Hi Mike, the wire from the photoflash unit to the coil should definitely
be short and fat; 4 ft of 12 Ga. "speaker wire" zip cord (that's what they
call it at my local hardware store) would be very good, 16 Ga. is a little
skinny.
Tossing the caber - er, washer - is a topic full of variables not least of
which are the o.d. of the washer, it's weight, it's composition such as
hot-rolled, cold rolled steel, slag inclusions, purity, grain, plating
material, ad infinitum.
What's going on is a combination; the production of an electromagnetic
field in the coil induces a "magnetoelectric" field in the washer as a
shorted one turn coil itself, . . . . then comes the almost instantaneous
collapse of the coil's field upon the almost instantaneous (except maybe in
your case) termination of current in the coil. This extremely rapid field
collapse is responsible for generating a much stronger magnetic field from
the coil which kicks the washer away. The xenon flashtube is the "almost
instantaneous" switch; when its off it's real off, and when it's on it's
real on (except maybe in your case.) IOW, if current dump from the cap
through the F.T. and hence the coil is somewhat drawn-out and sags to an
end, the sharp cutoff that allows the rapid field collapse which generates
the "kick" fades to allowing a mere nudge.
A short in the coil would lower it's resistance AND it's reactance so is
not at all likely to cause a longer discharge time through the photoflash
bulb which you observed, rather the opposite.
Sooo, look for things which slow down the discharge; resistance in the
wires, or in the flashtube itself, too many turns of wire on the coil.
Hope this helps. Take care, Malcolm
At 08:23 AM 9/25/03 +00-05, you wrote:
Malcolm writes:
> Check the size of the wire used to wind the coil
I used 14 ga.
> ... rapid discharge ... "photoflash" and "low ESR" capacitors
Okay, I can check into this. Probably not a very special cap.
> Regarding the washer toss, explore the degree of off-center placement
Oh, I've optimized that as much as possible. A standard 1/4" flat
washer jumps only a couple of inches, while a #8 will fly over a foot
in the air.
Should I get that much movement from the 1/4" washer?
If so, the several things I can think of that might be effecting the
circuit are: a short somewhere in the coil; the wire between the coil
and the box is 16 gauge lamp cord and closer to 6 feet long than the
recommended 4 feet; the capacitor issues you suggest above.
Thanks for the help.
Mike D.
[Mike Devour, Citizen, Patriot, Libertarian]
[[email protected] ]
[Speaking only for myself... ]
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