Just finished kit and working good.

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Just finished kit and working good.

Postby Braditude » Mon Dec 22, 2014 4:58 pm

I only had to flip the gate drives around to get it working.
I only ran half power so far but it's running good.
Waiting for a new laptop to run the MIDI files but I have tested the interrupter so it should work.
Oh and I bought a refurbished computer, trading out for another laptop with XP so I don't have to worry about Windows 7 not having the MIDI driver!
Update on the used computer running XP. It took me 3 hours to get it running as it did not play MIDI through the USB port! again!!!
Here is the coil playing music at around 1/2 power.
After several minutes the primary gets hot enough to melt the hot glue holding the clips on.
Would recommend not using hot glue there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dglUWyKie0M
Braditude
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Re: Just finished kit and working good.

Postby Alex » Mon Dec 29, 2014 1:28 am

if you put glue on the ends of the primary clip they won't get hot.

and there isn't much to tune. the secondaries you got by now should be in spec. anyway, this configuration isn't easy to tune, since you can't just tap off the primary anywhere.
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Re: Just finished kit and working good.

Postby Braditude » Tue Dec 30, 2014 3:07 pm

Thanks for the tip.
I was thinking of trying some litz wire for the primary,
I may have been running full power as I was reading some others with the pot to 50% and not really getting much more spark at 100%.
Have not had any flashover on either coils.
Braditude
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Re: Just finished kit and working good.

Postby Braditude » Thu Jan 01, 2015 2:35 pm

BTW, here are some of the mods I did while building.
They are in no particular order.
I wiped out the secondary several times with alcohol as there was a lot of junk inside.
I baked it at 150 F before applying 10 coats of spray urethane and baked in between coats.
Drilled a small hole on each end for the wire to poke through. The wire was already solder stripped.
I added 2 banana jack grounds to the case. I made several grounding wires, one short that I can clip to the screen counterpoise.
The secondary and toroid can be unscrewed as there is a nut melded inside the plastic and a screw on the other side. No wing nuts.
For the power traces, I soldered in 18 AWG TC (Tinned Copper) or bus wire on the trace.

20141202_085813.jpg
(3.16 MiB) Not downloaded yet


Both PCB's were washed with isopropyl alcohol.
The heatsink was attached with a dab of silicone rubber (RTV, Electronic grade).
The case for the Interrupter did not fit. Had to file several of the tabs.
Did not get any wire for the GDT so I used 22 AWG HPTZ.
Will weld, sand and polish the toroid when I get one of those round tuits!
I have built a vacuum tube Tesla and a RSG TC in the past.
Braditude
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Re: Just finished kit and working good.

Postby Alex » Thu Jan 01, 2015 4:41 pm

that is probably the cleanest onetesla pcb i have ever seen! surely you must have used flux remover? when tried using only alcohol it didnt clean off the flux
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Re: Just finished kit and working good.

Postby Braditude » Fri Jan 02, 2015 12:01 am

Hey Alex.
Yes, Isopropyl alcohol is what we usually use for rosin flux.
100%, not the rubbing type.
It takes a little scrubbing but does clean well.
I do have some Ensolv but it smells and can melt certain plastics but it cleans with almost no scrubbing.
I work as an electronic tech, at a power electronics company.
Funny that we design power stages almost like a DRSSTC, but larger,hundreds of KW's
I worked at a transformer company for 17 years too, so winding is second nature.
I plan on making an electric chair for Halloween and using a Tesla and 2 Jacob's ladders.
Oh, BTW, I use to teach a soldering class. Use to be NASA certified but now its just ISO 9001 or something like that.

Brad
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Re: Just finished kit and working good.

Postby Braditude » Tue Jan 06, 2015 3:48 pm

I also forgot to add, that I purchased 10 meters of fiber optic cable. Cut the ends off that came with it, and used the entire length with no I'll effects on output. I'm still operating 15 t0 20 feet away with that test. Then I pulled the cable out of the interrupter with the ends at least 1/8" from the transmitter and it was still working fine.
Oh, also I have been running my computer with the power supply plugged in, laptop computer that is, and it seem to be fine, that was with the supplied 15 foot fiber optic cable. But the computer was on a different circuit than the Tesla, although it all goes back to the same load center. I do use a 50 foot extension cable for my Tesla, and do have it wound around a large toroid just in case (probably 10 turns or so). I don't know if it helps but I have used that for my other Tesla's and Van De Graaff generators and have not had any issues with noise getting back to the house.
I just machined an aluminum breakout point to sit on the top of the toroid and will try that and see if it works.
Its about 1 inch diameter, tapered to a point and about 2.5inchs long. If it works I'll post a picture later.
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Re: Just finished kit and working good.

Postby Braditude » Thu Jan 22, 2015 1:13 am

I just finished welding the toroid, sanding down and polishing.
I rewound the primary in #10 equivalent (insert stranding here, edit later,, its 7 x ?? x 39 AWG) flat Litz wire that I had laying around from a previous project.
Just did a low power run. First I noticed that there was much more spark on the lowest power setting.
Turning up the power and running some songs, the primary was stone cold! My original primary was very warm after that much music. So far so good but I don't know if I'm actually getting more output.
More testing to come.
Oh, I can adjust the coupling as the coil can be slid up or down. I'll see what effect it has.
I don't know if javatc will calculate with Litz as it is an odd dimension.
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Last edited by Braditude on Wed Jan 28, 2015 10:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Braditude
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Re: Just finished kit and working good.

Postby Alex » Thu Jan 22, 2015 9:32 am

The improvement in performance is mostly the result of the larger diameter primary wire, which spaced out the windings more and slightly changed the inductance.
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Re: Just finished kit and working good.

Postby Braditude » Wed Jan 28, 2015 10:07 pm

Yup, well it being Litz wire doesn't hurt either!
So what happened is that the spark is larger on low power but smaller on high power.
I checked the inductance on both coils. The original coil measures 5.6 uHys. The new coil measures 4.3 uHys. Same amount of turns, 6.
So its de-tuned.
I need to change the primary capacitor.
Still waiting to get some to try out.
Even if I get the same length of spark, at least the primary will be running cold! :lol:
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