Re: New Lab, Family Coil, 1st Light

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

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

Hi Matt,

Congratulations on getting you coil going!

From a pure electrical point of view, it does not matter where in the
primary circuit you happen to place the caps.  Having a cap on each leg is
often called "equidrive".  A search of the archives at www.pupman-dot-com will
bring up some info.

Normally equidrive needs a lot more capacitor than a single cap bank.  If
one needs say a single 50nF at 20kV 20 Arms capacitor.  Two equidrive caps
would need to be rated at 100nF 20kV 20 Arms each.  Thus you need about 4X
the capacitor volume.  You need to double the value since the two caps are
in series.  You should still have the full voltage rating on each incase
one (or anything else) shorts out and hits one cap with the full voltage.
Thus, you spend four times the money for no real advantage.  Of course, if
you already happen to have the caps lying around, it is a moot point.

Cheers,

	Terry


At 12:54 AM 5/14/2001 -0400, you wrote: 
>Hi All! 
>It finally happened- First light on new coil with help from grandsons (ages 
>8.8, &12) in new lab (1918 vintage brick garage). Since I've said a lot 
snip....
>Query: If running 2 matched Maxwells in series, is there any 
>advantage/disadvantage to putting one on each leg with primary between them? 
>
>Cheers from the Deming Family Tesla Society: 
>(Matt D. Ricky D. Matt D. II Elton D.)
>