Talk:Spark Gap Tesla Coil

Reading this page and checking this history of it, it appears as if the "Dos and Don'ts" sections are somewhat not mutually agreed on. Some information I read I do not agree on either, for example: "Do wind round 800-1500 turns" < coils have been wound with far less and far more turns than this and worked fine, so I do not believe it to be a particularly useful guideline, if a valid one at all. A similar thing goes for: "Do not use very thin wire (<0.2 mm..." Again, coils with smaller wire have been made and worked fine. They may not be efficient, but they do work and sometimes due to construction constraints it has to be done. "Do not use a cylindrical primary" Why not? with adequate insulation they can have better coupling, if so desired. They can be easier to form shape. As for toploads, spheres are an alternative and in some cases can be obtained as stainless steel salad bowls, a pair with one inverted.
 * The "Dos and Don'ts" sections should describe an inexpensive, simple to build and fairly failsafe Tesla coil of the type the article describes. Listing up all possible configurations will not be very helpful for a beginner.--Bjørn Bæverfjord 22:54, 14 February 2007 (EST)

Instead of covering the basics of construction in the SGTC page and then giving SSTC/DRSSTC/OLTCs as new topologies to refer to afterwards, would it not make more sense to have tesla coil basic parts on one page, with each topology linking to that page? This way, the tank capacitor, primary coil, secondary coil, topload, spark gap, ballast, power supply, possibly driver module can be covered on separate pages, the topology pages can direct you to the relevant ones. It should be noted that for a secondary coil and topload, there are practically no differences across all types of coil. Spark gaps obviously only apply to SGTCs as driver modules to SSTC/DRSSTC/OLTCs. Primary coils do differ, but they can go one one sectioned page under a heading for differences; -- > OLTC These coils typically have a lower turns count for the primary coil, as to get more power in this setup, the primary capacitance has to be increased, therefore to maintain usable resonant frequencies, small primary inductance (and therefore fewer turns) must be used. The voltages used are also a low lower, so insulation is far less of an issue. Good coupling is essential in OLTCs are therefore careful primary design is crucial to performance and efficiency. --

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