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Re: Question regarding PCB board in close proximity with Primary Coil (DRSSTC)



Original poster: "Daniel McCauley" <dhmccauley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Geesh. So many options . . .

I'm going to look into the running loops in the board to inductively pull the current. I thought of doing this before, but i was looking more for the LEDs to be on all the time, and not just when the coil is on. With this option, i could possibly make an individual board for each LED (we have an LPKF
milling machine).

Of course, the partial turn is the alternative option.

But then again, that engineering prize looks pretty sweet !! !

Thanks!!!

Dan
"DRSSTC : Building the Modern Day Tesla Coil" Book - Coming on May 12, 2006!!!!
http://www.easternvoltageresearch.com

Hi,

You can actually directly power them from the primary.

Assume the voltage across the primary coil is 15kVrms and it is 50 feet long. That is 25 volts per inch. If the LEDs run off 25 mA, just hook two wires to the primary 1 inch apart with a series 1000 ohm resistor. You have to run perpendicular though for a distance to escape the direct fields of the primary. Of course, they would only light while the primary is energized in proportion to the current level. You also should have a reverse diode in there.

Or, if you fiddle with it, you might run a stray LED with the two leads sticking out parallel to the primary at some distance to pickup the stray current.

The LEDs could also just go to small "loops" in the board to inductively pull the needed current.

More conventionally, you just have to avoid that full shorted turn and decouple the supply lines with "really good " caps.

If you really want to go for the engineering prize. Make a many turn loop coil in the board to pick of the primary current and use the LEDs in the burden circuit.

Cheers,

        Terry


At 05:59 PM 5/7/2006, you wrote:
Hi Dan,

Your idea to illuminate the primary supports is novel. A "modded" coil. Surely you can inductively power the led's from the primary?
Just a thought...


Karl


On May 7, 2006, at 7:26 PM, Tesla list wrote:

Original poster: "Daniel McCauley" <dhmccauley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Here is an interesting problem I am currently facing with one of my projects. Basically, i have a tesla coil with 6 primary polycarbonate supports which will be illuminated via LEDs (from underneath the base as shown in the attached image)

Now, i would ideally like to use a PCB board to mount the LEDs and this PCB board would then screw directly underneath the base where the LEDs would protrude through the base and up into the bottom of the primary supports. This keeps everything nice, neat, and compaq with out having six million wires all over the place.

However, the problem is that i am not quite sure how the board would act in close proximity with the primary coil which is only about 2-3 inches above this PCB board.

Option 2 and 3 both seem to be the worse of the group since they will couple with the primary like a shorted or partial turn, respectively.

Option 1 seems like a possible alternative, but i'm not sure how that would work. And Option 4 with the flying leads may be the only feasible option.

Anyways, what are your thoughts on Option 1?

Any other thoughts or ideas you may have???

Again, my concern isn't how the PCB board would affect performance of the coil but rather it is the concern of induced noise onto the PCB board which would screw up the control voltage powering the LEDs.

Attached image shows application and possible options for PCB board
http://www.easternvoltageresearch.com/led_question.jpg

Thanks
Dan