TS running first time.

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TS running first time.

Postby Braditude » Fri May 01, 2015 10:41 am

After weeks of work, (I could only get to it for several hours on weekends) the new TS is running with no testing.
The interrupter took about 2 hours to completely finish. 1 hour to solder the board and another hour to assemble the plastic (removing the paper is time consuming!).
Here are some of the things I did while assembling (I was reading everyone's post in between time).

Some of the components have a different footprint. All I did was to bend the leads to fit. You will run into that a lot, at least I do when building kits. Not a biggy.
I did not install any 1.5KE510CA's. I talked to some power electronic engineers here and they said not necessary in this design. We build higher power equipment here (hundreds of KW's)!
When I varnished my secondary, I always bake the coil out first to remove any moisture. Having worked in the transformer business for 20 years teaches you that. Insulation resistance (IR) could be a problem at these voltages and frequencies! I sprayed about 12 coats on, baking in between each coat, but I ran into a problem. My oven was too high and the coil form shrank! So the coil was slightly loose on the form. Hum,. Wasn't sure if that was going to cause a problem. It didn't... whew.. Next time, make sure the temp is not over 50 deg C...
I had trouble assembling the secondary coil with all of those plastic disc. Broke a wire at first, so this is what I did instead which made it 100 times easier to assemble. Instead of trying to solder the wire on when assembling the disc and shoving it in the coil, which is where my wire broke, I soldered a 30 AWG TC (tinned copper) or bus wire on first. I used 30 because that is what I have in bus wire. Now since the wire is on the lug, you can assemble the disc in your hand, I epoxied everything together, disc by disc, filling in all voids etc. I could rotate the disc in my hand holding the screw. Now that everything is completely sealed and coated, I shoved it in the coil. make sure you put lots of epoxy near where the wire is. Of course if something happens, you will not be able to remove as if you were using hot melt. Your choice!
After that, I soldered the 2 wires together. Make sure you solder smoothly (very important as high voltage does not like pointy surfaces) or it might, depending on whether you want a spark to show up there!
I put plenty of epoxy over the joint afterwords.

The 2 brass conductors for the primary coming up from the power board, I soldered on after securing with the screws. Just a little more insurance that I had a good connection. But make sure you have them lined up or else you are in for a rude surprise when assembling the primary coil plate!

The interrupter programming was a different story.
I didn't realize that the card needed the OMD files, so it didn't work at first, (until I read the instructions)!
I got some files from this site (thanks Aaron Ravensdale) for getting me running.
I still can't figure where the OMD files are located after converting?? Anyone?? help?
One thing I noticed with the new Interrupter is that I can't back up if I pass a song and need to go back. I have to cycle through all of them or start over (turn off and back on). Is this a flaw or just programmed that way?
Also I noticed in the interrupter that I could only save about 100 song files (maybe a little more) but it would fill up, even thought the file is only less than 1 meg large. Is this because it is saved in the directory and can only have so much in the file? or is there a way around that? Oh its a 2Gig card. (BTW, I had some left over from old cell phones).
I'll add more when I can remember other things that I did.
Oh, the spark that you see on the bottom of the main spark is a reflection from the shiny toroid.
I have picture of the end cap assembly if you are interested.
Here is my YouTube video of the working coil, not that you haven't seen one before.
Oh, so I think the OneTesla team did a good job. I don't know if I would have done anything different, or maybe the end caps, making it a little easier to assemble, out of 2 or 3 parts? but it probably would have taken custom machining.
Oh and one last thing, I don't think this coil makes as large of a spark as the original, smaller coil, smaller toroid.. anyone getting a 20" arc out of it? So far I see about 12"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuVe2oPD-GQ
Last edited by Braditude on Sun May 03, 2015 5:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: TS running first time.

Postby Bayley » Fri May 01, 2015 11:03 am

If you pull the chassis off you will get higher performance. This is intentional; the shielding on the side panels also goes and quenches the primary current for lower performance but more consistent operation. As far as I know running the coil without panels is perfectly fine, but I left the shielding on the panels as an option for those times you have sketchy grounds and really don't want the coil to stop working.
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Re: TS running first time.

Postby loneoceans » Fri May 01, 2015 12:59 pm

Bayley wrote:If you pull the chassis off you will get higher performance. This is intentional; the shielding on the side panels also goes and quenches the primary current for lower performance but more consistent operation. As far as I know running the coil without panels is perfectly fine, but I left the shielding on the panels as an option for those times you have sketchy grounds and really don't want the coil to stop working.


I'm not sure how much copper or closed loops there are on the side panels or even the middle panel, but as Bayley mentioned having them so close to the primary robs a lot of power from primary circuit, even if there are slots cut in the copper of the panels. But I guess it's really a compromise between compact size, reliability and performance. :)
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Re: TS running first time.

Postby Braditude » Sun May 03, 2015 12:36 pm

Thanks for the reply on spark length. That makes sense. I may leave it that way for now for my application. Would still like to find out about the interrupter.
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Re: TS running first time.

Postby Tunes » Tue May 10, 2016 7:34 am

Could you send me a few photos of the modification with the coil wire connections? Seems that a lot of people break the secondary wire during assembly of the end caps and an easier solution that really works would be helpful.
My email address is D.kuriloff@gmail.com

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Re: TS running first time.

Postby Tunes » Wed Jun 29, 2016 9:00 am

If I replace the shielded side panels with plexiglass for performance similar to the fist version of the OneTESLA, will the IGBTs blow more easily as well as fuse? What else could blow and what realistic safe run times can I expect?ow
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Re: TS running first time.

Postby Bayley » Wed Jun 29, 2016 3:29 pm

Tunes wrote:If I replace the shielded side panels with plexiglass for performance similar to the fist version of the OneTESLA, will the IGBTs blow more easily as well as fuse? What else could blow and what realistic safe run times can I expect?ow


It potentially could, the coil has a lower Q and is more tame with the side panels now (it will run in a wider variety of environments without damage).
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Re: TS running first time.

Postby Krisztian » Wed Oct 14, 2020 6:15 am

Braditude wrote:When I varnished my secondary, I always bake the coil out first to remove any moisture. Having worked in the transformer business for 20 years teaches you that. Insulation resistance (IR) could be a problem at these voltages and frequencies! I sprayed about 12 coats on, baking in between each coat, but I ran into a problem. My oven was too high and the coil form shrank! So the coil was slightly loose on the form. Hum,. Wasn't sure if that was going to cause a problem. It didn't... whew.. Next time, make sure the temp is not over 50 deg C...


Thanks for your very useful hints! How many minutes are needed in the oven to 'bake' the varnish or drive off the moisture?

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