Re: Corona Ring

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

Original poster: Esondrmn-at-aol-dot-com 

In a message dated 2/2/04 11:13:35 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:


>Original poster: "Luke" <Bluu-at-cox-dot-net>
>
>Thanx
>So the minor diameter can be quite small as opposed to the toroid above
>it.
>How far should the corona ring hang over the edge of the secondary.
>Say a 6" dia secondary
>Or a 12" dia secondary
>
>And is there a way to set it at the right height?
>Either by a rule of thumb or with a test methode?
>If it is a situation where trial and error are needed what are you
>looking for to know if it should go higher or lower?
>
>Thanx
>
>Luke Galyan


Luke,

I don't know if I pioneered the two toroid system on a standard spark gap 
Tesla coil or not, but I first used it in May of 1997 and was not aware of 
anyone on this list using it at that time.  I was having a problem with 
strikes down into the primary on my six inch coil when I went to the pole 
transformer power supply with a rotary gap.  I first raised the toroid as 
high as I could get it and still not have break out from the top windings 
of the coil.  On this coil, that is about 10.5".  This toroid is 6" x 
33".  Then I layed a larger toroid (6" x 40") on top of that.  I still had 
the same problem.  Then I got the idea to raise the top toroid, leaving the 
bottom one where it was.  I used a piece of aluminum roof flashing rolled 
into a cylinder and fastened together with rivets.  It is an open cylinder 
20" wide and 14" tall.  It just sits on the first toroid and the upper one 
sits on that.  It solved the problem.  I did experiment with the larger 
toroid on bottom, which does not work (sparks break out from the larger 
bottom toroid and go down).  I did not experiment with different spacing 
between the two or try to determine how small I could make the bottom one.

I don't know if this is much help.

Ed Sonderman