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

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

Original poster: "John H. Couture by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <couturejh-at-mgte-dot-com>



I agree with Malcolm. Beating John Freau's  1.7 sqrt(VA) is more of a
challenge to coilers. That is the first rule required. The second rule would
cover the type of spark. Spark types have never been agreed upon by coilers
in the past for any kind of test. Because large coils are inefficient only
small coils could be used. I believe it was R. Hull who said that he was
able to get a 6 inch spark with 5 watts input. That is a 57% increase over
the John F. equation. So the challenge is not an impossible goal.

As the input VA of the Tesla coil is increased the overall efficiency
decreases and the maximum spark length becomes much less than the John F.
equation. It would be interesting to know the VA input that gives the
optimum spark length. It looks like 5 VA is the winner at present.

John Couture

-----------------------------




---Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 5:14 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: RE: The Tabletop Tesla Coil Showdown - OFFICIAL RULES and
WEBSITE


Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>

Hi Gary,

On 3 Oct 2002, at 16:23, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Gary.Lau-at-hp-dot-com>
>
> Ed Wingate wrote:
> >I'm for one category or to state it a different way no categories!
> >
> >The so named 4/20 NST with no modifications, anything else is allowed.
>
> Shunt modifications WILL be allowed because it is possible to operate
NST's
> safely with some shunts removed.  The beauty of the 4/20 NST's is that
they
> are unpotted and the shunts are easily removed.  Folks are not likely to
> build qualifying coils if they must hobble their performance by not
> removing shunts.  But the number of shunts removed will be regulated to
> keep the power level safe and identical across all entrants, so that we're
> judging coil efficiency, not how close to meltdown you're willing to
> operate your NST.
>
> >I really don't know how you can be sure from a distance that everyone
> >is playing fair as far as input power levels are concerned. At the
> >Teslathon it can be closely monitored.
>
> I want to encourage participation by as many folks as possible world-wide,
> not just those attending one Teslathon.  There is no material prize
> involved so I'm not sure why someone would deliberately misrepresent their
> coil.  It has to be an honor system.

The old problem remains: I, for one, am unable to obtain a 4kV/20mA
transformer here in NZ, much less one from a particular manufacturer.

     I previously suggested that the only real competition in Tesla
Coiling stakes was to beat John Freau's 1.7*SQRT(VA) for a single
resonator machine. That of course includes magnifiers. It's an open
competition, both to all comers, and for as long as it takes. I think
we'd learn much more doing that than trying to beat each other with a
particular transformer as a starting point. For some reason, that
suggestion never made it to the list.

Regards,
Malcolm