Spark gap -- unusual heating

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Hi All,

I have just built a new Tesla coil driver (ZVS) and am using it to power a TV Flyback into a spark gap for testing.

The spark gap is just some Platinum electrodes at the moment and my initial test is putting 60W into the flyback/gap.

I am finding that only the -ve side electrode of the gap is getting very hot, not the +ve side, in fact that stays very cold.

Is this normal?

PS: This flyback is getting somewhat over-driven as I can increase the spark distance to 18mm ... which is >45Kv I believe (double it's rating), however for the test I ran it at about 4mm gap.
I guess I can reduce the primary turns on the flyback to reduce the power into the core.

[Ernst]

Yes, that is exactly what you would expect.
...
But I guess you wanted an explanation?
The + electrode is bombarded by electrons, the - electrode by ions.
The ions are 1000's of times heavier and therefore those impacts come with much more energy and thus more heat.


Ernst.

[bmentink]

Yes, that is exactly what you would expect.
...
But I guess you wanted an explanation?
The + electrode is bombarded by electrons, the - electrode by ions.
The ions are 1000's of times heavier and therefore those impacts come with much more energy and thus more heat.


Ernst.

Thanks for the explanation.

I guess the electrons would bunch up in much agitation before leaping the gap, that could be a source of heat as well ..

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So does anyone know where I can get some decent sparkgap hardware? ebay does not have much at the moment ..