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FW: Science Fair Project
From: Matt Mills [SMTP:megavolt-at-usa-dot-net]
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 1997 1:52 AM
To: Tesla List
Subject: Re: Science Fair Project
Hi Tesla,
Wednesday, 12 November 97, you wrote to me:
TL> From: MATTHEW A PRICE [SMTP:ch038map-at-mode.lanl.k12.nm.us]
TL> Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 1997 7:24 PM
TL> To: Tesla List
TL> Subject: Re: Science Fair Project
>> It may not be necsesarry to buy a neon transformer, you may get
>> away with a
>> car ignition coil. I would guess that one ignition coil would
>> equal 1/3-1/4
>> feet sparks, but if you get two exactly similar ones, you may put
>> them in
>> parralell and feed them with the same voltage. Then you'll get
>> more current.
>> Feed the coils with 12 volts square wave or some hundred volts in
>> pulsed
>> current....
TL> I know that this is probably a bumb questions that shows my
TL> ignorance, but
TL> what is "12 volt square wave" . I get the idea it means just feed
TL> it
TL> bursts of electricity? I've read you can do this with a 555
TL> timer- Is that
TL> true, I would think the voltage would be a little high for a 555
TL> timer...
TL> Matt
Hi, from what I know (correct me if im wrong people) The 555
timer acts as the timing circuit. The switching component (the
thing that handles the power) is an SCR (the bigger the better)
the 12volts square wave or the hundreds of volts dont actually go
through the 555 but throught the SCR (I use an 18A SCR which is a bit
of an overkill) I have 240 volts going into my pair of car coils.
BTW dont do what i did and try to measure the voltage output using a
DMM. I was using a variac to slowly raise the input and was watching
the numbers go up from 600 to 800 to 1000 to 1200 and then there was a
crackling sound and a fizz and my DMM shorted out. I got carried away
watching the numbers and forgot that the DMM could only handle
1000vAC. :-)
here are the urls i found with plans
http://www.geocities-dot-com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/5322/60kv.htm
http://www.mathematik.uni-marburg.de/~kronjaeg/hv/60kVpulse.html
hope this helps
Matt.
Matt mailto:megavolt-at-usa-dot-net