Re: acmi and mandk sources anyone?

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi Peter,

At 12:47 PM 12/21/2001 -0800, you wrote:
>Paul,
>     thanks for the reply. I might get more than the usual time to send on
>this hobby over the holidays (last xmas I spent the whole week(!) in my shop
>building the forms for these coils), so here goes.

I have the week off too :o))))))

>
>I could not find acmi because there is no "directory" at
>	http://www.abelian.demon.co.uk/
>and I was looking in "tssp" and there are no links over to "acmi" and I
>did not think to look...
>
>I'ld like to have the _sources_ to MANDK since I only run Linux at home and
>SPARC/Solaris at work and cannot execute a windoz exe file. But if ACMI is 
>more accurate I'll stick with that, being a programmer I'm used to difficult
>user interfaces :-)

You want to use ACMI!  You and Paul speak the same UNIX language here.
There is no advantage to using MANDK in your case.  MANDK is easier and
best for the "average Windoze guy" but ACMI is a UNIX programmer's best
tool by far!  Even Terry has a new genuine Sun SunBlade100 workstation
computer networked here now too :-))))  He he he...  The source code to
MANDK is held by Mark but I don't think he wants to reveal it.

>
>I've built four coils with the same overall dimensions
>
>common overall dimensions:
>
>	primary ID  5.5"	primary initial height 0.25"
>	primary OD 11.5"	primary final height   0.75" (very shallow cone)
>	
>	secondary D 3.5"	secondary initial height  0.75"
>				secondary final height   11.75"
>
>	toroid 2"x8" - center of toroid height 13" (1/4" between top of coil
>	and bottom of toroid).
>
>For E-Tesla-6 I add 30" to all the heights, and use Terry's example room size.
>It gives me an "effective" total secondary capacitance of 10.4-pF in all
cases.
>	
>I always "tap" my primary on the inner rather than the outer turns to further
>reduce coupling.
>

Paul's programs do the same stuff as E-Tesla-6 too!  I should mention that
the source code of E-Tesla6 is in the zip file and it is simple and easy to
port to any platform (like Apple ;-)).  I am not sure if Paul's programs
are basic enough to port C language to directly compile across platforms
but the Windows UNIX shell program 'Cygwin' does them fine.  BTW - Terry's
TeslaPro is just a simple basic program to do coil calcs that anyone with a
little programing know how could do in Apple too:

http://hot-streamer-dot-com/TeslaCoils/Programs/teslapro.zip

All you need to know is at:

http://home.earthlink-dot-net/~electronxlc/formulas.html

It really pays to keep these programs in a very portable format so that
anyone can get them to work regardless of their computer type.

>I'm running with 9.6-nF primary cap, and a 9kV-30mA NST, and a static (WC)
gap.
>I keep my safety gap at 0.180" (IIRC) which is about right for 9kV * sqrt(2),
>and open my main gap until the safety only fires occasionally. Thats when
>I start getting racing sparks...
>
>
>All my primaries are 50% space wound, all secondaries are close wound with
>single thickness PU-varnish magnet wire. I have not coated any of these
>secondaries with any additional varnish (easier to rewind that way. Though
>a coating might(?) cure the racing sparks, it makes the forms unreusable...)
>
>
>	primary				secondary            (calc-meas mH)
>	
>1)   6 turns #2 wire, 2-tpi	495 turns #24 wire, 45 tpi   (5.97-6.18)
>
>2)   9 turns #6 wire, 3 tpi	759 turns #28 wire, 69 tpi   (14.03-14.4)
>
>3)  15 turns #10 wire, 5 tpi	1287 turns #32 wire, 117 tpi (39.8-?)
>
>4)  24 turns #14 wire, 8 tpi	1993 turns #36 wire, 181 tpi (96.6-105.2)
>
>You probably need to know where I tap the primary to get accurate K values
>since K is a function of geometry, I'll have to get those over the weekend.
>
>I don't have a measured-mH for the #32 coil because it burned up a while
>back from racing sparks, and I have not rewound it yet, and my #36 coil
>is close to burning up so I don't run it much now.
>
>These coils all give about 12" streamers on 9kv-30ma power (they all have
>very different looking sparks though, and the #36 coil is my favorite).
>
>The reason I'ld like to see coupling/overtones explored as a possible cause
>of racing sparks is that Ed (?) puts 15kV into a very similar coil and gets
>twice as long sparks with out getting racing sparks like I do.
>
>I have one other primary IIRC it is #10 wire with 14.5"-OD so I can do some
>more experiments with smaller K when I get my #32 secondary re-wound.
>
>thanks, and I'll try to get the tap points over the weekend...
>Peter Lawrence.
>
>

Paul's program will do all you ask :-))  You just set up the parameters in
a file that his program calls up.

Cheers,

	Terry