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Any Tesla Coil fans out there?

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I had a chance to look over your link and I have to say thats a very nice writeup! :)

Relating to using the MOV transformers as chokes I don't think you will have any problems using them as is in a stock configuration being that you are pushing many KV through them at only a few tens of milliamps.
So in a way you can sort of think of them as being like a 1000 ohm resistor. At 120 volts it would only let through about .120 amps but when pushing only 30 - 60 ma that 1000 ohms then only produces a 30 - 60 volt drop at 60 Hz which means that when loosing 60 volts off of a multi KV source the parasitic losses really doesn't add up to enough to concern yourself with considering the healthy level of HF blocking they will provide.

My main concern with them would be possible HV flash overs from the coils to the cores.
 
I had a chance to look over your link and I have to say thats a very nice writeup! :)

Relating to using the MOV transformers as chokes I don't think you will have any problems using them as is in a stock configuration being that you are pushing many KV through them at only a few tens of milliamps.
So in a way you can sort of think of them as being like a 1000 ohm resistor. At 120 volts it would only let through about .120 amps but when pushing only 30 - 60 ma that 1000 ohms then only produces a 30 - 60 volt drop at 60 Hz which means that when loosing 60 volts off of a multi KV source the parasitic losses really doesn't add up to enough to concern yourself with considering the healthy level of HF blocking they will provide.

My main concern with them would be possible HV flash overs from the coils to the cores.

Thank you very much, tcmtech. I appreciate the compliment :)

I, too, thought about arc-over in the MOTs. I have read that they really have little to no insulation, so I was curious how they might hold up in this type of application. I might just hook up my neon sign transformer with the outputs connected to the MOTs, and then to a simple spark gap, just to see what happens. If they arc over, I'll have to look for something else (which I'm planning on doing, anyway). Either way, I don't really lose anything (except maybe an MOT :D ).
 
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I would be tempted to try using the secondaries as big air core chokes and just have them suspended on some plastic forms or with a PVC pipe through them to hold them up.

Its just a thought but keep it up and I may have to dig out my old Tesla coils and do some playing one of these days. :p
 
I would be tempted to try using the secondaries as big air core chokes and just have them suspended on some plastic forms or with a PVC pipe through them to hold them up.

Its just a thought but keep it up and I may have to dig out my old Tesla coils and do some playing one of these days. :p

That's a good idea--I might try that if the entire MOTs don't work. :)
 
If a MOT has 120mA flowing @120V, then the primary is indeed 1K ohm of impeadance. If it's purely inductive, then the inductance of the secondary will be a mulpible by the turns ratio squared. So, for 120V-2000V transformer, the secondary impeadance will be 278 times that of the primary, or 278K ohms. You would be better off using the primary, at only a K ohm ( assuming that's really what it is ) But you mentioned using the secondary and shorting the primary. Why short the unused leads? You want to use the inductance of one of the coils, so I'd think you want to just leave the other side open.
 
If a MOT has 120mA flowing @120V, then the primary is indeed 1K ohm of impeadance. If it's purely inductive, then the inductance of the secondary will be a mulpible by the turns ratio squared. So, for 120V-2000V transformer, the secondary impeadance will be 278 times that of the primary, or 278K ohms. You would be better off using the primary, at only a K ohm ( assuming that's really what it is ) But you mentioned using the secondary and shorting the primary. Why short the unused leads? You want to use the inductance of one of the coils, so I'd think you want to just leave the other side open.

Oh, thanks BrownOut. I thought I read somewhere that i should short the unused leads, but maybe I heard wrong? I'm glad I can edit the posts! ;)

P.S. The blog posts are now edited :)
 
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