If you need assistance, please send an email to forum at 4hv dot org. To ensure your email is not marked as spam, please include the phrase "4hv help" in the subject line. You can also find assistance via IRC, at irc.shadowworld.net, room #hvcomm.
Support 4hv.org!
Donate:
4hv.org is hosted on a dedicated server. Unfortunately, this server costs and we rely on the help of site members to keep 4hv.org running. Please consider donating. We will place your name on the thanks list and you'll be helping to keep 4hv.org alive and free for everyone. Members whose names appear in red bold have donated recently. Green bold denotes those who have recently donated to keep the server carbon neutral.
Special Thanks To:
Aaron Holmes
Aaron Wheeler
Adam Horden
Alan Scrimgeour
Andre
Andrew Haynes
Anonymous000
asabase
Austin Weil
barney
Barry
Bert Hickman
Bill Kukowski
Blitzorn
Brandon Paradelas
Bruce Bowling
BubeeMike
Byong Park
Cesiumsponge
Chris F.
Chris Hooper
Corey Worthington
Derek Woodroffe
Dalus
Dan Strother
Daniel Davis
Daniel Uhrenholt
datasheetarchive
Dave Billington
Dave Marshall
David F.
Dennis Rogers
drelectrix
Dr. John Gudenas
Dr. Spark
E.TexasTesla
eastvoltresearch
Eirik Taylor
Erik Dyakov
Erlend^SE
Finn Hammer
Firebug24k
GalliumMan
Gary Peterson
George Slade
GhostNull
Gordon Mcknight
Graham Armitage
Grant
GreySoul
Henry H
IamSmooth
In memory of Leo Powning
Jacob Cash
James Howells
James Pawson
Jeff Greenfield
Jeff Thomas
Jesse Frost
Jim Mitchell
jlr134
Joe Mastroianni
John Forcina
John Oberg
John Willcutt
Jon Newcomb
klugesmith
Leslie Wright
Lutz Hoffman
Mads Barnkob
Martin King
Mats Karlsson
Matt Gibson
Matthew Guidry
mbd
Michael D'Angelo
Mikkel
mileswaldron
mister_rf
Neil Foster
Nick de Smith
Nick Soroka
nicklenorp
Nik
Norman Stanley
Patrick Coleman
Paul Brodie
Paul Jordan
Paul Montgomery
Ped
Peter Krogen
Peter Terren
PhilGood
Richard Feldman
Robert Bush
Royce Bailey
Scott Fusare
Scott Newman
smiffy
Stella
Steven Busic
Steve Conner
Steve Jones
Steve Ward
Sulaiman
Thomas Coyle
Thomas A. Wallace
Thomas W
Timo
Torch
Ulf Jonsson
vasil
Vaxian
vladi mazzilli
wastehl
Weston
William Kim
William N.
William Stehl
Wesley Venis
The aforementioned have contributed financially to the continuing triumph of 4hv.org. They are deserving of my most heartfelt thanks.
Registered Member #19
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 03:19PM
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Posts: 168
I have built my first TC an SGTC and after finally getting it to work the arcs are coming from the ground.(see picture)
I have a 5kv 20ma Nst in parallel with the static spark gap. I am using 8 doorknob caps at 18kv 650pf each. I tilted the tc so I could see down the center of the secondary and saw the discharges. I tried reversing the connections and playing with the ground (copper rod hammered into earth) but nothing changed it. Any ideas on how to get the streamers to come off the top where there supposed to? Here’s a pic of the actual tc.
Registered Member #316
Joined: Mon Mar 13 2006, 01:30PM
Location: Marietta, GA
Posts: 212
You should never ever ever run the ground through the inside of your secondary. Check the inside of your secondary coilform for burned spots. If there are none, remove all the metal from inside the secondary, plug any holes with silicon, and use silicon to glue a plastic disc into the bottom. Just use a spade connection or something to connect the bottom of the secondary to ground. Good luck with your coils!
Registered Member #89
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145
Your screw is too long, and arcs come from windings of secondary hitting it as it is grounded. You must find a way to keep that screw shortest possible, or better use plastic screw. Dont run coil with internal arcing, as secondary can ignite after a while is stable arcs are formed.
It won't be kind of fireworks but you can get some ugly burned holes in your secondary...
Registered Member #135
Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735
most professionial coilers don't make any intrusions into the coil itself. Mounting is done via copper pad glued/fixed to the outside of the coil. Mounting this way is very difficult because you don't have much mechanical strength here, but it prevents arcs from climbing in the interior of the coil.
Get this, While running ~700W I was getting 2x my winding length roughly. 30-40" sparks, and my coil form is about 22" tall. Well I really had 2 coils that I could switch back and forth from because one had taken a hit from a piece of wood and I didn't know the extent of the damage. So I had wound another. Anyways, the first I had wound only had about 2" top margin between the end of the coil and the end of the tube, the other had about 5" of margin. Neither coil had any intrusions into the interior except for a foil strap at the bottom to connect ground. Well as luck would have it, the one with a 2" margin was just right to have the spark travel OVER THE TOP and DOWN the COIL!!!! I did not forsee this one!!
So margins and external terminations are very important.
You may want to fabricate a Tee plug insted of that bolt or go with an end cap or glue a flat plate to the bottom of the coil itself. I don't care much for PVC, but in my case its my only option for a prototype. Now of course, you could always use a nylon threaded rod for now and just connect the lead wire differently.
Registered Member #19
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 03:19PM
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Posts: 168
Thanks for the replies. There are no more intrusions and I am getting streamers out the top. I used hot glue to fill the holes and hold the wire and it sticks really well. Now I have another problem. I can only get two inch streamers and that’s when I adjust my primary to only 1 turn! Any more turns and there is no breakout!? I played with the spark gap but that doesn’t improve it much. Any ideas?
Registered Member #50
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:07AM
Location: Vernon, B.C, Canada
Posts: 324
I had the same problem and I came to the realization that my secondary was so out of ratio and everything else that thats all I was going to get. Mabye thats not your case though...
This site is powered by e107, which is released under the GNU GPL License. All work on this site, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. By submitting any information to this site, you agree that anything submitted will be so licensed. Please read our Disclaimer and Policies page for information on your rights and responsibilities regarding this site.
First TC arcs on the ground
