High-capacity and low-impedance HV capacitors can get VERY expensive and inductors are very cheap, so to hit the target frequency it tends to always be better to have a larger inductor so that you can get away with a smaller capacitor. As you make the inductor bigger the current requirement also decreases, but the voltage has to increase proportionately, so you do eventually get to a point where the voltage becomes the main problem, so most designs settle on a balance in the middle since all resonant primaries will drive the secondary in the exact same way, with the difference being in cost and electrical efficiency.

Yes I forgot there are two AC currents. The 60 cycle power and the 100K high voltage.

Wow thats a pretty ambitious first tesla coil project!

Can you post a picture of your device somewhere an share the link

@@JimPaul0627 I had pictures of it running but my tablet crashed .I'll have to set it up again and run it . If you by a 40 watt slayer tesla I coil off of eBay and if yours is like mine pull the bottom off carefully. Very short wires . And remove the bottom coil wire from the resistor going to the base of the transistors ..that may be double 3055's then move the primary coil up to the middle of the secondary..bring the removed secondary from the resistor out and up front and place a small neon on each end of the secondary .now place a wire on that base resistor and rape it around the secondary like four turns .and try it if it doesn't fire up add more turns to the base coil going around the secondary.this is to get the voltage high enough to trigger the base..I'm in the middle of another coil at the moment..

Thank you Nick. I have never seen/heard about using magnets in the spark gap. That's not too hard to try. I could get the magnets from a computer hard drive. But tapping the center of the secondary, yes I am tempted - I would have to thread that through the primary coil without it arcing to the secondary.

@@JimPaul0627 yeah the magnets work well only thing is that neo mags are conductive and need to be insulated to keep the arc from trying to go through them... I used several layers of E6000 glue and it works well... Tesla used for fitted mica around his magnetic poles. Also he used a powerful electromagnet which is a little different in that an electromagnet creates one of each pole... I tried two magnets repulsing and that can't be done with one electromagnet... Simply trying something that I saw hadn't really been done before that I had read of anyhow... It works damn well too... Ultimately Tesla ended up submerging his spark gaps in a tank of circulating oil with his 🧲 in the oil as well... Going for highest rate of change requires that the spark be forcibly snuffed out . But once the snuff is fast enough and the current can't reverse back through the spark gap even one time you get an amazing effect... It is unlike anything else and will blow your mind... It causes an electrostatic explosion radially outward from the spark gap in all directions. The blast that occurs is not like normal electricity at all. It will charge metal objects with energy that can do work when discharged to ground just like normal electricity does but even more impressively the electrostatic shockwave travels extremely long distances and is still recoverable... There is like a 1000x gain mechanism tied to it... Meaning 100 watts through a spark gap that is cut off instantaneously before the current can make it back through the gap even one time, causes that current of 100 watts to transform into pure voltage 1000x the initial voltage used in the 100watt spark..! No joke either... The radial outward voltage wave travels faster than light speed as it is of a longitudinal nature not the typical transverse variety... Modern day science still refuses to recognize longitudinal electrical forces as existing and possible to create... But Nikola Tesla tells all about it in 1899 but nobody believes it to be true... It is totally true however... It's the most amazing science I've ever researched. The 1000x gain mechanism is truly the way his magnifying transmitter worked... Longitudinal standing waves in the earth... Totally true and amazingly doable by anyone.. I believe the military has this technology and wields it's power at will... And truly it's how America is the global power that we are... Nobody knows or believes it possible... I've proved it possible small scale... But Tesla was killed in 43' so he didn't make it publicly known as he was starting to reveal his secrets in his old age... Crazy shit I realize that... But nevertheless if you are interested in Tesla coils, well that is their true purpose. Not to make sparks but to wirelessly transfer power hundreds of miles and at levels deemed impossible due to the mind virus that corrupts all of today's sciences... Wanna research something amazing? There you go... Look into it... And Gerry Vassilatos' book " the secrets of cold war technology" chapter 1 is a full scout of Tesla's findings... And it will inspire research into what I'm saying... I'm not crazy or whatever you wanna think... It's real as shit... Just try it and blow minds... 👍🏻 Sorry for the length of this reply but I have to spread the word to all who show interest in Tesla Coils... As it is the true purpose of their design... But sparks are cool too...

@@nickpolson6005 Thank you again Nick. Do you think a solid state coil achieves something similar to a perfectly quenched gap? Mr Carlson demonstrates his coil with no sparks transmitting energy.

@@JimPaul0627 you know... I'm not sure. I don't know if you can easily discharge a capacitor that's charged to thousands of volts through a semiconductor when it will be such high amperage through it... I think it would just melt or something... But maybe a big igbt brick could handle the current, idk. But then closing that switch instantly would be an issue I would think... But maybe... Never know till you try... I've never tried solid state...

@@nickpolson6005 Dude I read Vassilatos' book recently and was floored - I decided I need to recreate his ambient heating/cooling and lighting effects by tweaking the spark frequency. I need to know how you did it! How can I get in touch with you man!?

I did not test both circuits. The coil I built uses diagram 2 - the spark gap is directly across the transformer.

@@JimPaul0627 that is the most common circuit design since its easier to find short circuit proof transformers. Note: Microwave Transformers do have shunts for short circuit protection but they are not large enough to redirect all of the magnetic flux, so you need a ballast (another inductor from a discharge lamp fixture for example) to externally limit the current on the primary side.

@@janno288 My understanding of "shunt" is that it is a short circuit. Is that the nature of a shunt in a Microwave Oven Transformer? Can one see the "shunt"?

@@JimPaul0627 It is a magnetic shunt, in MOTs it is typically two bits of steel inbetween the primary and secondary. TBH I think the original post was wrong and you need HF and short resistant transformers in both circuits, since I doubt there is much electrical difference.

Thanks for that simple calculation solution.