to me i doesnt make sense because the capacitors come after the spark gap in the circiut so how does the capacitor building up enogh energy to jump the gap matter.Submited by:herpetolegychris
why does the spark gap come before the capacitors in a tesla coil?
January 25th, 2010to me i doesnt make sense because the capacitors come after the spark gap in the circiut so how does the capacitor building up enogh energy to jump the gap matter.Submited by:herpetolegychris
January 26th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
To keep high frequencies from damaging the input transformer secondary and/or coupling back into the mains.
The resonant circuit which breaks down the spark gap is the high voltage secondary and the capacitors in series. The peak voltage across the capacitor is thus the same, whether the spark gap shorts out the high voltage transformer secondary, or simply puts the capacitor across the output primary. In either case, the resonant circuit of the capacitors, the output transformer,and the taurus system comprise the high frequency resonant circuit that cause the streamers from the taurus.
The problem addressed by putting the spark gap across the high voltage secondary is that these high frequency currents are prevented from damaging the high voltage secondary or coupling back into the mains. In other words, the concepts of low frequency high voltage build up breaking down a gap and driving a much higher frequency system to generate streamers is exactly the same. Putting the gap across the input secondary is strictly for safety and preventing damage.
You can get a pretty good understanding of the above by checking
.