What is the capacitance value of a condenser?

Have not seen that in a long time. What country are you in.

I'm in England.

I am trying to get my ignition circuit to produce large sparks and thought that a condenser is basically a capacitor an I have lots of those.

naveed

So you think that bigger capacitor will give you a bigger spark? Do they use bigger nails for bigger houses?

Look up CD ignition systems if you want bigger sparks.

Regards,

Boris Mohar

Got Knock? - see: Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs (among other things)

void _-void-_ in the obvious place

Hello Boris,

They use bricks, no nails. Wish it was the same in the US.

Regards, Joerg (currently fixing some framing and hating it...)

I doubt changing the capacitance will boost your spark. The people designing automobiles had generations to come up with the most efficient way to do things, within the limitations of the technology at the time. You can get a better coil, or go to electronic ignition. The highest voltage sparks come from capacitive discharge, but most commercially produced CD ignitions produce a rapid series of several very short duration sparks. Seems to work. If you are sticking with inductive ignition, I think you have to go to a different coil to make a difference in the spark voltage or energy. And keep those points clean.

You wouldn't want bricks in hurricane country. :(

Dont think Kettering realy cared what country you were in.

The OP should just buy an ignition capacitor in the propoer frame to suit the distributor in his car. The value was optimised long before you/ we were born.

Hello Michael,

If built right those building can be a lot stronger than any wood frame scheme. Wood frame has the problem that even if you anchor your roof trusses as good as you can it might lift the whole house off the foundation.

Whenever we had a tornado or something in Europe people sat it out in the local pub and the damage usually was limited to some roof tiles having flown off. Since they are heavy and just hooked into the field the repair is pretty easy. Done it many times.

The best construction is with hollow bricks. You drop rebar through the cavities and then fill that up with good mortar. The only downside is that such a building is next to impossible to tear down if that is ever desired. You can fire a big grenade at it and all you have is a few chips.

Regards, Joerg

Heh. Can you say, "earthquake"? ;-)

Cheers! Rich

The latest research indicates that a concrete block wall with a layer of 3/4" plywood is the safest design, for now. The local TV stations showed a rebar reinforced concrete wall that had a 8' 2" * 4" fired at it, and it went right through it because the force is concentrated in a small area. The same test on a wall with the plywood added caused the

Hello Michael,

I highly doubt that it was built right. They have built bunkers that way and even a grenade fired at it is usually brushed off. Don't in when in the army. It was impressive.

Sure, adding a plywood cushion can help but it may not be necessary. Plus the stuff rots.

When it comes to building I trust the Romans more than anything, and modern "research" can be influenced by the trade and what they prefer. The Romans built stuff strong since they were constantly under attack (because they attacked others all the time). A lot of their buildings are still in good shape, more than 1500 years after the builder's warranty ran out.

Regards, Joerg

The blast from a grenade is not a blunt force with mass at over 100 miles an hour. You have to live through a hurricane or two to see what its really like. Sure, you can use poured concrete to build a home, then the average family can't afford to buy the home. Like all other engineering, it involves tradeoffs. There is a class action suit against a number of home builders for the damage caused to fairly new homes that leaked like a sieve from the hard driven horizontal rain that poured through stucco and block homes.

Plywood was the traditional material used under the siding, till the cheaper tar coated fiber crap came along. Termites are a bigger problem in Florida than the wood rotting. Some of them can burrow through the softer spots in concrete blocks, build a tube up the wall to the roof and eat the rafters when there is no wood within 8 feet of the ground outside.

Sure, but the huge blocks of solid stone used in Roman construction were never exposed to a hurricane, were they?

That depends on how much of the outer surface is windows.

Design is a matter of tradeoffs, anyone interested in doing so can design for a building in San Francisco to last for 400 years, or to be obsolete in