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Registered Member #902
Joined: Sun Jul 15 2007, 08:17PM
Location: Pacific Northwest USA
Posts: 1042
I have seen a Tesla Coil type use of Ignition coils, where the ignition coil acted as the primary and secondary... no idea the practicality of pulling it off though
i think that the 2n3055 is not a good option, except for starter setups... those transistors really do NOT last long.
Registered Member #229
Joined: Tue Feb 21 2006, 07:33PM
Location: Romania
Posts: 506
The coil is already in the oil inside its can. Puting it in a bigger oil bath will allow to eliminate easier the heat produced. The distance between the terminals is the same in both situations. The oil bath would not improve the electric insulation, just the heat transfer.
I used myself the tesla coil like driving for ignition coils in antiparallel, with iron core inside, with better results than the dimmer approach, see here: http://www.geocities.com/teslina/sing.html
One method to increase the insulation is to de-wind half of the external turn layer of the secondary, so that one connection is made in the middle of the secondary, the other connection beeing the core. It will last longer until an internal shorting will appear eventually. You can protect them drawing arcs versus maximum sparks. You can use a safety spark gap on the output which will arc over when the distance between main electrodes is too big.
Registered Member #1127
Joined: Mon Nov 19 2007, 12:08AM
Location:
Posts: 139
The neat thing about the 120V dimmer switch/cap driver is that the voltage is variable. If you want 25 kV you simply adjust the slider if its 1/2 down - say. So it is pretty easy to adjust. Plus - I enjoy the fact that using bigger capacitance = bigger power draw. You can get pretty creative here. Yes, this power supply will run a small Tesla Coil.
With 20 uF capacitor - and a single ignition coil I never noticed any heating. I also built a larger stand off to prevent flash over. For 100 kV - I have potted the transformers under dielectric epoxy and created small bushings of the output leads.
Registered Member #1806
Joined: Sun Nov 09 2008, 04:58AM
Location: USA
Posts: 136
MOT_man; thanks for posting the schematic.
I took an iggy apart and observed that it had a fair sized air bubble at the top. I could hear it just shaking the coil. I think that pulling the core out of the original can and dunking it in a different oil bath might allow running at higher voltages. This is simply what I observed about mine; I don't know about any other coils.
Registered Member #1127
Joined: Mon Nov 19 2007, 12:08AM
Location:
Posts: 139
If you want ultra high voltages - the 120V dimmer switch method works very well - especially when the iggy is de-potted and housed in an oil bath. I did two such coils in anti parallel arrangement - and the longest sparks achieved were 15 cm at full power! I'm guessing 100 kV - ballpark figure!
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What type of fun do ignition coils have?
