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Dual TC System
Posted by Bart on 4/1/2004, 1:20 am I am considering building a system of two TCs. I've seen many being operated in exhibitions & want to make my own. I have already wired two identical secondary coils and have two identical spark gaps. How should the primaries be wound? Also, what does "phased in reverse" mean??
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Re: Dual TC System
Posted by Bert Hickman on 4/1/2004, 12:06 pm, in reply to "Dual TC System" Bart, You may also wish to vidit Brian Basura's page where he describes his small twin system. Brian is an experienced coiler with KVA Effects (a professional Tesla Coiling and special effects company). You can see the twin system (including a schematic) at: Good luck! -- Bert --
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Re: Dual TC System
Posted by Bert Hickman on 4/1/2004, 10:27 am, in reply to "Dual TC System" Hello Bart, I assume you've already built a single coil system so that you are familair with coil design and tuning. If not, do so, since a twin coil can present signficant tuning challenges to inexperienced coilers. A twin coil uses a single tank cap, a single spark gap, and the primaries are connected in series. When the spark gap fires, the capacitor discharges through BOTH primaries. The primaries and secondaries can all be wound in identical fashion. By reversing the connections on ONE of the primaries, you can set up the coils so that they are either in or out of phase with one another. Most folks run their twins so that they are out of phase (or reversed phase). This causes the sparks from each twin to seek out sparks from the other, giving you the longest overall spark length. It is important that the secondaries and toploads be as identical as possible. The primary circuit must be tuned so that its operating frequency is the same as the secondaries. Because the primaries are connected in series, a twin system will require a smaller valued tank cap than comparable single coil system that uses the same sized secondary. Best regards, -- Bert --
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