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has anyone tried a small tesla coil as ignition?

TechnoMancer wrote:has anyone tried a small tesla coil as ignition?

Tesla coils are much too complex for what we need. Marx Generators or Flyback transformers would be a much better and simpler choice.

a flyback is a tesla coil. or at least you can make it work as one it doesn't have to. but a tesla coild would use a single lead and create quite a large arc which would definately ignite the mix every time

TechnoMancer wrote:a flyback is a tesla coil. or at least you can make it work as one it doesn't have to.

A "proper" Tesla coil has extra unnecessary additions that would complicate matters and increase expense.

A ZVS flyback driver running the right transformer would be alright on it's own.
Use it to charge a Marx Generator, and you could have lots of fun jumping huge sparks along the entire length of the chamber.

or use a tesla coil and have a nice pretty corona that is constant.

i dont think your quite grasping the concept that its too complex for what we need, all we want is power and we want it easily.

Indeed. We cannot subject PVC chambers to the punishment of sparks for more than the shortest of times, and we also cannot be arsed to create anything more complicated than it needs to be.

Things must be kept simple. The more complex they are, the more often they will fail, and the harder they will be to repair. A Tesla coil is not suitable. Make your next launcher with one if you insist, but don't expect anyone else to copy your act of lunacy.

Ragnarok is right. A spark is a spark. K.I.S.S.
Oh ya I had to have stun circuit, they are a pain. Ended up using batt.
BBQ igniter. GB's don't fly any further w/ stun

but a corona is better than a spark. oh well i guess my interests are lost on people like you. btw here is a link to a small TC that looks quite cool: http://www.richieburnett.co.uk/hfsstc.html

sjog wrote:Ragnarok is right. A spark is a spark. K.I.S.S.

That is 100% true

Uhm wait... not 100%, 99%.
If one would make a bigass capacitor array unleashing a dozen of kilojoules in the chamber you would generate so much heat you wouldnt even need fuel.

But for the rest of us, a spark is a spark.

or if you used a large enough tesla coil with a sharp point at the back of the chamber you could cause enough plasma and electric wind to force a projectile out of the barrel.

Yea or you could induce it with so much power that you make the potato travel trhough time. The potato will be splattered through the target before the gun is even fired!

that would not happen as for the potato to travel that fast it would have enough kinetic energy to have infinite mass causing it to pull the universe into a giant black hole behind it!!!!

TechnoMancer wrote:but a corona is better than a spark. oh well i guess my interests are lost on people like you. btw here is a link to a small TC that looks quite cool: http://www.richieburnett.co.uk/hfsstc.html

Does anybody know if a corona discharge will ignite propane + air?

IIRC, a corona is a lot different than a spark. Coronas have extremely high voltage at even more extremely low currents (lower curent than even a piezo).

To ignite propane + air you need something in the vicinty of a few tens of millijoules in a very small volume. A corona might not get enough energy into a small enough volume to actually ignite the fuel.