From: "Barton B. Anderson"
Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2002 14:35:54 -0700
Subject: Re: [TSSP] Top Voltage
Hi Paul, All - Paul wrote: > Can we do this? Can we extend our database of breakout > voltages to get more accurate measurements on more coils? Yep! I'll start tearing down the John C. lamp tests windings and get back to the basic setup of ba0. I can also provide a second coil. I ended up winding a ~4.5" coil complete with it's own set of components (tor, pri, sec, mmc, etc) during the lamp tests. I have one of Terry's current sensors, so I can run the base lead through and set the scope to capture first breakout (there are no more toys on the scope - this is it, but should be enough). When testing for "break-out" conditions, the gap arc voltage is the adjustment tool. The variacs allow us to ramp up to what ever is required to arc the gap, but the gap arc voltage sets the topvolts breakout potential. Would it be advantageous for "all" doing these test to run a static gap setup (starting narrow and increasing the gap until breakout occurs)? Following the base current reading, the arc voltage can be well estimated via electrode size and gap width. I'm thinking a simple 2 electrode sphere gap. This area seems to be an area of comparison we seem to brush aside, but I think it would help reduce any potential for gap related differences that may be causing the wide variations we are seeing. Food for thought, Bart
Maintainer Paul Nicholson, paul@abelian.demon.co.uk.