Hey Gary,I took a look at your sucker gap. Very nice! Do you think it would be effective at all with my 4" RQ gap on top of a vacuum motor like yours? I think it might be too wide to do anything...
Thanks, Brandon On Feb 27, 2010, at 6:41 PM, "Lau, Gary" <Gary.Lau@xxxxxx> wrote:
AC induction motors like what's in the fan you cite really are not really supposed to be speed-controlled. It may work to some degree, but I doubt it will work well. But for the purpose of blowing on an RQ gap, I don't think one needs to control the speed. I don't think there's a critical sweet spot in air flow; anything above some reasonable flow rate is all you need and it won't improve things to have more. Just apply full power to it.I mentioned using a lamp dimmer with my sucker gap. The vacuum cleaner motor used in this gap is called a "universal" AC/DC motor, not an induction motor, and its speed is easily controlled with a dimmer. And, that gap needs only a fraction of the full-speed airflow that motor is capable of, and full-speed operation is VERY noisy, and I just don't want that noise and that much power being used.Regards, Gary Lau MA, USA-----Original Message----- From: tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Brandon Hendershot Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2010 5:54 PM To: Tesla Coil Mailing List Subject: [TCML] Controlling Speed of an AC (Muffin) Fan Alright, So I plan on purchasing this: http://www.mpja.com/prodinfo.asp?number=17780+FN AC muffin fan and I need a way to vary its speed. I was thinking ofusing a rheostat, but Paul suggests otherwise. Then I thought of usinga dimmer switch, but I remember trying to control my drill press with my variac (kinda the same, right?). It wouldn't work because you need to control the frequency of the electricity, not the voltage like you do with most DC motors. Anyway, what do you guys use to control your AC motors on your rotary gaps or spark gap fans? Thank you, BrandonP.S: I only opt for AC motors for their immunity to the coils magneticfield. One more thing on the topic of fans, should 200 CFM be good enough to quench my RQ gap? I'm running a 15/30 NST. _______________________________________________ Tesla mailing list Tesla@xxxxxxxxxx http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla_______________________________________________ Tesla mailing list Tesla@xxxxxxxxxx http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
_______________________________________________ Tesla mailing list Tesla@xxxxxxxxxx http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla