Control Board Wiring

The control board exterior has been complete. It has been painted and mounted on wheels.

Now that the outside of it is done, work on wiring all of the switches and screens can begin.

We bought a cooker switch and a wall power outlet to put on to the box, however the internal wiring of the switches were not acceptable for what we needed so I opened up the outlets and reconfigured them.

Wiring this board is going to be a long and tedious task which I hope to finish this weekend. I'm afraid the next update to this blog will probably be next year as we are all so busy now and I am going away. See you in 2015!

Next: 2015 Update - We Have Funding

Conduit

The conduit is a long plastic tube from a vacuum. It will be used to house all of the wiring going from the control board to the control cabinet. The wires are in and plugs have been fitted.

Next: Control Board Wiring

Towers

Both towers are pretty much complete. Both primary's, secondaries, strike rails, toploads and break out points are done, here are some pictures!

Next: Conduit

Topload

Both toploads have been made. I used dryer ducting and aluminium tape to make them and cardboard circles in the centre to keep it rigid. I made a total of 4 toroids, 2 were bigger then the other 2. Each tower would have 1 big toroid and 1 small toroid to increase capacitance. Also, big toroids make a difference with this type of coil. I have even made 2 break out points for each tower so we can direct the arcs.

Next: Towers

Primary Coil

Now that we had the microbore I wound both primary coils. Its quite hard and I had to do it in to sessions per coil but after the glue dried its very strong. I have even put the strike rail around both of them. From the pictures you can see I used books and MOTS to compress it while the glue was drying.

Next: Topload

Secondary Coil

 One of the secondaries has been wound! Two coats of varnish has been applied to hold it together and increase insulation and now its ready to be used on the coil. I have to a small preliminary assembly of the coil to see what it will look like with the top loads I have made (There will be a post about them soon).

Next: Primary Coil

Control Board, Primary Coils and Relays

Lots more work has been done. The control board has been painted multiple times with glossy black spray paint and some of the switches and screens have been remounted.

A few holes need to be made, some wood needs to be screwed to it to mount it and a few finishing touches must be performed and then its done and ready for wiring.

Meanwhile the microbore has arrived and work on winding the primary coils has began.

Finally I spend some time de-soldering high current relays from the microwave PCB. These are essential for the low voltage switches to control the high voltage and high current power cables.

Next: Secondary Coil

The Spark Gap Blew Up

This WAS the brilliant Asynchronous Rotary Spark Gap that we made a few days ago.

Unfortunately there was an incident. But someone (Not naming any names) decided it would be funny to ramp up the Variac from 20% power to 40% despite the warning I gave that the plastic was starting to warp from the centripetal force. The plastic disk then "gave up"and shattered into a million fragments sending sharp shards and 8 heavy duty bolts across the room at an incredibly high velocity!

Needless to say a new disk will be made. Here are a few pictures of the offending article shortly after the incident.

Next: Control Board, Primary Coils and Relays

Huge Update

Friday 14/11/14

After hours of hard labor a large amount of work was done today. The Control Board is nearly done, the stand and base are complete; the main part of it has been cut, screwed and fitted together. The top half is on hinges so it can swing open to reveal wiring. The surface of the board has already been fitted with some screens and switches. Now all we need to do is paint it, mount it on the stand and fit the rest of the controls onto it. The the massive task of wiring can begin!

We also started work on the primary coil mounting. We cut up wood to make 8 strips, 4 for each primary. We then proceeded to cut out little delves in this wood for the microbore to fit in. Later we will attack these to the secondary and hot glue the primary coil form onto it. We even made mounting for a strike rail as I am sure this coil will need it.

As perspex plastic was on hand, I took the opportunity to measure out 3 sheets that we will mount the capacitors on. They have not yet been cut out.

Finally I brought over a motor and started on the rotary spark gap assembly. The motor was mounted to a wooden base along with the safety gap. We used rivets to make the structure stronger and to give it a nicer finish. The whole assembly will then sit inside the Control Cabinet.

There is still lots of wood work to be done before we can move on to electrics though.

Next: The Spark Gap Blew Up