RE: The Tabletop Tesla Coil Showdown - OFFICIAL RULES and WEBSITE

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

Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Gary.Lau-at-hp-dot-com>



Original poster: "marc metlicka by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<mystuffs-at-orwell-dot-net>

>Gary, all,
>If the goal is "best coil with equal PSU's, Then why would it be ok too
>remove any shunts at all? Not all coilers that may be interested in the
>contest have the ability\facilty to cook down an nst, So these coilers
>will feel that there isn't much point in trying when most entries will
>be modified?

Hi Marc:

I bought my NST before there was any thought of competition.  The reason I
bought that particular unit was that it was physically small, and more-so
because it was an unpotted open frame construction.  This made de-shunting
a trivial operation.  I would not have bothered with that unit if I wasn't
able to achieve the performance gains from de-shunting.  Since the original
thought behind this competition was to allow only this model NST,
de-shunting is only "natural".

But since others without access to this model NST have also voiced interest
in competing, the fairest solution IMO is to provide a separate class
whereby any NST whose short circuit current times faceplate voltage does
not exceed what the modified 4/20 users see.  These may be modified or not,
as long as the VA product is not exceeded.

> Also, what is to stop other "devious" modifications while within the
>guts of the thing? (maybe popping a layer of primary windings off for
>example)

That would indeed be devious and I would hope that folks would not try to
pull something like this.  One could even provide an argon-rich arc zone to
achieve longer sparks!  But since there is no physical judge present and no
monetary reason _to_ cheat, we have to accept the word of each coiler that
the rules, written AND unwritten, were observed.  If one wished to be
devious, wouldn't it be simpler to just lie about the spark length achieved?

> I'm not trying to be "nit-picky", but things do have a way of happening
>in competition.

It's prudent to thoroughly discuss things like this BEFORE the competition
begins.

> I think the short circuit current of an unmodified tranny would be the
>best single rule. Then maybe the ability to run continuous for 30
>seconds three times with a 1 minute cool down allowance?
>Take care,
>Marc M.

If I were not allowed to modify my little NST (which BTW is done and
irreversible), I wouldn't have bothered with it.  The final product has to
be worth building, and setting a VA limit allows wide participation.

Regarding Terry's suggestion that the NST be fused with a standardized 1
Amp fuse, this is interesting and would do a good job of keeping power
input even, but it means that folks will now be obsessing with PFC and
runtime/cooldown timing issues.  And my modified 4/20 NST is already
pulling 1.75 Amps...

Gary Lau
MA, USA