with his Dad

Deodanth

Fri Mar 15 2013, 12:03AM

Registered Member #9471 Joined: Thu Jan 10 2013, 09:17PM
Location: (39.41895551215511, -76.29627227783203) Grid square:FM19UK
Posts: 23

The D@MN shame of it is the coil would have been the hands down star of the fair had it worked.
As it was I am proud of him for standing there with a non-working coil and a $20 plasma ball from the mall novelty store. He proudly demoed a CFL glowing next to the plasma ball and I think the judges were pretty impressed.
He delivered a pretty good sales pitch.

I took a picture I'll post it later
Thanks for the well wishes everyone.

Deodanth

Sun Mar 17 2013, 03:22AM

Registered Member #9471 Joined: Thu Jan 10 2013, 09:17PM
Location: (39.41895551215511, -76.29627227783203) Grid square:FM19UK
Posts: 23

so here is Liam at the science fair. We still haven't heard how he scored but he finally read this thread and gave me a hug.
We've determined to finish the project so tomorrow I will drive the camera around the coil and focus in on things like the ground and wiring so maybe you guys can point out stuff I missed.

Dan I will send you an email. Its just we are no longer in a rush.

Deodanth

Tue Mar 19 2013, 08:14PM

Registered Member #9471 Joined: Thu Jan 10 2013, 09:17PM
Location: (39.41895551215511, -76.29627227783203) Grid square:FM19UK
Posts: 23

Ok With the question that was posted about how the coil was grounded I thought I would just do a video drive around the project so that everyone could see for themselves. Hopefully you experienced guys can tell me what I'm doing wrong

Deodanth

Tue Mar 19 2013, 08:16PM

Registered Member #9471 Joined: Thu Jan 10 2013, 09:17PM
Location: (39.41895551215511, -76.29627227783203) Grid square:FM19UK
Posts: 23

OH an one more thing.
Liam read this thread after the Science fair.
He read your comments. and mine. Then gave me a hug.

Graham Armitage

Tue Mar 19 2013, 08:47PM

Registered Member #6038 Joined: Mon Aug 06 2012, 11:31AM
Location: Salado, TX
Posts: 248

Thanks for sharing the videos - looks pretty solidly built. If you were getting sparks from the screw under the secondary then that points to a grounding problem. Personally I like to keep the ground wire from the secondary away from everything. It seems very close to the high voltage wires of the primary - not sure what the inductive effects might be too - sending weird signals back to the IGBTs. Just doesn't feel good.

I am not sure of the microbrute circuit, but believe that the yellow wire from the transformer is the center tap that should be grounded with everything else.

Just for grins, when you have everything connected, but not powered on, use a digital multimeter to test the connection from the base of the secondary to the ground pin on your power plug that goes into the outlet. That should be close to zero ohms. If it's not there is a ground issue somewhere. is your house well grounded? Check that too as some homes can have horrible grounding.

Just my 2C

Physics Junkie

Tue Mar 19 2013, 08:57PM

Registered Member #7267 Joined: Tue Oct 16 2012, 12:16AM
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Posts: 407

Hi. The only thing that sticks out to me as odd is the wiring of your fuses. The black is hot and the white is neutral (assuming the breaker box in your home is wired correct. If you want to get technical, white can be hot at any given time but that is beyond the problem here). So on the HV side, I'm pretty sure you should swap the wiring on the fuse so that the black wire is wired to the fuse and not the white. That could very much be your problem right there because your IGBT's are blowing instead of the fuse. I've experienced this problem in all my tesla coils from either a mis-wired fuse or a fuse that is too high value. The yellow transformer wire is the centertap. If your circuit board uses a bridge rectifier then you are correct by leaving it unconnected. It does appear that your circuit uses a bridge rectifier, it should be that rectangular black think next to the blue capacitor where you have the + and - inputs from the blue wires on the transformer. Use a nylon screw to mount the secondary. Everything appears very good other then the HV side fuse.

What value of fuses are you using?

HV Enthusiast

Wed Mar 20 2013, 11:59AM

Registered Member #15 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 01:11PM
Location:
Posts: 3068

Thanks for the sharing the videos.
I'm on the road right now and am stuck looking at the videos on a tiny cell phone, but one thing i noticed is that you have the primary coil taped up. You won't be able to play and adjust the tuning with it already wrapped up, although you may have done that just for presentation.

Anyways, since you are having a lot of trouble with this an Liam is dying to see some arcs, i can send you a complimentary SSTC 1.0 kit. These are our entry level kits and are a lot of fun as well.

Deodanth

Wed Mar 20 2013, 11:03PM

Registered Member #9471 Joined: Thu Jan 10 2013, 09:17PM
Location: (39.41895551215511, -76.29627227783203) Grid square:FM19UK
Posts: 23

EasternVoltageResearch wrote ...

Thanks for the sharing the videos.
I'm on the road right now and am stuck looking at the videos on a tiny cell phone, but one thing i noticed is that you have the primary coil taped up. You won't be able to play and adjust the tuning with it already wrapped up, although you may have done that just for presentation.

Anyways, since you are having a lot of trouble with this an Liam is dying to see some arcs, i can send you a complimentary SSTC 1.0 kit. These are our entry level kits and are a lot of fun as well.

The primary coil is at precisely 3 wraps which is supposed to be the starting point for tuning I figured I could add or remove tape as the tuning went

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