playing with a tesla coil

kunkmiester · Post by **kunkmiester** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:44 am

got the school coil working, so here's me playing around a bit. There will be a few better videos once a better camera is aquired that can do sound properly, and when we get it retuned to produce a better spark.

http://youtu.be/fNvPiLzdr1o

ladajo · Post by **ladajo** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:49 am

Nice. Always love the flourescent bit.

ladajo · Post by **ladajo** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:50 am

Most folks tend to forget that it is a big transmitter. Hope you've had kids already...

kunkmiester · Post by **kunkmiester** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 5:03 am

We forgot to check, but I seriously doubt the field is that strong. This thing is running off wall current after all.

quixote · Post by **quixote** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 7:26 am

Personally, I enjoyed the Transformers flashback.

ladajo · Post by **ladajo** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:56 pm

kunkmiester wrote:We forgot to check, but I seriously doubt the field is that strong. This thing is running off wall current after all.

You did check, just with a different tool, your flourescent tube. You clearly established it was transmitting with enough juice to light the tube brightly.

The wall socket can pull 15 to 20 amps (we will assume 15), which means up to about 1.8KVA. Nothing to sneeze at that. But of course we have to consider the transfer effeciency of your belt rig, etc. But either way, you can surely get Watts/10's of Watts of transmit out of that thing.

If you run a wide spectrum field meter around it, let us know what you get. Or you could go poor-man and use the tube with a luminosity reader and check against known brightness (ie. plug it in the wall for a full rating check and then interpolate).

MSimon · Post by **MSimon** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 8:22 am

ladajo wrote:
kunkmiester wrote:We forgot to check, but I seriously doubt the field is that strong. This thing is running off wall current after all.
You did check, just with a different tool, your flourescent tube. You clearly established it was transmitting with enough juice to light the tube brightly.

The wall socket can pull 15 to 20 amps (we will assume 15), which means up to about 1.8KVA. Nothing to sneeze at that. But of course we have to consider the transfer effeciency of your belt rig, etc. But either way, you can surely get Watts/10's of Watts of transmit out of that thing.

If you run a wide spectrum field meter around it, let us know what you get. Or you could go poor-man and use the tube with a luminosity reader and check against known brightness (ie. plug it in the wall for a full rating check and then interpolate).

Anecdote. I was in the vicinity of some high powered Tesla coils for a good amount of time when I was a kid.

4 Kids. 1 artist, 1 UChicago graduate with honors, 1 EE graduate, 1 finishing a Chem E degree.

I got the first mate pregnant for the first time at age 37. She was 33.

If all that is the result of radio radiation (I also worked in radio maintaining transmitters and standing near transmitting AM towers) I'd say it should be mandatory.