Hello everyone,
I've built a rather small direct ZVS driver Tesla coil.
It's already working reasonably well, but I still need some help.
I'm already getting 2.6 cm (1 inch) sparks to the ground, but no streamers yet, or only tiny ones of 0.1 mm (0.004 inch).
My secondary coil is 16 cm (6.3 inches) high and has a diameter of 5 cm (2 inches). I have approximately 700 turns of 0.2 mm (0.0078 inch) enameled wire. At the top, I have a donut (toroidal) topload, which is 15 cm (6 inches) wide and 4 cm (1.6 inches) high.
My secondary coil's resonant frequency is 700kHz, which I calculated and also determined using a WaveGen.
For my ZVS driver, I'm using a 24V 25A power supply, and the ZVS circuit is set up as follows:
I'm using two IRFp260n MOSFETs.
I've already tested several primary coils and found that a 6-turn pancake coil works best. I also calculated the capacitor values and then tested them. Ialso tried different Toploads. I'm using a WIMA 10nF 2000VDC capacitor. I also tested 11nF - 750nF and 3nF - 9nF for safety, and 10nF was definitely the best.
What can I change here to get bigger streamers?
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
I look forward to any comments and thank you in advance. 😄