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DRSSTC V ( now "Skinny Coil" )

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Graham Armitage

Tue Mar 29 2016, 01:13PM

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

Phillip, great coil - very impressive performance. Curious about what grounding you are using on the coil?

Mads Barnkob

Tue Mar 29 2016, 01:15PM

Registered Member #1403 Joined: Tue Mar 18 2008, 06:05PM
Location: Denmark, Odense C
Posts: 1968

The water cooling really paid off, that is some amazing high break rate for long on-time. I will have to stick with maximum 10 BPS to not melt my MMC and will properly see the same heat sink temperature rise as you described.

I only planned for water cooling of the primary coil, the bridge and MMC are most likely going to be upgraded once the setup proves itself working :)

Phillip Slawinski

Tue Mar 29 2016, 01:28PM

Registered Member #1732 Joined: Thu Oct 02 2008, 02:34PM
Location: Huntsville, AL
Posts: 112

Graham Armitage wrote ...

Phillip, great coil - very impressive performance. Curious about what grounding you are using on the coil?

Nothing special. I just have a 8' ground rod in addition to house ground. Also the screen on the wall, and aluminum foil above act as a sort of counterpoise.

Mads Barnkob wrote ...

The water cooling really paid off, that is some amazing high break rate for long on-time. I will have to stick with maximum 10 BPS to not melt my MMC and will properly see the same heat sink temperature rise as you described.

I only planned for water cooling of the primary coil, the bridge and MMC are most likely going to be upgraded once the setup proves itself working :)

Yes -- the water cooling has been huge for extending run times. Now the limiting factor is definitely the secondary, and to a lesser extent the MMC (I have seen temps around 55ÂºC on the MMC.) I routinely see temperatures around 60-65ÂºC on the secondary after a long run. This issue is further compounded by the fact that I have the bottom of the secondary wrapped with GPO3 fiberglass (helps to prevent flash over from the primary.) I've contemplated rewinding the secondary with litz wire, but I don't know if I'll actually do that or not.

I definitely recommend water cooling if you want to push things as hard as I have. For me it was less of a choice, and more of a necessity. I did a run with the G-10 supports right after I made them and the primary got hot enough to change color and give off that "burning dust" smell. This was after less than a minute of run time. So the primary was the first thing to get cooled, then the rest followed. I use the same loop for everything, and have no problems with leakage current from the primary. I do have a Y splitter out of the pump so that the flow through the water blocks does not have to go through the primary first. Previous designs were routed as one loop, and that proved to be severely restricting.

Art

Tue Mar 29 2016, 01:34PM

Registered Member #57369 Joined: Fri Sept 18 2015, 01:24PM
Location:
Posts: 66

I like the way the tube flashes in the first video :D
Is that an effect of the field, or lack of current to the tube through the same mains circuit?

Phillip Slawinski

Tue Mar 29 2016, 01:36PM

Registered Member #1732 Joined: Thu Oct 02 2008, 02:34PM
Location: Huntsville, AL
Posts: 112

Art wrote ...

I like the way the tube flashes in the first video :D
Is that an effect of the field, or lack of current to the tube through the same mains circuit?

I'm assuming you are referring to the fluorescent tubes? Those are definitely being energized by the e-field around the coil. Those lights were turned off for the filming. The room light is provided by my flashlight which is off camera and aimed at the ceiling.

Art

Fri Apr 01 2016, 08:21AM

Registered Member #57369 Joined: Fri Sept 18 2015, 01:24PM
Location:
Posts: 66

That makes sense now thinking the field would be weaker when circuit is completed by the arc.

Phillip Slawinski

Tue Nov 15 2016, 05:15AM

Registered Member #1732 Joined: Thu Oct 02 2008, 02:34PM
Location: Huntsville, AL
Posts: 112

Just thought I'd update this thread with some video from my Teslathon.

Video Credit: (Christopher Dickey)

I hit 2.4m or 8 feet, which was limited by how high I could raise the strike target. At the end of this video one of my primary tank caps fails. That was the second capacitor to fail in the weekend. I'll replace these capacitors with something beefier before I run the coil again. I still haven't maxed it out, so I need to find the limit.

Finn Hammer

Tue Nov 15 2016, 08:03AM

Registered Member #205 Joined: Sat Feb 18 2006, 11:59AM
Location: SkÃ¸rping, Denmark
Posts: 741

Phillip,

This is fantastic, I am green with envy!

Cheers, Finn Hammer

Uspring

Tue Nov 15 2016, 04:12PM

Registered Member #3988 Joined: Thu Jul 07 2011, 03:25PM
Location:
Posts: 711

Very impressive sparks for such a small coil. Are you using some kind of primary current modulation such as a phase shifted bridge?

KrowBar

Tue Nov 15 2016, 04:23PM

Registered Member #57401 Joined: Sat Sept 19 2015, 08:06PM
Location: Huntsville, AL
Posts: 10

I have to keep up on things so I don't miss seeing these great coils in action live. What's this Teslathon you had? Was it in Huntsville? I moved to Madison not too long ago and am trying to get enough house projects finished to have time to get back into coiling. With a couple of avid coilers nearby it's a shame that I haven't been more involved in the hobby lately.

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