My interpretation, please correct me wherever I am wrong here:
The grenade coil is basically a counter-wound coil having nearly zero
inductance, where a portion of it has another separate layer overwrapped
acting as a transformer section, a primary winding. The bulk of the
grenade coil has another layer wrapped around it acting as another
primary. The first primary connects to the output transformer of the
push-pull. The second primary connects to the output from the small
Tesla coil by way of shielded coax cable. These two inputs into the
grenade are mixed together in some fashion I don't fully understand
at this time.
The small vertical Tesla coil appears to be driven by a little tan board
with a single heat-sinked transistor. Also has a single red LED on it
to indicate whether the system is powered or not. To me this looks
nearly identical to a Slayer Exciter board. Timing for this board may
come from the push-pull board or it may be independent and just
operate in a typical self-oscillating mode. Not certain, but Ruslan
infers that's not all that critical and is the part you do last once all the
other major stuff is working right.
The push-pull transformer is driven by the more complex blue PCB.
The push-pull transformer looks like a factory E-core transformer
but has some spacing added--there is a gap between the two core
halves. Have no idea what the turns ratio is, but is used as a
step-up. The gap is there to loosen the coupling between primary
and secondary windings that each sit on a separate half of E-core.
We also have the buck converter module spoken about previously
that supplies the main DC power to the push-pull and Tesla boards.
Somewhere in Ruslan's box, there must be a rectifier prior to the
input of the buck converter, since this is a DC to DC module. Based
on placement of components, I wouldn't think it is too far away from
the module. With the relay on the blue PCB, the diodes may all be
there as well.
Lastly is the extra coil added to extend the length of the ground
wire. It must have thick wire because it carries all the current flow
of the ground wire. It also has to resonate at the same frequency
of the grenade coil, so its designed after the grenade coil is fully
specified.
Ruslan speaks of resonance, but clearly states he is not talking about
LC resonance. He is talking about a natural frequency inherent within
the coils--a frequency they prefer to oscillate at when stimulated. He
states this natural resonance needs to be synchronized within the grenade
coil and this extra coil. That must be established first. Lastly the Tesla
coil is tuned. Probably would be a good idea to refer to
Dr. Stiffler'smechanism for determining a coil's self resonance.
The Tesla coil has two major tuning elements. The turn-count on the
secondary and the capacitive load on the secondary. In this device the
capacitive load of the secondary is adjusted by the coax cable connected
to the secondary and wrapped around the grenade coil. It appears to be
a very sensitive adjustment, too much or too little capacitance and the
system cannot function.
The bugger in all this is that it doesn't seem that difficult on the surface.
I'm not sure why one of us hasn't been able to get something to run
by now. It has to come down to tuning and the fact that none of us are
doing it properly. Ruslan is a professional in this area and we need to
learn how to do it the same way, then I think we can make some progress.