End of Summer Update

I'm back from holiday and so construction can finally resume. Now that the spark gap is done we now have all the pieces necessary to finish the coil which we hope to do in the coming week. Construction of the actual parts is officially finished excluding a few bits here and there so now it was time for assembly. This involves fitting all of the many components of the coil together in the control cabinet and board. Today we worked hard for many hours doing the above. (We also got some new lab coats =)

We started by finishing the wiring going from the control board to the big 15 amp variac. After sorting out a few problems in the control board we tested the variac and it works fine.

We fitted the quenching fans to the spark gap assembly and wired them. We then proceeded to connect the long conduit firmly into the control cabinet where it belongs. The control board is mostly finished now so we made a start on hot gluing all the contacts to prevent short circuits (defiantly needed as the screens blew up the first time). As that wiring was done it was time to start putting the larger items into the control cabinet and wiring them into place. We mounted the hall sensor on to the gap and mounted the whole thing into the cabinet. Wires were then ran from the spark gap motor, hall sensor and fans around the cabinet and were connected to the conduit. Long screws were cut down to size.

Now that the auxiliary circuit is finished we decided to test the whole thing. We shut the cabinet doors and tested the gap and fans at different voltages and thus speeds. Everything went well, the gap span at very high speeds without warping or hitting the electrodes and the tachometer displayed the speed. 

We did encounter one problem. It seems that the tachometer can only register a maximum RPM of around 3200. Were not sure if this is an equipment limitation, problem, or a result of using a different magnet with the hall sensor. The motor can go faster than this though. This is somewhat of a problem as are desired RPM to achieve a BPS of 500 is 3750 RPM. Because of this we will be buying a new tachometer and hall sensor which should arrive this or next week.

ATTENTION SPONSORS/DONATORS - As promised, your names and logos have been put onto the control cabinet. A picture of this will be posted in a few days. Also, your names and logos will be posted in the next post.

Next - Huge Thank You